Abstract
Babushka informal markets selling several homemade gastronomic plant and animal-based products and culinary preparations, as well as wild and cultivated plants, and sometimes family butchered barnyard animals are extremely popular in Ukraine. In this field study that we conducted over a few years we inventoried the most relevant food plant products sold in these markets and we analysed how these markets represent remarkable food refugia for several local niche foods.In addition, we researched the historical and socio-economic reasons for the start, survival, and revival of this phenomenon, which had its origin during the Communist period. We furthermore evaluated similar recent trends in other Eastern European countries and especially those which had a very different post-Communist trajectory with the aim of addressing the possible factors affecting their survival and what could be done to preserve their existence. In particular, in a few of these countries (i.e. Azerbaijan) we observed how informal food markets represent experimental fields where gastronomic knowledge is not only “preserved”, but also reinvented, possibly in response to the preferences and requests of a city's customers.
Highlights
One of the most peculiar encounters that visitors to many town streets in various countries of the former Soviet Union may have is that with babushkas, e.g. grannies selling their own home-grown produce, foraged ingredients and/or homemade foods
The Lithuanian experience of the changes in farmer certification that came along with entering the EU provides good examples of the creativity of sellers (Harboe Knudsen, 2010; Mincyte, 2009), such practices are highly susceptible to corruption, which has already been documented with respect to such markets in Ukraine (Round et al, 2010)
In the 1950s, Soviet peasants were obligated to supply a portion of their products to the state at a very low price, but as compensation they were allowed to sell their surplus products on the free market, which offered a much higher price due to great demand; a large proportion of the urban food supply was derived in this manner (Nove, 1953)
Summary
One of the most peculiar encounters that visitors to many town streets in various countries of the former Soviet Union may have is that with babushkas, e.g. grannies selling their own home-grown produce, foraged ingredients and/or homemade foods. The main laws currently regulating the markets in Ukraine (“On the basic principles and requirements for safety and quality of food”), which were passed between 1998 and 2017, require that all food sold in agrofood markets needs to undergo proper analysis (Law, 2017). Such a requirement automatically excludes the babushkas from the official market place, as the quantities they sell are usually small and profits are insufficient to finance all required analyses or even to pay for space in the market. This work will contribute to the ongoing discussion regarding the importance of alternative food networks (AFN), emphasizing a short supply chain, high quality and environmental friendly production methods (see Renting et al, 2003 for full definition of AFN) and the ways in which to sustain traditional food production
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