Bulgarians have been Europe’s gardeners longer than you think

IF YOU ARE enjoying a succulent piece of fresh fruit in Europe this summer, the chance is high that you have a Bulgarian to thank for it. Every year tens of thousands of workers from the eastern Balkan country fan out to pick, pluck, dig and water on farms in Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and elsewhere. When covid-19 shut borders this spring, western European farmers panicked, and governments rapidly surrendered to their demands to let the Bulgarians in.

Most Europeans assume this migration began after the cold war, when Bulgaria freed itself from Soviet domination. In fact, says Marijana Jakimova, a historian, it dates back to the late 17th century. The Ottoman empire, which then ruled the Balkans, employed Bulgarians to accompany its troops and grow vegetables for them. The Ottomans’ invasion of central Europe was beaten back at Vienna in 1683, but their Bulgarian camp-followers began a lasting tie to the region’s agriculture.

In the late 19th century, as Vienna and other Austro-Hungarian cities boomed, Bulgarians set up market gardens on their outskirts. In 1918 Austria-Hungary collapsed but, anxious to keep Vienna fed, the Austrians granted privileges to their Bulgarian gardeners. The interwar years were a golden age for them. They left home in spring to work in Austria, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere, and returned...