How we've started 'foodie foraging' and a recipe for Wild Greens Pie Foraging for wild edible food is a huge and popular tradition here in Montenegro! So many of our local friends know exactly where and what to pick in nearby woods and fields, from wild leafy greens like nettle and garlic to serve in a pie or soup, or herbs such as sage, thyme, mint and oregano. This year we've decided to follow in their footsteps! This post is the first in a new blog series we're calling “Undiscovered Tastes” and we'll always include a recipe. Today our volunteer Beth is going to show you how to cook up Wild Greens Pie or 'Zelena Pita', a dish beloved throughout the Balkans (scroll down if you can't wait for the recipe!). Beth's become our forager-in-chief, helping us identify so many wild edibles right in our garden at Villa Miela. We're really getting into it and using a couple of brilliant plant-identifying apps for reference - PictureThis and iNaturalist. Future guests, expect to get roped in! Beth says “With blooming flowers and the new growth of spring at Villa Miela, now is the perfect time to learn foraging – especially if you're not a massive fan of dressing up like a bank robber every time you need to do a grocery run! It's amazing what you can find on your doorstep if you know what to look for...I've noticed that many of the lush new leaves sprouting around Villa Miela's gardens are actually edible! Most abundant and easy to spot is garlic mustard, (also known as jack-by-the-hedge), rampaging through the shadier corners, emitting a subtle oniony garlic smell when disturbed. Although it can be an invasive weed it’s actually a super nutritious plant and most elements of it can be eaten
How we’ve started ‘foodie foraging’ and a recipe for Wild Greens Pie Foraging for wild edible food is a huge and popular tradition here in Montenegro! So many of our local friends know exactly where and what to pick in nearby woods and fields, from wild leafy greens like nettle and garlic to serve in
In Montenegro we like to say we’re more resistant to living in crisis than the rest of the world – and I'm only half joking! For those of us who remember the 90s, this mess we're in regarding Covid-19 doesn't register on the same scale at all. There's no question, though, that social distancing has pushed us to change our routines and improvise to keep physically and mentally healthy - so to keep my spirits up I've been cycling some of Montenegro's least known trails! Being active for me is more than a desire – it's a need. Under lock-down all gyms, swimming pools and parks were closed - but people were allowed outside alone for personal exercise. So, to use an English expression, I got on my bike! After almost 50 days I've managed about 900 km and put almost 9000 metres of altitude in my legs. Not bad; it’s like I cycled Mount Everest! And yeah, I also lost 4 kilos, even though I really enjoyed delicacies from my mother’s kitchen (I also did cooking regularly!). I didn't want to be hugely visible when many people were suffering indoors in small apartments. I also wanted to respect the physical distancing required, so I chose to ride around the thinly populated hills near Podgorica (we are still limited to the municipality in which we live). I picked a route that goes very steeply up into the highlands above Bjelopavlici – less frequented, beautiful and most cyclists don’t go there because of its grade of difficulty. In total it’s not that long a route – about 50km [oh, is that all? - Ed], but there’s one segment which does test you – in 7km you climb about 680 metres. When you come to the foothills and see the pass above
In Montenegro we like to say we’re more resistant to living in crisis than the rest of the world – and I’m only half joking! For those of us who remember the 90s, this mess we’re in regarding Covid-19 doesn’t register on the same scale at all. There’s no question, though, that social distancing has
As a yoga lover who struggles to find time for practice outside the retreats we host here at Lake Skadar (young kids, busy business!), I suddenly found myself with all the time in the world when I was put into two weeks' solitary quarantine in Podgorica last month! As the Coronavirus pandemic spread across Europe, Montenegro suddenly closed its borders while I was visiting the UK. Knowing yoga would help me maintain a strong mind and body through a mandatory 14 day confinement for returnees, I dashed out to buy a yoga mat before boarding a repatriation flight. Never was five quid better spent! Each day that followed, I rolled out my mat and set about a long restorative Hatha practice – at least an hour – guided by the brilliant Down Dog yoga app and always ending in a healing Savasana. As I progressed, I found myself mastering poses I had failed at before – Crow pose (Bakasana) & Hand to Big Toe Pose (Tadasana) - or hadn't managed since childhood (the wheel in my 40s!). It's true what they say about daily practice being the key to success. I also finally grasped the power of my breath. In just two weeks I felt stronger, fitter and more flexible than I had in ages. On the yoga holidays we run, workshops take place outside, early morning, on Villa Miela's tree-fringed yoga deck. It's when the birds sing their loudest and before the sun shines hot. Inside my four walls of quarantine, I saved my practice for late afternoons; something to look forward to and taking advantage of being able to watch the late winter sun lowering over the mountains beyond the city from my window. I like to do the same thing back at Villa Miela, but with no
As a yoga lover who struggles to find time for practice outside the retreats we host here at Lake Skadar (young kids, busy business!), I suddenly found myself with all the time in the world when I was put into two weeks’ solitary quarantine in Podgorica last month! As the Coronavirus pandemic spread across Europe,
My girlfriend and I arrived to volunteer at Undiscovered Montenegro for the 2020 season and obviously things have played out a little different than expected what with there being no actual guests for now! As a keen birder the bountiful birds certainly help compensate (Lake Skadar National Park has recorded over 270 species!) and they are completely oblivious to the current crisis. The villa and gardens here are nestled amongst a myriad of foliage and the cacophony of birdsong is never louder than now with the long, warm days and flowers coming into bloom. The nightingales have returned from Africa and seldom can you stand on the terrace without being serenaded with their fruity melodies. The scratchy song of Eastern subalpine warblers is ever-present as they flit around busily readying for the task of raising young. In the south-east of the UK, where I am from, the sighting of a Hawfinch would be an exciting occurrence but here it is quite common to see the black-and-white flash of their wings as they move through the treetops. By looking up you are rewarded with the aerial antics of house martins and red-rumped swallows and before long an alpine swift comes into view - dwarfing it’s smaller cousins with it’s half-metre wingspan. And this is all just from the villa and gardens! Lake Skadar itself offers a plethora of other rare and wonderful birds to discover. We managed to get out on the kayaks before total lockdown and the experience of floating gently through the reeds on a calm, sunny day while reed warblers sing from within and all around you pygmy cormorants, little and great crested grebes surface and disappear again is hard to put into words. If that wasn’t enough then the pièce de résistance is a group of Dalmatian
My girlfriend and I arrived to volunteer at Undiscovered Montenegro for the 2020 season and obviously things have played out a little different than expected what with there being no actual guests for now! As a keen birder the bountiful birds certainly help compensate (Lake Skadar National Park has recorded over 270 species!) and they
In the middle of giant Lake Skadar National Park sits the tiny fishing "town" of Virpazar, one of Montenegro's historic trading centres dating from medieval times and, for the last 10 years, our home and activity base. The clue is in its name - 'Vir', which means confluence of rivers and 'Pazar', the Turkish word for 'market'. It's a beguiling, sleepy kind of place and the start point for many of our hiking and kayaking trips. These spectacular images will make you wonder why you'd never heard of it until now! All photographs are by the snap-happy me (Emma Heywood - co-founder of Undiscovered Montenegro). 1) Virpazar as seen from the 14th Century Besac Fortress 2) Summer view looking out from the old bridge 3) The historic monument to freedom celebrating 13th July 1878 and 1941 4) A magical autumn view of Virpazar cloaked in fog 5) We chose our activity base for its amazing location set by mountains and lake 6) Next to the lakeside are some great places to eat, like Konoba Badanj on the right 7) Reasons to love Virpazar #1 - it's surrounded by the incredible Lake Skadar National Park with all its nature! 8) When Lake Skadar's waters rise high, the reflected beauty around here is out of this world 9) There are some amazing hiking trails near Virpazar, you just need to know where 10) Virpazar is right on the shores of Lake Skadar, the largest pool of freshwater in southern Europe 11) This view of Virpazar has our activity base Villa Miela sitting pretty above it 12) This tiny fishing town oozes with characterful charm 13) Virpazar has a centuries' old port - the main gateway to vast Lake Skadar and the place to grab a boat tour 14) Our favourite view of
In the middle of giant Lake Skadar National Park sits the tiny fishing “town” of Virpazar, one of Montenegro’s historic trading centres dating from medieval times and, for the last 10 years, our home and activity base. The clue is in its name – ‘Vir’, which means confluence of rivers and ‘Pazar’, the Turkish word
As a UK business operating nature holidays and tours in Montenegro, including birdwatching, today (National Bird Day) seems the right time to tell you about one of the projects that we have been actively involved in recently as part of Undiscovered Montenegro's commitment to sustainable tourism and eco-awareness at Lake Skadar National Park. It's quite something to see the majestic Dalmatian Pelican up close. The pelicans are one of the biggest draws for visitors to the lake and we operate a stunning kayaking trip to see them in May/June that has left our lucky guests open-mouthed in amazement. Dalmatian pelicans are the heaviest flying birds in the world, sometimes topping the scales at 13kg and with wingspans over 3m. The trouble is, they are fussy breeders and are currently rated as "near threatened". Pelicans, you see, nest on floating vegetation, and when there isn't any, they don't nest at all. The National Park, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), the Noe Foundation and CZIP (Montenegro's RSPCB) therefore have installed five man-made rafts in the pelicans' natural breeding area of Panceva Oka to give them a helping hand. These rafts have been so successful that pelican numbers have nearly doubled in the last five years (2017 saw the hatching of over 60 chicks, an annual high) - but the rafts are made of wood, and wood, when soaked constantly in water, will not last forever. When it was brought to our attention this year that the rafts were in dire need of repair and that local bodies did not have sufficient funding to manage this before the vital breeding season, we decided to donate the money, also enabling an upgrade to the solar-powered remote video monitoring system that has proven so vital in maintaining this habitat. It felt like we owed the pelicans, as
As a UK business operating nature holidays and tours in Montenegro, including birdwatching, today (National Bird Day) seems the right time to tell you about one of the projects that we have been actively involved in recently as part of Undiscovered Montenegro’s commitment to sustainable tourism and eco-awareness at Lake Skadar National Park. It’s quite something to
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