I am grateful for local food production and always love to find multi-step food usage stories. Moldovans grow LOTS of sunflowers. They love to eat sunflower seeds and use sunflower oil for cooking. I did not get to see the harvest this year so a must for next year. What I did get to see in November was the big bags of seeds being brought to an exchange in our Raion Center (same concept as a county seat). The sunflower oil company buys the bags of seeds from local farmers and then the farmer gets to buy sunflower oil and the leftovers from the oil extraction that is then used to feed the livestock (aka “press cake”). There are two types of oil to purchase the regular and the more refined. If you ever want to read more about purchasing and living off local food, I highly recommend the novel ” Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. As for the horse with the wagon photo, I am used to horses and wagons in my village as they are used to bring wood or produce in from the field but I am also still caught off guard when horses with wagons show up in towns/Raion Centers.
Rebecca's Field Notes 