Pan Eko organic farm, Botar

Pan Eko is the organic farm of Pavlo Tizesh in Botar, a Hungarian-speaking village at the very southern edge of Zakarpattia, just a few kilometres from the borders with Hungary and Romania. Here lekvar — a thick Hungarian-style fruit butter — is cooked to European organic standards, berry syrups and juices are made, and the meat of Mangalica pigs goes into sausages sold under the Uhocha Taste label. The name recalls Ugocsa, the historic county on the Tysa to which these villages once belonged. The farm is known well beyond its district: TV crews and travel bloggers have filmed here, and its products are part of the Carpathian Taste producers' union.

Why go to Botar

The main reason is the tasting room set up in an old tobacco-drying barn. The farm began with the purchase of a ruined 110-year-old building of which only the adobe walls remained; today it houses a collection of lekvars and jams from around the world, and guests taste the farm's products right where they are made. Tastings are held for groups of 5 to 50 people by advance booking only. The set includes six kinds of sausage, six seasonal lekvars, apple juice and palinka. School groups are welcome too: for children the pastures with curly Mangalica pigs and horned Hungarian Grey cattle become an open-air zoo. It is a good stop for anyone following the wine and food routes of southern Zakarpattia who wants to see a working farm rather than just a shop shelf.

What to taste and buy

• Lekvars — plum, apricot, raspberry, strawberry, cranberry, bilberry, wild strawberry, rowan and sloe.
• Syrups and juices — sea buckthorn, lingonberry, chokeberry, cherry, elderberry, rosehip, beetroot with apple and other fruit.
• Uhocha Taste sausages — cooked-smoked, home-style, plum with prunes, pepper salami.

Berries for the lekvars and syrups are gathered around Rakhiv, Yasinia, Volovets and Velykyi Bereznyi, while plums and apples come from lowland orchards. Lekvar is no passing fad but an old tradition: in Hungarian and Ukrainian villages along the Tysa, plums were boiled down for hours every autumn in big copper cauldrons, stirred constantly with a wooden paddle until the mass turned dark and thick as marmalade. It kept for years in the pantry without preservatives and went into pies, dumplings and palacsinta pancakes. Pan Eko carries the tradition on, only to organic standards.

Practical information

• Address: Botar village, Berehove district (formerly Vynohradiv district), Zakarpattia region; the farm is marked on the map of its page on the Carpathian Taste union website.
• Tastings: by advance booking only, for groups of 5 to 50; check the programme and price by phone.
• Phones: +380689967590, +380963319071, +380973814052; e-mail [email protected].
• Getting there: Botar lies on the road to the Diakove crossing on the Romanian border (about 2 km away). Vylok is 16 km, Vynohradiv about 30 km and Berehove 38 km away. A car is the easiest option; minibuses run from Vynohradiv, but check the timetable in advance.

Since the way guests are received and the prices change over time, be sure to call ahead and arrange your visit.

Please confirm by phone before your trip.

Website and social media: tuca.com.ua · facebook.com

Photos: tuca.com.ua.