ašlama
A firm-fleshed cherry grown in the region, picked in June. Distinct from the softer varieties by texture rather than by sweetness.
Glossary
Words that stay in BHS across the English pages of this site. They are kept because the English equivalents lose either the object or the practice attached to it. Programme names are not listed here; they are proper nouns and are explained where they appear.
Bobovište
A field and orchard up the mountain from Mijakovići. The hay is cut there and the ašlame grow there.
ćenifa
The wooden privy in the yard, a small detached structure standing apart from the house. A Turkism, and the ordinary word for it here.
ćumur
Charcoal, burnt for the purpose. It is the fuel of the majdani at Oćevija, where the iron is brought to working temperature over it.
kantarion
St John's wort, Hypericum perforatum. Picked in July, dried for tea and oil. In the folk calendar it is associated with the days around 24 June, immediately after the solstice.
kazan
A cauldron, forged or cast, used over an open fire. The word also names the still used for rakija, and the sense is given by the context.
majdan
In Oćevija, a water-powered forge: the hammer is driven by the river, the fire fed with ćumur. In the wider Vareš area the same word attaches to mining, and one of the town's quarters is called Majdan. Forge and mine share a name here because they shared an economy.
medljikovac
Honeydew honey, made from the secretions left on forest trees by sap-feeding insects rather than from flower nectar. Darker, denser and slower to crystallise than flower honey. One of the two varieties covered by the protected designation for Vareš honey, the other being cvjetni med, flower honey.
mrmoljak
A newt. One lives in the cistern at Bobovac, or something that answers to the description.
paša
The forage available to bees at a given moment: what is in flower, or what the forest is yielding. A beekeeping year is counted in paše.
peka
A heavy bell-shaped lid of iron, set over food and buried in embers to bake it. Together with the sač it is among the best-known products of the Oćevija forges.
roj
A swarm. The unit in which an apiary is founded, given or divided.
poljica
Upland fields, the plural diminutive of polje. The massif above Mijakovići carries the name in the form Dragovska and Mijakovska poljica.
sač
The flat iron cover used in the same way as the peka, and often the word is used for the pair together.
samodoprinos
The Yugoslav-era institution of a self-imposed local contribution, in which a community funds its own infrastructure. Practiced here as the principle that a fixed share of all income returns to the village.
TAM
Tovarna avtomobilov Maribor, the Slovenian truck works of the Yugoslav period. Its lorries are still at work on these slopes and one of them carries the hay from Bobovište.
trnokop
A mattock, forged with a pick at one end and a blade at the other, for breaking hard ground.
zova
Elder, Sambucus nigra. The flower is gathered in June, dried for tea or cooked down into syrup.
žara
Nettle, Urtica dioica. The local form of the word; the standard is kopriva. Gathered in June and dried for tea.