On September 21, in Melenki, on the autumn equinox, when summer and winter converge, they walked widely on Potato Day. Walked the city, all the rural settlements. Guests were walking - they came from neighboring districts, from Vladimir and even from Moscow.
The heroine of the holiday was potatoes. From a simple tuber, she turned into a beauty girl, now into a warrior-hero, then into a peasant Stepan Kartofan. Melenkovtsi composed this character only six years ago, but in a few centuries he will surely become epic. And future historians will argue in which Melenkovsky village the famous “potato” potato was grown the size of a person.
A couple of Chinese tourists goggled in all directions and snapped their "canons." In Central Park it was not crowded, we can say that there was nowhere for potatoes to fall. An unprecedented potato crop was grown this year in the Melenkovsky district, a record - unprecedented not only in our region: up to 500 centners per hectare!
Photo by Leonid Novikov.
- This year we plan to collect 46-48 thousand tons of potatoes - this is already iron! - the head of the region Viktor Gavrilov told “Vladimirskiye Vedomosti”. - And before, more than 36 thousand tons were not collected. This year is a record! Now the average yield is more than 370 centners per hectare. In the region, 3125 hectares are sown for potatoes, we have 1550 hectares - almost 48% of all areas. But “valovka” will exceed half the crop of the entire region. And usually it was 40%.
To the very river of Unji, it carried from the city park: “Oh, my box is full!” “Every day, potatoes are cooked and fried in the house; it’s not without reason that all Russia is famous for this vegetable!” - the vocal Melenkovsky girls sang.
"Potato Day is now celebrated, the harvest from all over the world is glorified!" - came from the stage. Even the police danced, assigned to order in the square, through which strong guys only managed to carry sacks of potatoes to their homes. They sold her here for nothing - seize the moment! “We brought you a beauty to the fair: we know for sure that everyone will like it!”
Photo by Leonid Novikov.
Potatoes were served at the fair, both fried, and steamed, and baked, and pickled, and "chips", and in pies, and in cabbage soup, and in their uniform, and without their uniform. “Walk, Russia, walk beautiful!” - amateur actors from the village recreation centers increased the degree of festivities. But at the same time they reminded: “Walk, guys, without wine, the country must be saved!”
“Eh, potato-toe-toe, pioneers ideal!” He does not know pleasure, who did not eat potatoes! ” - the choir of girls sang an old scout song, which is almost a hundred years old.
By the way, we can say that a rare resident of our country did not eat Melenkovskaya potatoes! Seed potatoes from the Bolshevik collective farm have been planted for decades throughout the Union. But the history of Melenkovskaya potatoes goes back centuries.
Photo by Leonid Novikov.
Local historians say that for the first time in Russia potatoes were planted in Melenkovsky district. And they gathered such a crop that all the counties of the province followed the example of Melenkivtsi. “I have already collected so many archival materials that three books are enough,” a local historian told VV. - My dream: to erect a monument to Peter in Melenki is no worse than in Taganrog. After all, one can argue, more importantly, his fleet or his potatoes! ”
The head of the district administration Viktor Gavrilov rejoiced with all the Melenkovites:
- We are now having the most big potato holiday - we are going for a record! Let our region have not the largest wedge of potatoes in comparison with other regions. But the technology of its cultivation and storage, I think, we have one of the most advanced - not everywhere there are.
Meanwhile, they called from the "streets" - the expositions of seven rural settlements: "Where there is a stove, there is a grasp, because everyone is happy about that! We will play with a grip and we invite you to play! The task is simple: we take cast irons and who quickly reaches the stove. ” And the citizens, who had never held in their hands, grabbed pots of potatoes and carried them into the oven. “That's how they try, but they said they couldn’t do it!”
“Come on, dear guests, to Goncharnaya street!”: Melenkovsky district is famous for masters of pottery from the village of Korovino. Here, homemade dishes are sculpted from white clay, burned on wood, covered with glaze. Where is Saxon China! To whom it is necessary, they will bring out such icing that the Saxon’s eyes will climb on his forehead.
Photo by Leonid Novikov.
And as the girls from Lyakhov danced on stage, my heart was already set. “Oh, oh!” - jumped grandfathers on the benches. “Let's go, grandfather, try cabbage soup,” their grandmothers cool, “they will be hotter!”
And the cabbage soup was really super, just "super cabbage soup"!
- We have our own Melenkovo gastronomic festival, this year it is called "Forgive", - the organizers of the festival explained. - Each settlement cooked cabbage soup in cast iron according to its cherished recipe.
Recipes of cabbage soup, it seems, were indeed ancient: “Here are cabbage soup from Butylits, but from Lyakhi!”, “And in my cabbage soup there is broth on mushrooms, don’t look for meat in them: then mushroom cabbage soup!”, “You will find out crunch fresh cabbage, onions on the rings, peppers on the hearts! ”,“ And the beautiful carrots - prepare a spoon! ”.
Photo by Leonid Novikov.
The Lyakhovsky cabins took the Grand Prix: the public, who stood in line, emptied the cast iron to the bottom. Citizens demanded a prescription. But it is simple: the main thing is that the cabbage and potatoes should be Lyakhovsky. The only secret is that the cabbage should be colored.
In the square where agricultural equipment was demonstrated, a horse was standing in a cart with a cart. It was a symbol of the past. The present was personified by the American and English giant cars, the kids asked to sit in the cabs.
Photo by Leonid Novikov.
“I am from the village of Lehtovo of the Ilkinskoye rural settlement,” said Volodya, the owner of the horse. - And I plant potatoes on my plot and help others. Here is my whole tool: a plow, a harrow, a hiller. They did it even under the tsar - they inherited from grandfathers. Harvest this year - you will not collect! With four hundred parts - more than 30 bags, and planted four! And the horse in the village is now the very first thing! Is the tractor going to the village garden? And I'm with a horse - so easily!
The horse assented with a quiet neighing: “That's right, Volodya, you say. More than in peasant gardens, nobody digs up potatoes. She’s on horse manure! ”
And then the harmonists played, presented awards to the best farms, danced the girls, emptied pig-iron with cabbage soup, and Stepan Kartofan’s doll flying over Melenki fields and villages in a balloon.
She rose high into the sky, right to the clouds, and carried her far, far away with the wind. And Stepan Kartofan examined from heaven how Melenkov peasants were getting their potato gold, using it on a fine day, how Unzha was clouding with azure ribbon through the cleared fields, and somewhere near the horizon there were Melenki's relatives. “I walked well! - recalled Kartofan. “I will definitely fly next year.”
Source: https://vedom.ru/