Glossary
Every term used across the site, defined once. Each entry links to the topic pages that share its tags and to the modules where it is central.
- Permaculture
- A design system for sustainable agriculture and habitation that mimics the structure and function of natural ecosystems — layered, diverse, self-sustaining. The name is short for 'permanent agriculture'. Built on three values: care for the earth, care for people, share the abundance.
- Related tags:пермакултураpermakultura
- Related modules:permaculture
- Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)
- A model where customers buy a share of a farm's harvest BEFORE the season starts — paying upfront and sharing the production risk with the farmer. Originated in Europe (the German 'Solidarische Landwirtschaft') and the United States in the mid-1980s.
- Related tags:CSAПСЗ
- Related modules:community
- Allelopathy
- Biochemical interactions through which one plant affects the growth of another — inhibiting or supporting — via chemical signals released by roots, leaves, fruit, or decomposing residue. The basis of companion planting.
- Related tags:алелопатиярастения-компаньонидругаруване
- Related modules:plantspermaculture
- Plant guild
- A group of plants planted together so each performs a complementary role: the bearing crop, a nitrogen-fixing shrub, a perennial herb, a ground cover, and pollinator attractants. A core concept of permaculture design.
- Related tags:растителни гилдиипермакултураполикултура
- Related modules:permacultureplants
- Primocane / Floricane
- The two cane types in red raspberry. Floricane (summer-bearing) fruit only on second-year canes — no yield in year one. Primocane (fall-bearing / everbearing) fruit on first-year canes; with the right pruning they can give a second, summer crop on the lower part of the same canes — the 'double-cropping' system.
- Related tags:малиниprimocanefloricane
- HACCP
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — a food-safety management system built on seven principles (hazard analysis, critical control points, critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions, verification, documentation). Required to register a food establishment.
- Related tags:HACCPБАБХ
- BFSA — Bulgarian Food Safety Agency
- The Bulgarian state authority that registers food production, processing, and trade establishments. Under the Bulgarian Food Act, establishment registration is mandatory — no registration, no sale, including online.
- Related tags:БАБХрегистрация
- CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027
- Bulgaria's national programme implementing the EU Common Agricultural Policy for 2023–2027. Replaces the previous 2014–2020 measures (including 'Measure 4.2', now intervention 'II.Г.2'). Co-funds farm and processing investments at up to ~50%.
- Related tags:ОСПМярка 4.2II.Г.2
- EBITDA
- Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation — operating profit before financing costs, taxes, and amortisation. Used to compare operating efficiency across businesses without being affected by capital structure or tax regime.
- Related tags:EBITDA
- Декар (decare)
- A Bulgarian unit of area: 1 декар = 1,000 m² = 0.1 hectares. The standard measure of agricultural land in Bulgaria, used throughout the CSA module.
- Related tags:декар
- Slow Food
- An international movement founded in Italy in 1989 that defends regional culinary traditions, biodiversity, and local production. Its principle — 'good, clean, and fair food' — underpins Svilena's approach: from the seed through every process to the customer, mature fresh seasonal produce.
- Related tags:Slow Food
- Related modules:kitchencommunity
- Tincture
- An alcohol or water extract of plant material (dried herbs, fruit, bark) concentrated by maceration and filtration. Preserves active compounds long-term; used by the drop for medicinal and culinary purposes.
- Related tags:тинктураизвлекбилки
- Related modules:herbs-medicinekitchen
- Pestil (fruit leather)
- Dried fruit purée formed into thin sheets — a traditional fruit-preserving technique in the Near East and the Balkans. In the raspberry CSA module it is one of the eight SKUs, carrying the highest per-kilogram margin thanks to the value concentrated by dehydration.
- Related tags:пестилмалини
- Related modules:kitchen
- Polyculture
- Growing many crops together on the same land, in contrast to monoculture. Greater resilience to pests and disease, richer soil, more complex but more efficient microclimate — the heart of permaculture design.
- Related tags:поликултурапермакултура
- Related modules:permacultureplants
- Companion planting
- The practice of planting species together that help one another — repelling pests, attracting pollinators, enriching the soil, balancing light and moisture. The Bulgarian term is 'другаруване'. Rests on allelopathy.
- Related tags:другаруванерастения-компаньониалелопатия
- Related modules:plantspermaculture
- From the bed to the mouth
- The fresh-seasonal principle — the plant is grown, picked and cooked within hours or days, without processing outside the home kitchen. The core of CSA deliveries and the seasonal menu in the kitchen module.
- Related tags:от лехата до устата
- Related modules:kitchen
- Diary of the Urban Witch
- An umbrella tag for posts at the edge of herbalism, home apothecary and folk tradition — topics like rosemary for memory, seeing off the longest night, or why the jalapeño is older than the pyramids. A tone, not a category.
- Related tags:дневник на градската вещица
- Related modules:herbs-medicine
- Greens in boxes
- The weekly box-delivery of seasonal vegetables that is the operating unit of the CSA model. Every member gets the same box — whatever the garden produces that week — for a fixed annual subscription price.
- Related tags:зелении в кутии
- Related modules:community
- Leafy greens
- A family of garden crops grown for their leaves (mustard, kale, spinach, arugula, beet tops). In a permaculture garden they are the fast crop that fills the space between slow-growing perennials.
- Related tags:Листни зеленчуци
- Related modules:plantskitchen
- Wild kitchen
- Cooking with wild edible plants — dandelion, nettle, chives, wild herbs. The principle: food you didn't plant, you let grow and recognise in the right season.
- Related tags:Дива кухня
- Related modules:kitchenherbs-medicine
- Sustainable agriculture
- Farming practices that maintain or improve soil health, biodiversity, and water resources, and provide a livable economy for the farmer over the long horizon — without external chemical inputs and without depleting the resource.
- Related tags:устойчиво земеделие
- Related modules:permaculture
- Radish leaves
- The green tops of radishes — peppery, slightly bitter, fully edible, and often discarded. An easy salad, a base for pesto, an addition to sautéed leafy greens.
- Related tags:листа от репички
- Related modules:plantskitchen
- Community
- A network of people with shared territory, shared purpose or shared values, who help each other when and however they can. In the CSA context — the network of members that shares the harvest and the risk with the producer.
- Related tags:общност
- Related modules:community
- Seedlings
- Young plants raised from seed and grown under protection until strong enough for transplanting outdoors. In a permaculture garden, seedlings are the start of the season — raised in pots, in a cold frame or in a greenhouse.
- Related tags:разсад
- Related modules:plantspermaculture
- Recipes
- Concrete instructions for preparing a dish, usually around one seasonal crop or one practice. In the kitchen module, recipes are linked to plant profiles and to the seasonal menu of the CSA deliveries.
- Related tags:рецепти
- Related modules:kitchen
- Farmers' market
- A direct point of sale from producer to end consumer, without intermediaries. In Bulgaria it gained popularity after 2010 as an alternative to retail chains — short supply chains, knowing the producer, seasonal produce.
- Related tags:фермерски пазар
- Related modules:community