site.btaVersol Family Farm Produces Organic Food with Photovoltaic Panels and Rainwater

Miroslav Peshovski, who together with his family manages the Versol organic farm in the village of Lik, Mezdra municipality said in a BTA interview that he hopes to be the beginning of the paradigm shift for agriculture. From the very beginning, the farm has engaged in biodynamic production which determines the quality of the production. Since 2015, it has had a certificate for organic production.

The farm's soil is not particularly fertile, but with the biodynamic method Peshovski manages to grow everything, almost all vegetables - pepper, cucumbers, many varieties of lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, some fruits, even melons. Production is increasing every year, but it is a difficult process. The farm's capacity is much larger than what it currently produces.

The farm was founded in 2012. In the beginning, it was used to meet only the family's own needs and that of close friends. In 2013-2014, the Peshovski family started going to farmers markets and expanded.

Versol's main market currently is in Sofia, working with the largest online chain, several physical stores in Sofia, as well as an online store through which the farm makes its own deliveries.

The farm has 0.35 hectares of heated and unheated greenhouses and 14 hectares of certified land, which, unfortunately, they are not able to fully cultivate due to a lack of manpower.

The farm tries to utilize absolutely everything as much as possible. Leftovers that cannot be sold or are not commercially viable, but are suitable for use, are donated to the home for disabled children in the city of Mezdra or to other initiatives.

Biodynamic agriculture itself implies that nothing in the farm is imported from outside. In this regard, the farm is not connected to the electricity grid at all - they have photovoltaic panels to produce electricity along with a battery farm. Each greenhouse has electricity, water, drip irrigation.

"Everybody is putting in photovoltaics nowadays, but we designed this in 2015, when the designers and people building greenhouses were telling us that it was impossible and we couldn't be independent, but we managed to do it,"  explained Peshovski, who previously worked in the field of renewable sources. 

The farm has solar collectors to produce thermal energy which heats the water for irrigation, as well as a large rainwater collection system, with a total capacity of over 600 cubic metres, and a gully for an additional 300-400 cubic metres of rainwater.

"We try to exchange experience. We attend biodynamic conferences as much as we can, we have contacts abroad, this year we visited biodynamic farms in Switzerland," said Peshovski.