marta pakovskaHello, I’m Marta. This blog is my online home. One of the digital homes from where I work, blog, create, grow, learn & try to improve things.

I generally start my introductions by saying that I’m born in the Balkans (Yugoslavia, currently Macedonia), raised in the Lowlands and now residing at the foot of the French Alps. Europe has always been my home, although my ancestors may have been from Asia. I’m a historian by background, but I’ve spent most of my professional life on the internet. (Linkedin)

On my personal blog I share bits of my life, my thoughts and things that amaze me. I tell stories in images and words. The words that I use are often written in non-native languages, but they are always my own words.

I also design, collect, make my own line of products. Next to running my own business I’m also trying to master the French language and I’m creating a home here in the Alps. We recently decided to make France our permanent country of residence and therefore things might change a bit on the blog in the future. Right now I mostly blog about food, kitchen gardening, health, travelling, diy and new (french) discoveries. It’s a bit of a work in progress, like life actually.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a collaboration or if you have an interesting project to share. I would love to hear from you.

Comments
  1. Carola Holmer

    Hello Marta,

    I’m a jewelry designer from Germany. In July I will opening a new Concept Store in Regensburg.
    I’m very interested in selling some of your products!
    Do you have wholesale prices?

    I’m looking forward to hear from you!

    Best,
    Carola

  2. Hi Marta,

    greetings from small specialty coffee roasters in Slovakia.
    My name is Lukas, I am founder & roaster in one person. I love materials u use, I do also crafts, working with wood and leather so it is very close to me :)
    I would like to ask on that envelopes https://pakovska.com/shop/mini-seed-envelopes-kraft/ , if you have also bigger sizes of it.

    Thank you very much for your time and reply,

    All Best Marta,

    Lukas Kubiny
    ILLIMITE COFFEE ROASTERS

  3. LaJaunna

    Hello.
    I really like your pie carrier, and would love to make one. I can sew some, but am not professional, so hopefully, it is a project that I can make.
    I did try the links provided, but the ones like yours were not in English (that I could see), neither is the link for the class. I only speak English, and wanted to know if it would be possible for you to email the instructions for the pie carrier to me? Is there a charge for it?
    Look forward to hearing from you.

  4. Dina

    SALUT MARTA ,
    TON SITE EST TRÈS BEAU ,TRÈS RICHE EN COULEURS et en expériences .je te souhaite beaucoup de courage et d’envie pour continuer ses belles choses . A bientôt.

  5. Michele Bland

    Hello, Marta,
    Somewhere you mentioned that you were going to carve a wooden spoon have you have managed to do this yet?
    Also I saw a picture of the garlic you planted last November after some time with leaves which looked about 5 – 10 cms long.
    I live equidistant between Geneve, Lyon and Grenoble at about 540 m and my garlic that I planted in November has no shoots at all. Did you have a warm spell? Maybe it’s because I didn’t add any fertilizer before planting. Mine have been under about 10″ snow for several weeks up until a few days ago and we also had a lot of hard frost.
    Cordialement,
    Michele Bland.

    • Hi Michele,

      Thank you for your message. I hope you are enjoying France as well. :)
      I haven’t carved a spoon yet. I find it difficult to sharpen my curved knife. But one day I will! :)

      About the garlic: I have noticed that my garlic hasn’t all come up yet either. Only one variety did. That variety is about 10cm now. It was a variety that was ‘bio’. I’m not sure if the others won’t show up eventually. I don’t think it’s the weather in this case (we have had also 3 weeks of snow on the allotment), but maybe they were treated with something that prevents them from sprouting. I will have to wait and see.

      If you aren’t sure about yours, you can always plant a new batch. Not too late though, as you want them to pick up a bit of frost. But you can also just wait and see and learn from the experience for next year.

      I hope it helps, enjoy your weekend. :)

      Marta

  6. Michele Bland

    Hello Marta,
    Thanks for your reply.
    Yes, I love living here – been here just over 5.5 years, but spent first 1.5 years in rented accommodation while we looked around for suitable house to buy which we did in January 2013.
    Last year was the first season I grew herbs and vegetables and fruit and planted asparagus. I have planted a number of fruit trees – kaki, pears, nashi, bitter cherries, quince and medlar, peach and apricots. I also planted in 2014, some raspberries which I bought from a UK nursery and they turned out not to be the varieties I asked for – one of them was yellow and as I had ordered 2 types of red fruited raspberries, it was obviously not what I had asked for. Hummmm. Anyway, the yellow ones, I think may be ‘Allgold’, are very vigorous compared to all the other kinds I have grown in UK but we find them delicious. If you want some canes, I can pull some for you. The red kinds I have are ‘Joan J’ and ‘Glen Fyne’ – this time ordered from a different nursery in Wales which grows its fruit hard – i.e. no fertilizer etc.
    The kiwi plants were here when we came and they are very successful.
    Last summer, I planted two melons (bought as seedlings from Gamm Vert, Belley) and we had so many melons, we put them in a box outside with a notice for people to take them gratuit – very popular – people gave us pots of jam, homemade wine in return.
    I found your information about the plateformes de compostage very helpful as I have spent fruitless hours trying to find compost en vrac nearby and now with your help, I have found a place just around the mountain! Thank you.

    I make wood cuts with woodcut tools that have curved (2mm – 6mm) blades and V-shaped blades – I sharpen these with special stones that are shaped to make sharpening possible. What diameter roughly is your knife?

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