"People are fined, but they survive": why can't Transcarpathians sell the "bear onion" that gives them their last hope?.

Footdrops and a number of spring Red Book plants have bloomed in the region.

Wild garlic is one of the first vitamin spring plants, on which a number of Ukrainians, primarily pensioners and low-income segments of the population, earn money. At the moment, it is not yet on active sale in the markets, unlike the elegant bouquets with spring flowers that have already hatched in the homes of the inhabitants of Transcarpathia. At the same time, you can earn a penny on it, especially when the financial wealth of low-income Ukrainian families depends on such earnings.

Transcarpathians are already accustomed to earning extra money by picking seasonal berries - blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mushrooms. On these products, they survive season after season and rejoice when there is a harvest in the forests and meadows.

So, every time many residents of Perechyn district earn money on wild plants. But wild garlic occupies one of the main places in the spring.

According to locals, before the military events in Ukraine, this plant was sold not only in Uzhhorod and Perechyn, but quite often in the Lviv market. In particular, they carried their goods, including canned food and nuts on the eve of Easter. And from there, they brought meat or butter, and other necessary goods. Usually, pensioners make money on the seasonal trade in the plant. Or low-income families.

It turns out that wild garlic is not risked to be pulled out with onions for sale, but the leaves themselves are plucked. It is understood that this plant is rare, Red Book. Wild garlic is harvested in pine forests, near rivers. Many people even plant this vitamin plant near their homes. However, the plant is very picky and only grows in a shady area.

Wild garlic is a perennial herbaceous plant from the onion genus. It has the aroma of garlic, so in the forests where the plant likes to grow, there is a garlic smell. The plant contains vitamins B1, B3, B6, B9, A, C, E, PP, macro- and microelements: iron, fluorine, potassium, manganese, iodine, copper and selenium. Wild garlic is also rich in niacin, calcium, alliin, glycoside, phytoncides, lysozyme and essential oil.

"Bear onion" - wild garlic is indispensable during this period. It is used to make salads, soups and add to pies. And Mrs. Olena also cooks scrambled eggs with her. He says that it is very useful, especially for young children.

- She brought nuts, mushrooms, canned food when it was possible to sell them to Lviv. My friend Natalka and I went there. They also carried wild garlic, a medicinal plant," says Olena. "We could earn it, because our pension is meager, you only survive on those two thousand," says Elena Mikhailovna. "As soon as covid started, our travels stopped, and in the last period we do not go to the Lviv market because of the war in Ukraine," says the pensioner.

"We know that the sale of the plant is prohibited because it is rare and will be fined," says Ms. Olena. - But doesn't the one that cuts the forest on a large scale harm nature the most? They only went to those pensioners that they earn a penny, because somewhere out there they will pick a couple of stalks of wild garlic to sell them," the pensioner notes. - I don't tear it up with onions, let it grow in the ground. I carefully cut off only the stems of wild garlic. And we would be fined for everything. But no one cares how that poor pensioner, already brought to the handle, survives," the interlocutor adds.

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