Działka food

The weekly trek from Jeziorki to Jakubowizna is made with a recyclable bag of groceries to keep me fed from Friday to Monday evening. A staple on the działka is sausage stew, variations of which provide nourishment and keep the stomach full.

It takes about 20 minutes to prepare and contains all that's important to one's diet. The cornerstone is the sausage. There are four different ones that I can use. The most common is a Spanish chorizo, spicy and red. Then there's the 'raw, slow-maturing Polish sausage' (kiełbasa surowa długodojrzewająca), which is now a regular on the sausage shelf at Lidl. Less commonly used is Catalonian fuet or a French saucisson sec, whenever these appear. The sausage needs only slicing before it goes into the deep skillet.

The carbohydrate base is either chickpea or lentil; an alternative is Melvit's Trendy Lunch, a boil-in-the-bag mixture of lentils, bulgur wheat and pearl barley. This takes longer to prepare, needing a separate 15 minutes before joining the sausage.

Vitamin C comes in the form of cherry tomatoes (eight per portion) and spinach, which is put in at the same time as the sausage goes in. Flavour is added - fresh lime juice, and one piri piri chilli pepper. A fillet or three of anchovy from the jar can also be added; another flavouring ingredient I often use is the rind of a Parmesan cheese, cut into tiny cubes. Too hard to eat, but when cooked it softens to a chewy consistency and imparts a deep savoury flavour.

Eaten from bowls rather than plates, it sets one up for a few hours hard labour out on the land!

The cooker has gas rings, gas comes from a LPG container, which is now well into its second summer.

The loaf of bread (chleb górski, from Lidl) on a Friday is still fit for eating on Monday, providing it's toasted. Again, sausage slices well, with some Parmesan cheese sliced and some slices of cherry tomato, a fine zapiekanka can be made for breakfast.

On another note - suitably nourished, I venture forth for a stroll, long past sunset, this evening and last night. The sky is clear, the air smells of high summer, fecund, ripe; the stars are up there and I am reminded of such Augusts in Stella-Plage, in France. At such moments, I feel the direct connection between myself and the Eternal and Infinite.

This time last year:
Proper summer in Warsaw

This time two years ago:
Poland's trains failing in the heat

This time three years ago:
"Learn from your mystics is my only advice"

This time four years ago:
Out where the pines grow wild and tall

This time seven years ago:
Behold and See (part V) - short story

This time eight years ago:
Syrenki in Warsaw

This time nine years ago:
What's the Polish for 'impostor'?

This time ten years ago:
Running with the storm on the road to Mamrotowo

This time 12 years ago:
St Pancras Station - new gateway to London

This time 13 years ago:
Mountains or sea? North Wales has them both