budaveg – vegetarian Hungary your vegetarian home in Hungary

A few weeks ago on a sunny Saturday morning we were again driving up north to the “Biokert” organic farm where we get our vegetables from in a CSA scheme. We had enjoyed the harvest festival so much we were really looking forward to be back on the farm where our kids and dog can roam free and we can meet and greet the other members.

We were invited to help with the spice paprika harvest- which we did for 10 minutes before we realized that our kids and bouncy dog were more trouble than they were worth and retreated from the paprika field. We walked around to see how the vegetables were doing in the poly tunnels, and collected sunflower seeds from the drying flower heads for the bird feeder. Oliver was delighted when Dora, farmer Áron’s golden retriever mix, joined him and they happily romped around and made a mess.

Everybody bought cakes and snacks and it was hard to leave the picnic table with all those delights. A friendly couple made a delicious vegan curry on the open fire.

But the real treat -at least for the kids- came when we all piled on the trailer of the tractor and Áron drove us over to a neighbouring pony farm! The trip was the bumpiest ever which meant that all those little kids were screaming with delight. They all could go horse riding on the ponies  including our 1,5 year old girl who hasn’t been near a horse before. Since than she keeps saying “horsie horsie” non stop. There was a flock of sheep and a very friendly pussycat as well to entertain the kids while they were waiting for their ride. There was also a real double decker tram from a bygone era.

Then we jumped on the tractor and bumped back to the farm for lunch- but unfortunately our kids were absolutely knackered by then (they get up at 6 am), so we had to say goodbye and pile them into the car. We were heartbroken to miss the vegan curry but Renáta filled our Tupperware box to take away. Yum!

The CSA season is almost over and we are looking forward to next year. It was brilliant to get all those lovely organic veg, fruit, flour, paprika spice and sun-dried tomatoes from the farm. It definitely reformed our eating habits, as we had to use the veg we were given- and started eating beetroot, mangold, turnips -and learnt a handful of new recipes. Meeting like minded people from our quarters was an added bonus, and it seems many other families will join next year.
Do you live around Szentendre? You might want to join too!

Few month ago we joined a community supported agricultural scheme and since then we got our vegetables from Farmer Áron Pető from Szigetmonostor. We have been delighted with the deal, the vegetables are lovely, fresh and there is always too much! Apart from the vegetables we  have also received wholemeal flour, white flour, paprika spice, and water and honeydew melons.

Last weekend they invited all the members for a harvest celebration and we all had a lovely time. I was pretty curious to see the farm and the production methods, especially since a week earlier I visited a non-organic tomato farm and was appalled by the amount of fertilizer and the techniques they used. Look at the white bags, all fertilizer, the tomato plants are roughly 15 meters high, they are not in the soil but in tiny grow bags, as they grow they lower the plant and the non producing stem is lying down. The tomatoes are picked in the “growing area”, red and green ones as well, and they “ripen” on the shelves of the supermarket. Yuck.

factory farming: look at all those bags of fertilizer!

Organic tomatoes are a totally different kettle of fish; the plant is in the soil and there is not an ounce of artificial fertilizer in sight, the tomatoes are picked when they are ripe and we get them fresh and warm straight off the stem. If you never had the good fortune to eat warm ripened tomatoes off the plant than rush to Hungary, they are so tasty and sweet!

We ran around the farm, our dog and children were delighted, Oli made friends with the farmer’s dog and a stray puppy who is not so stray any more, and our kids ran in the poly tunnels, chased the puppy and stuffed their faces at the picnic table. The pumpkin soup was delicious and surprisingly all treats were vegetarian!

The members ate and chatted and some helped the farmer take the seeds out of these pumpkins; and now we can look forward to pumpkin seed oil which has an impressive list of benefits.

If you have kids under 12 or you still haven’t lost your fascination with vehicles you are in for a treat in Budapest, there are a couple of places to mesmerise you, in fact there 6 transport museums.

Airplane park is right next to terminal 2, There are 8 planes and one helicopter and you can actually enter some of the planes: IL-18, TU-134 and TU-154. There is also a picnic area and you can take pictures and video. You can also combine the visit with a 2 hour tour of the airport by bus: you can see take offs and landings, refuelling, baggage handling, and peek into the maintenance area as well.
Open 15 March- 15 October every day 9 am till 6 pm (last entry 5 pm)
website

The Museum of Transport (Közlekedési múzeum) in the city park is very easy to reach by public transport. There are trains, buses, cars and models, and outside is a 424 steam engine.  They often have special shows at weekends.

Kossuth Múzeumhajó is an old steamboat made in 1913 in the Ganz Danubius Works and served as a  ”farmer’s boat”- picking up farmers and their produce in south Hungary and bringing them to the Central market hall in Budapest. Today the boat is also a restaurant, but everybody is welcome to enter and look around. The boat is right next the Széchenyi Chain Bridge on the Pest side.

Földalatti Vasút Múzeum is the underground museum at Deák Ferenc Metro stop, it commemorates the first Metro on the continent which opened here in 1896, 1000 years after the arrival by the first Hungarians in 896). There is a reconstruction of an original underground stop with beautiful Zsolnay tiles, and of course the underground carriages, all made of wood!

Open every day (except Monday) 10 am – 5 pm

The Train History Park is just outside the centre, but you can get there in style on the steam train from Nyugati railway station. It is an old station, with plenty of old trains, two turn tables, model trains, rail bikes etc. They organize trips on the old trains, special visits and exhibits.

Open Tuesday to Sunday 10 am-5pm
Address: 1142 Budapest Tatai u. 95.
Tel: 06 1 450 1497.

Városi Tömegközlekedési Múzeum- Szentendre This massive public transport museum is right behind the train station in Szentendre (which is a lovely place to visit anyway) you can easily get there by the suburban train from Budapest in 40 minutes. There are many old trains, buses, trams and you can enter most of them, a real treat for kids. All the pictures of this blogpost were taken at a recent visit here.
Open 1 April- 31 October   Tuesday to Sunday 10 am-5pm
Address: 2000 Szentendre, Dózsa György út 3.

Also we have the  Children’s Railway (timetable and info) which is a small gauge forest railway run by children: they sell the tickets, inspect them, signal at the stations, only the driver is an adult. You can take the tram 56 from Moszkva/ Szell Kalman Square to the Hűvösvölgy end or the Fogaskerkű (Cogwheel railway) to the Széchényi-hegy destination.