As expected, I went to bed a little later than usual, and the night, although not necessarily rough, was a little cut short. I woke up at 6:30AM; had just enough time to get some sun and hydration, as we were shortly after on our way to Matjaž and Maja's farm, in a neighbouring village. This had been communicated just the day before – I was still in Ljubljana, strolling around the city during lunchtime – but they requested this help with the utmost urgency. It has been a tough Spring and Summer for many farmers, and at this point all that is left to do is work with whatever the weather permits. Their farm, in fact, had already been mentioned by Nataša in some casual conversation, among the lines of this being the sort of farm we should really get to see: not only because of it's dimension – quite big, with lots of fields available at view in the many valleys that surrounded their central storage structure –, but also, and maybe most importantly, that they do it as organically as possible. And while there is not, for now, any sort of serious production in Zelena Centrala, Matjaž and Maja have a steady stream of produce, and many families which rely on their vegetables. So it really is a whole different level of responsibility.

The work was very tough. We were mulching the fields with hay – all by hand, of course –, preparing and defending the crops from weeds and other possible nefarious scenarios, under an already quite high sun and with very little offer of shade. We managed to do the work of two days in just three hours; on a farm, having more sets of hands available really is a boon. And while it was interesting to see how a bigger, production oriented farm really works – in fact, most of the produce we consume comes from that farm, and from those fields – I'm not sure I'd trade our much more relaxed, non-garden-centric experience at Zelena Centrala.