Ivan tea from Mikhail with Altai, who was disappointed in journalism and found himself in another • Siberia.Realities • RIMA — Russian Independent Media Archive
Ivan tea from Mikhail with Altai, who was disappointed in journalism and found himself in another
Ivan tea from Mikhail with Altai, who was disappointed in journalism and found himself in another
Mikhail Pronko is 37 years old. He is a former journalist, but now with his big family, in which five children lives in the village of Soloneshniy in the Altai Territory. In the journalistic profession, Michael was quickly disappointed, and the salary there was small. There was no stable earnings at the construction site. And then Mikhail took up the harvesting of environmentally friendly tea and herbs.
“The final decision was that we built on the last facility, our trailer was hacked and literally dragged him all, up to clothes: a tool, clothes, everything there up to the smallest detail,” Mikhail recalls. “I was, one might say, a foreman, hired young guys. And it turns out, and I was left without a tool. We asked us without an object. Difficult times, and we decided so that we must return here, to Earth. "
In the village, Mikhail took up the household, continued to work as a builder, but there was still no constant income. Then he began to write a thesis and articles to order, but this work turned out to be seasonal. A few years ago, Pronko was invited to herbaling for natural tea. Now the whole family is involved in the process of harvesting tea:
“Last year, Kristina and I, with my wife, gathered together, this year Vika is traveling with me, the eldest daughter also collects,” says Mikhail. “Christina is responsible for something like marketing: packing on her, drying. Alina, her middle daughter, is responsible for drying of leaf tea: she turns it over twice a day, so that he dries there at the same time.”
Ivanha is narrow-leaved (another name is narrow-leaved) has long been known for its healing properties. Its leaves and colors have a lot of iron, copper, manganese, phosphorus salts, calcium, cobalt, potassium and other elements, and there are a lot of tannin in the roots. The infusions and decoctions of Ivan-one leaves have a strong anti-inflammatory effect.
Michael says that children like to collect tea, besides, it brings them personal money. The eldest daughter of Vika, for example, earns on tea on a new phone with a good camera to engage in photo and video recharge:
“We set a goal to her, I told her that the parental duty is to dress, to drink, to feed,” the father says. “But if you want some excesses, then this is, as they say, a whim. If there is an opportunity to earn-earn.”
Ivan tea and other herbs Michael collects on the ownerless or municipal lands. But they, according to him, in Altai are becoming smaller every year. Many fields are given to private ownership under the grazing of livestock, and new owners usually do not consent to the collection of herbs on their territory. Therefore, Michael is in the constant search for new sites.
Another problem is competitors who collect tea with trimmers, rolling everything to the root and harming nature.
“Often, cheap tea on social networks is sold, it is sold by people who, let’s say, curving it with their souls,” Mikhail explains it. “They mow with a trimmer: stems, nettles - all in a row. And this porridge is not clear what these heat furnaces are dried there. And then they sell it 3 times cheaper than ours, which is, of course, it beats for us.”
Despite difficulties, Mikhail is not going to return to the city. His new project-not far from his house, he plans to create a contact mini-farm for children with disabilities.
