Home / Series / The Secret World of Herbs / Aired Order / Season 1 / Episode 2

The Secret World of Herbs: In the Balkans

In the pristine nature and mild climate of southeastern Europe grows a unique diversity of wild plants. Far removed from major industry and polluted soils, the Balkan countries have become the largest exporter of herbs in Europe. In Bulgaria alone, more than 300,000 people work with domestic plants. The business is becoming increasingly lucrative. The film takes us to the Croatian coast. On the Adriatic island of Cres, the audience meets Mladen Dragoslavić. In May, when the sage begins to blossom, this beekeeper has one month to produce his income for an entire year – always with the goal of creating the best sage honey in the Balkans. Given a choice, the bees would never choose sage, for entering and exiting the narrow blossom is strenuous. Within three weeks, maximum, Mladen must remove his bees from the island. Otherwise they will die of exhaustion. In Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, the film visits Iva Yosifova. Hollyhock provides the raw material for her objects of art. The herb is medically beneficial, due to its mucilage, which is added to many cough tea mixtures. Iva, though, makes paper from hollyhock. Thanks to the herb’s long fibres, the paper can be spread onto objects and modeled. The technique produces delicate sculptures, as fragile as nature. In Trigrad, a small village in the Bulgarian Rhodopes, locals consider the wild mountain tea a miracle cure that enhances virility and guarantees longevity. The great demand nearly decimated the herb. The film encounters Michaela Yordanowa, busy in her garden laboratory, crossing the wild mountain tea until she has plants robust enough to be reproduced. The new breed is meant to help the local population cultivate the valuable herb in their domestic gardens or fields. In the Bulgarian Balkan Mountains – a region plagued by high unemployment and depopulation – we encounter Nikola Nikolov. The village teacher from Chiprovtsi has started a garden with his pupils, growing dyer’s madder. The plant was a

English
  • Originally Aired January 1, 2016
  • Runtime 44 minutes
  • Created December 3, 2021 by
    Deleted User 2339656
  • Modified December 3, 2021 by
    Deleted User 2339656