Yes, Virginia, there really ARE cows in Russia...Yesterday (Saturday) was another interesting dayinthelife kind of day here in the metropolitan Vladimir-Suzdal area! Our first stop on the journey was to a collective farm operation, the nuts and bolts of which escape me... I can tell you that, after our initial introduction to the director, we were led to a large (1/3 football field-size) pool of cow poo. From what my sensors indicated, Russian cow poo and American cow poo are pretty much the same. Again, though, the nuts and bolts escape me...
Then, after putting on protective clothing (which, it turned out, was not 100% protective) in a stiff wind (I think the cows were laughing at us), we were herded (pun intended) through the the cow stalls, the floors of which the cows may have thought were clean enough to eat on...
Afterward, the collective folks put out some freebies for us of the stuff they produce. For many in the group, this may have been their first encounter (judging by the looks on some of the faces) with Russian items such as kefir (a yogurt-like substance) and tvorog (mistakenly referred to by many as Russian cottage cheese-- it is really pressed curds, kind of like tofu). The lady who set up the display put out what looked like cheese (little nibbles with toothpicks), but was, in fact, tvorog. You either like it or you don't. I'm not too enamored with it (or kefir), even when it has sour cream on it (they way Russians eat it); Katya put out a brick of it with fruit in it one morning and I ate some (with sour cream on it)...I can take it or leave it, really. They also put out some "drinkable" yogurt (a little looser consistency than a smoothie), which was pretty good. Actually, I had one this morning here at the American Home.
So, we had food... And then... (see next post)
