Mykulychyn. The Market. Range, Prices and the Features of the Hutsul Torhovytsia

Mykulychyn is a low-mountain resort located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region in the picturesque valley of the mountain river Prut and its tributary the Prutets Chemyhivskyi. As is well known, travellers on their hikes along endless walking routes across the Carpathian ridges love to eat heartily and tastily, and they drag an enormous supply of food up into the mountains with them, anticipating the process of devouring the dishes on the conquered peaks. There is no need to buy groceries in the town supermarkets; it makes good sense to pick up local treats at the Mykulychyn market.

One should bear in mind that visiting trade is organised in Mykulychyn only on Wednesdays. In the largest Ukrainian village there is no market square. The marketplace begins on the H 09 motorway connecting Mukachevo-Ivano-Frankivsk-Lviv and stretches for another 330 metres along Pryvokzalna Street, forming a little hub near the railway station.

 

Mykulychyn. The market

A wooden sign, set up by caring hands, testifies that it is right here that the torhovytsia takes place - that is what the place for buying and selling all sorts of odds and ends is called.

There are no permanent trading pavilions here, as there are at organised markets. The trading rows form on both sides of the street, literally right up against the wattle fences of the private homesteads.

 

The sellers from neighbouring regions, districts and villages are glad to offer whatever they are rich in. Like the national trading celebrities - the Odesa Pryvoz and the Sorochyntsi Fair - the Mykulychyn torhovytsia teems with a variety of goods.

 

What can you buy here? A great many things: from household appliances and smartphones to chicks and bells for cattle.

Most shoppers hurry to the market for groceries, and the abundance of delicacies and assorted pickles does not allow consumers to leave empty-handed. Food products of the national cuisine, made according to old Hutsul recipes carefully guarded by their owners, are in particular demand. Large loaves of bread, baked without a leavening agent over a wood fire, are made to keep for several days.

 

If you hear that this year there is a decent harvest of ripa or boryshka, then know that it is potatoes that are meant, without which it is impossible to prepare the traditional Hutsul dishes chanakhy Zakarpattia-style and bograch. Hutsul smoked sausages, whose composition includes lard, meat and mixtures of Carpathian herbs, can be kept in the pantry for more than a year.

 

Sausage, baked ham, salted pork

Only Carpathian cheesemakers know the subtleties of producing hard cheeses - bryndza, vurda and budz. The sellers cordially offer to let you sample the delicacies, after which everyone comes out ahead - the buyer finds the goods they need, and the seller finds a buyer.

 

In the range of the traders in Hutsul delicacies: dried and freshly picked forest berries, mushrooms, honey, jam, tea blends, confectionery treats.

 

Folk masters in wood and craftswomen-embroiderers present collections of handmade items, true works of art.

 

A special atmosphere reigns at the torhovytsia; many buyers and sellers know one another and are glad to chat and exchange news. In the many-voiced hubbub of the market, colourful kolomyikas can be heard performed by a local resident who dedicates his jesting chants to the market visitors passing by him. Mr Mykhailo has become a real star of the Carpathian torhovytsia. 

 

Touristic Mykulychyn is impossible to imagine without the torhovytsia. The market has become part of the culture and a vivid feature of the Hutsul village, its colourful little sketch with the aroma of wild strawberry, flowers, fruit and salted pork.