Dig for Vitamins!

The Pogreb

Living with a babushka has its moments. The highlights so far have all been related to vegetables. Last week 10 cabbages had been dumped in the tiny corridor, covered in mud and still with their roots intact. The day after, I came home a bit earlier than usual, and as I unlocked the door, I heard a nervous voice from the kitchen. «Кто там?» (“Who's there?”). She told me she was cutting up the cabbages and it was very hot. She then peered around the corner dressed in huge Granny knickers and a tiny t shirt. A very awkward moment for both parties involved, but mostly hilarious.

Tatiana and her pickles

My hostess spends her weekends going to her allotment and then preparing vegetables. They are then all stored in the communal cellar, which is called a pogreb («погреб»). I decided to ask if I could see this mysterious place where she seems to disappear for hours, and she was delighted. We took some cabbages, potatoes and carrots down with us and she told me how nearly every flat in the area has a pogreb. There were about 90 little sheds, within which are shelves to store all sorts of homemade products. To be honest, it looked a bit like an underground prison for vegetables and pickles, and I think a lot of the jars had not been touched for a few decades. Nevertheless this storage method means that home grown fruit and vegetables can be eaten throughout the long Siberian winter, without needing to go to the supermarket.

This Month's Meals

The older generation’s attitude to food and the winter period is very different to the younger generation. Tatiana told me that the vegetables from the supermarket lack vitamins, and that it is much better to grow your own if you can, so therefore she spends hours upon hours creating all sorts of cabbage-based meals, of which she is very proud. She encourages me to eat jam because of ‘the high vitamin content’ and tells me that you must eat dark chocolate because it has vitamins which are good for your brain. The younger generation favour the supermarkets, where cheap produce can we bought all year round and getting one’s daily vitamin dosage is not so time consuming. 

On the subject of winter, Tomsk has become a grey and snowy city. The pavements are like sheets of ice and as one book said, “it is the most slippery city in the world”. I have fallen flat on my back twice so far. The second time I was on my own, outside a supermarket, and everyone walked on by as if it was quite normal that someone should be lying on the floor. To add to this hilarious picture, the shopping centres play music out onto the street and so whilst I lay sprawled on the floor, the Beatles were being blasted out on the microphones. As I said when I arrived, Tomsk is certainly a very weird, yet wonderful place!