Resilience Food Stories

Vasile’s story is the story of an exceptional person, who lives for and with his plants. He is an autodidact who tended a vegetable plot for his family while working as a car mechanic. After the coup in 1989 he began a new life as a vegetable grower in Dumbrăveni. On a piece of land measuring 0.3 hectares he grows fifty varieties of tomato, a hundred or more herbs and “every variety of vegetable in the world. Well, not all of them, but close.” Vasile can always be found in his garden.

Vasile was born in the commune of Vereşti, Suceava County. Nowadays, he farms in the village of Dumbrăveni. He started working at a garage and worked there for 34 years. But after work, he always found time to tend his vegetable garden. He grew vegetables for his family and would sell the surplus. He followed in his dad’s footsteps, who worked at a collective farm. Vasile took a liking to gardening, and his father taught him a lot. Everything you see here is the result of his passion for vegetables. After he quit his job at the garage, that is, after the 1989 coup, he started growing vegetables. He had nothing else to do. He didn’t want to go looking for a new job. He started with a small greenhouse, and later on he expanded. His son works with the animals, and Vasile tends the vegetables.

‘Right after the 1989 coup, you could still find workers. But once the borders opened up, workers became very scarce. I was pretty much alone on my farm. But that’s ok. What I do myself needs no double-checking. If I stop working at, let’s say, point two, that’s where I go back to. The next day I start where I left off. Then I go on up to point five, and I know exactly what I’m doing. That’s how I’ve managed, over the years, to try out pretty much every variety of vegetable in the world. Well, not all of them, but close. Almost all of them, from all the research stations in Romania and from multinational companies. I wanted to find the best ones and I worked with some of those companies. I think I’ll step up my collaboration with them in the coming years. They also support and encourage me. With encouragement, you do things even more passionately. I feel motivated to continue working.

‘This is my life.
It all depends on what I do every day. There’s no one left to talk to. The young people have left Romania. Many of them work in agriculture abroad, but I decided to stay here to do something here, where I was born. I am a patriot. I want to work and die where I was born and leave something to those who come after me. What I do is not for everyone, but I mind my own business and never gossip. I don’t watch TV very often. I watch my plants. They give me incredible strength to continue working. They make me feel alive and quick. When I go home I’m not even tired. I work 25 hours a day. I lose track of time. I always find something new to do, to search for and discover new things.’