The king of the forest

Since it's a bit cold and messy outside, allow me to take you on a little journey of natural discovery.

On the farthest Eastern edge of our country, straddled over the border we share with Belarus lies a magical wilderness: the primeval forest of Białowieża.

With only small villages to house guests and scarce transportation, the region does not, at first glance, seem like an inviting tourist location. No large hotels, no resorts, no shopping, no night life.

But one does not come to Białowieża for the night life. Not the human sort, anyway, which leaves you hungover and dry-mouthed, sleeping through the better part of the morning. In Białowieża, it behooves the tourist to rise before the sun, don her wellingtons, and rush through the dewy dawn with eyes wide open and camera in hand, to catch the boar, the deer, and the wisent at their breakfast grazing.

Deer coming to have a drink of water from the pond, at 4:30 am. A sight worth losing sleep over.

Leave man-made entertainment in the cities. Here, nature is your host.

A path designed to protect the undergrowth from humans in the strict protection zone of the National Park.
You cannot enter this area without a guide.

The border leaves most of the woodland on the Belarussian side, but what is left in Poland is still a vast and ecologically rich area. Over centuries, it was protected as a king's hunting grounds, and thus survived almost intact until the 1900s. Both World Wars caused significant damage, but it was in 1919 that the forest suffered what was arguably its greatest loss: the death of the last wild wisent.

What's a wisent, you ask?

Hello!

Otherwise known as the Bison bonasus, it is a cousin of the American bison (Bison bison), and the largest European mammal. A male can weigh up to 920 kilos (that's over two thousand lbs!), and lives about 25 years. Isn't it frightening that both species of this impressive genus, though divided by a great ocean, came so close to extinction by fault of man's drive to war and conquest?

I say they came close- because luckily, the wisent is back.

Back in style, baby.

In 1923, in that short period between World Wars, a society was formed in Poland with the express intention of saving the species and returning the wisent back to the European wilderness- starting with the Białowieża forest. Their hope lay in the many wisent from Białowieża which had been sent to zoological gardens worldwide during the 19th century. As it turned out, there were only 54 individuals who had survived in captivity. And not all of them were fit to reproduce...

But in the end, the attempt was successful. The first wisent, a male born in Germany and named Borusse was placed in the forest preserve a mere six years later. He was joined by two females, the pureblood Biserta and the half wisent half bison Faworytka, both raised in Stockholm. By the time World War Two broke out, sixteen wisent were romping in the forest- luckily, all of them survived the ordeal.

A little herd chilling out.

Today, there are over 500 bison living wild in the Polish part of the Białowieża forest. This is still a small number, and with the genetic material all going back to the same small group of wisent recovered from the zoos, it is important to control the further expanse of the population. Each new wisent is recorded in the European Bison Pedigree Book, published yearly- this helps guarantee the purity of the species and grants important information to breeders. Today, the Book counts over 4000 bison worldwide, over half of that number living in the wild. A 1000 of them live in Poland, of which half reside in the Białowieża forest.

So, you see, if you go visit Białowieża, you won't have too much trouble spotting a wisent, whether in the reserve, or out grazing a field. Just remember these few tips: don't get too close, approach them quietly and with great caution, and if the wisent looks right at you- stop, and don't come any closer. He's watching you, now. He'll keep on watching you until you go away. And if you don't go away- he will.

Most of all, remember that he's the king of the forest, and you are merely his guest.

By the way, the Polish word for wisent is 'żubr'. Have you ever heard of a vodka called Żubrówka? It's a yellowish colour, and comes in a tall bottle with a blade of bisongrass inside. Yep. It's named after the wisent, and it's one of the best vodkas in Poland.



Meta Info:

Wikipedia entry on Białowieża Forest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia%C5%82owie%C5%BCa_Forest

Official website of the Białowieża National Park:
http://bpn.com.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=178

A photo of dr Erna Mohr and Borusse, the first wisent to return to the forest:
http://bpn.com.pl/images/stories/opisy/wydawnictwa/erna.png

The European Bison Pedigree Book in History and Today ( a pdf with lots of cool old photos)
http://bpn.com.pl/images/stories/opisy/wydawnictwa/krz/broszura_ang.pdf 

Wikipedia entry for Żubrówka Vodka:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBubr%C3%B3wka

Fat Thursday

I'll have a dozen of those, and a dozen of these.

The photo above shows a confectioner's stall at the market near my place. Normally the shelves are filled with different kinds of cakes- chocolate eclairs, honey gingerbread, puff pastries, jam buns...

But today, it is all pączki. Because today, my friends, is Fat Thursday, and custom declares that on Fat Thursday a person should eat as many pączki as they can. And then they should eat some more.

Last year, Poles are said to have eaten 95 million pączki. That's about two and a half per citizen.  You see, no one counts calories on this day(a pączek will set you back about 400 empty ones, if you really must know). If you don't eat, you'll be miserable for the rest of the year, superstition says.

But pączki are available year-round. Why are they so immensely popular on this one day in the year?

Afternoon delivery to the bakeries. All of those crates are filled with pączki.

Fat Thursday a.k.a. Tłusty Czwartek (pronounced twoosty tschvartek) is a mobile feast, falling on the thursday before Ash Wednesday. One week of Carnival remains; one week before sweets, fatty foods and festivities must be set aside for Lent. In Catholic custom, Lent is fourty days of fasting and religious reflection meant to cleanse and prepare the faithful for Easter.

The practical purpose of Fat Thursday is for bakers to use up all excess of fat and sugar before the fasting begins and business on sweet treats slows down. On this day, you might have a hard time finding anything BUT pączki in the bakeries.

Rose jam, marmalade, toffee, chocolate? So many different fillings...

The traditional pączek is a yeasty ball with a rose jam centre, fried in lard (vegetarians beware). But, according to the most famous Polish confectioners, the Blikle family, in the 17th century, pączki were stuffed with bacon.

Now, there is a common misconception in America, I have noticed, about this traditional Polish dessert called 'pączki'.  I'd like to clear that up.

First of all, we do not eat them on Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is the Tuesday followed immediately by Ash Wednesday, effectively the last day of the Carnival before Lent, but it is not a feast celebrated in Poland.

We do not celebrate 'Pączki Day', either. That is a Polish-American tradition.

Second of all, they are not doughnuts. Doughnuts have holes in them and they are a completely different dough besides. And what you might think are doughnut holes are mini pączki, or pączusie.

Now, about the name itself. I have heard the word explained as 'packages'. Not so- the word actually means 'buds'. See the little tail underneath the 'a'? That makes an 'aw' sound, and the word is pronounced 'pawnchkee'. The confusion comes from replacing the letter with a regular 'a':

'paczki' 

are, indeed, packages, preferably wrapped up in brown paper and tied up with string.

 'pączki'

however, are buds, such as you would see on a tree in springtime, and though the cakes named after them do often come wrapped in paper, its colour is waxed off-white, and the string is ribbon rather than jute.

These are also pączki.

Note also that the word is plural, the singular form being 'pączek' (pronounced 'pawncheck'). One pączek, two pączki. Of course it is only natural that the English language would add an extra s and adapt the word as pączkis. :) (the aforementioned 'pączusie' is a diminutive, and indicates the 'pączek' has been shrunk to cuteness.)

If all this etymology has made you hungry, you should feel justified in running out to the nearest confectionery shop and bringing home as many sweet pastries as you can carry. It is, after all, Tłusty Czwartek.




Meta Info:


Wikipedia entry on Fat Thursday:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Thursday


Blikle on pączki:


http://www.tvp.pl/styl-zycia/aktualnosci/lukasz-blikle-w-tlusty-czwartek-badzmy-lakomczuchami/4080794