Eco Garden of Gordana in the Village of Malo Konjari: Prilep, Macedonia

The team at Kajak.mk tirelessly continues to promote new local heroes who mean much more to us than just tourism. These are people whose stories aim to motivate the population to start thinking about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, healthy food grown by our soil, and how to replace urbanized daily life with rural paths that lead to peace and comfort.

Today, we introduce you to our new local heroine, Gordana, whose life story is daily connected to journalism, sports, and traditional healthy food.

Gordana says that her love for journalism resulted in the creation of the local radio station Pela and the portal radiopela.mk, media outlets that focus largely on topics such as sports, agriculture, ecology, and culinary arts. She comes from a family where the table, cooking, and delicious food are especially respected.

By profession, she is a former athlete, a handball player, and a long-time active journalist with an affinity for agriculture, especially ecological, organic food production.

Today, Gordana is building a wonderful eco story in the village of Malo Konjari, located 6 kilometers from Prilep, in the heart of Pelagonia, and on the regional road to Krusevo. Malo Konjari is also known as the village of Siljan Shtrkot, famous for the production of cereals, gardening products, and a long tradition of dairy production and cheese-making in the traditional way.

She says that Malo Konjari is her birthplace, where she completed her primary education, and after life challenges in Macedonia and Australia, she returned home to build her "Bavchika," which is practically in her own yard. The tradition of growing healthy food, Gordana says, is a heritage from her grandfather, who, decades ago, grew apple seedlings on the current property. Alongside her grandfather, her father, who was also passionate about fruit growing, worked there as well.

Today, Gordana continues this tradition through her mission in ecological gardening. The garden and small nursery are far from any pollution, at the end of the village, where each family grows for its own needs and soul.

Since curiosity is a characteristic of journalists, that’s how "Bavchika" started. Together with her husband, they have spent the last few years experimenting with vegetable production for home use without using chemical products. In addition to the garden and orchard, they raise chickens, turkeys, pigeons... The production is traditional – ecological, using a drip irrigation system.

Gordana says that Bavchika is "allergic" to any chemicals. This small eco-system is a story they build with much love, often through their own experience and in collaboration with agricultural experts who are part of their journalistic work. The goal is to create healthy and tasty agricultural products, packed in the traditional way, without the use of preservatives.

From the fruits, they process jams and juices made from cherries, apricots, raspberries, strawberries, which grow in their yard, and as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, celery, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beans, apples, pears, and hazelnuts ripen, they sell them by order or pack them in jars.

For Gordana, this idea simmered and grew over many years, with the main push being her 10 years of experience in Australia, a country with a special, subtle way of preserving the eco-environment and where organic products are highly valued. She says that in Australia, there is a motto: not every food is food.

Today, Gordana says that if anyone is interested in visiting and tasting their products, or purchasing for their households, they are welcome at any time.

For orders, follow this link: https://www.domasno.mk/mk