Cseri Miklós - Bereczki Ibolya (szerk.): Ház és Ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 25. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2013)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - JAKAB JUDIT: Etnobotanikai gyűjtőút, Erdély - Háromszék

Judit Jakab ETHNO BOTANIC COLLECTION IN HÁROMSZÉK When elaborating the settlement plan of the Transylvania building complex, we consider the importance of the research on houses and ancillary buildings coming from different Transylvanian regions. At the same time the presentation of gardens and farm yards, as well as their natural environment is pertaining part of the settlement concept. That is the reason why I joint the group of colleagues, which conducted research in August 2009 in the area of the historic Háromszék: I wanted to find data locally to draft and create the gardens, to collect personal impressions about how the people live, how they make use of the products of their gardens and how they live together with their environment. In some villages in Transylvania it seems that time stands still; gardens are as they used to be 1

00 years ago, the same plants are grown, the same tools and methods are used but times are changing and it may happen that we won't find much of all this in twenty years. We visited the "land of mansions"; our first destination was the Damokos mansion in Alsócsernáton, where I was able to discover a leftover from the old garden. Imposing rows of trees escort the road, remains of the old garden furniture are still in the unweeded park, once planted, huge-grown exotic plants tell about better times. The access to Futásfalva is not easy, only a dirt road leads to the village. This might be the reason why the village's gardens and way of farming evoke the past. Many of today fashionable flowers are unknown here, nobody buys seeds in the shop and people sow seeds of their garden flowers. They prepare their food from traditional ingredients following traditional cooking methods. We meet old species of trees in the orchard, huge trees, grafting is not practiced here. The most famous inhabitant of the village is Etelka Finta, a real Renaissance personality - even a book has been written about her. The most well-known mansion of Háromszék is in Bikfalva: it is the Zsigmond mansion, once it was owned by the family Apor from Tarda. Ödön Zsigmond planted the orchard in the thirties of the last century. He farmed professionally 1

2 hectares and he used to consult professional books about farming. His descendents still keep his library. The mansion in Cófalva is not inhabited today; produce is stored in its huge rooms but even here I was able to recognize some ornamental plants, reminders of the old garden. A descendent of the owners once upon a time, Katalin Földi told about how the garden and the estate used to look like. A famous product of the region was "csiigor", a kind of cider and even cider-vinegar was produced. The family Cseh from Gyárfás had a model farm on 1

00 acres completed by 1

000 acres of forest. The family cultivated the land with the help of farm-labourers. Irma Cseh told about how the family used to live between the two world wars, how the land was cultivated and how the life and the work of the family and of the farmlabourers was organised. Since they had a huge forest, she described in detail how the forest was utilized, what was gathered in the forest and what was made of the forest products. We are not able to reproduce the natural environment I have seen in Transylvania, however, we can show a small part of it and encourage our visitors to go to see for themselves this wonderful region. 271