
WILD MUSHROOMS, CURED PORK & PICKLES: EXPLORING UKRAINIAN FOOD
Last month we were lucky enough to take an amazing food tour to Ukraine with Experience Ukraine and the chef Olia Hercules. Olia is a Ukrainian chef, now living in London. Her passion is preserving the traditional recipes of Ukraine and the surrounding region, by visiting home cooks, documenting their dishes and then bringing these recipes to a wider audience. I have a couple of Olia’s beautifully written books about Ukrainian food and had cooked a few of her recipes both fr

FROM NEW YORK TO THE CARPATHIANS: always seeking animal trappings
As a collector of textile animal trappings my trip to New York in November 2016 had to include a visit to the Ukrainian Museum’s temporary exhibition Carpathian Echoes: Traditional Textile Materials and Technologies in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania and Ukraine, 222 East 6th Street. But, who could have predicted just 14 months later I would have the opportunity of hearing Nataliya Cummings speak at a monthly ORTS meeting on Carpathian embroideries, and subsequently, be

Enjoy a gourmet Taste of Ukraine with award winning Chef Olia Hercules
Recognised by the Observer as a Rising Star in Food, Chef Olia Hercules will be cooking a traditional four course dinner designed to celebrate the unique and flavourful foods of Ukraine. This Taste of Ukraine evening is being organised in conjunction with specialist travel company Experience Ukraine in order to raise funds for the youth theatre project in Nizhnie Selishche in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. One of the last unspoilt areas of Europe, Ukraine has a rich c

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of adventures with Experience Ukraine🎁🎄
I can't believe that we are nearly done with 2017 and in just a few days we are all going to be relaxing and celebrating Christmas in style.
We had a very busy year and I wanted to thank you all very much for your ongoing support. We held a big fundraising event at the beginning of 2017 to support a number of projects in Nyzhnie Selyshche, Transcarpathia. This included helping build the Sargo Rigo Guest House in Nizhnee Selishche for groups to stay in and supporting the Yout

A day with shepherds!
A day with shepherds by Anastasiya Zolotarev Photo by Anastasia Zolotarev
We hiked all day through hills and forests for this cheese and local shepherd in Transcarpathia! Definitely the hardest journey I've ever made to taste incredible cheese! We were greeted by the shepherd and his friends and family and then had an impromptu feast of wood fired pork rilette, raw onion (spring onion), bread, salo, a stew of goat (I think from memory) which I assume was also cooked in thei

Tinsmiths visit to Carpathian Mountains with Experience Ukraine
Tinsmiths Ukranian Visit
Posted by Phoebe Clive In a bid to make my lifestyle business provide me a lifestyle that takes me beyond the office I booked a ‘Textiles Tour’ of the Trans Carpathian region of Ukraine. I have long been fascinated by the culture and folk art of the people of the Carpathian Mountain region and when I saw that Nataliya (Experience Ukraine www.experienceukraine.co.uk) was running a textile based tour I saw my chance to find out more about this region.

Customers review of our Food Tour with Olia Hercules
I was delighted when I received letter from Marion after our fantastic tour with Olia Hercules this June. We organized food based tour first time and to receive such a response was just overwhelming. Thank you Marion for those beautiful words and hope to see you soon. Dumplings workshop by Olia Hercules. Photo by Joe Woodhouse "I don’t want another week to go by without writing this note to say, thank you - dyakuyu- gracias! You surpassed my expectations and to say that we “E

Herefordians partied like Ukrainians!
Thanks to all the lovely people that came to our annual fundraising event! This year we raised total of £1120.84! All funds raised are going to support Youth Theatre Festival in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. More information about youth theatre project and festival can be found in earlier entries of our blog. Also thank you Geraint and Miranda for writing a little piece about our Ukrainian party in Hereford. I am sure you will enjoy the read below: Traditional Ukrainian music fi