Inside Slovenia’s zero-waste revolution
In the village of Šentjanž, everyone knows the Repovž family and their inn, its menu built around the produce grown on their organic farm. “Endless types of lettuces, cabbages, beans, potatoes, grains…” smiles Grega Repovž, the sommelier and director. “We don’t keep animals, but otherwise we produce nearly everything ourselves.” His family has farmed this land for six generations “at least”, buying what they can’t grow from a close-knit circle of neighbouring smallholdings and farms, who often deliver the day’s harvest by hand, in crates or baskets. (“When that kind of trust exists, food miles or packaging naturally stop being a problem.”) In a kitchen well-versed in preserving and fermenting, very little goes to waste, from carrot tops – made into oils or powders – to day-old bread, reinvented as crisps or dumplings. “For us, zero waste isn’t a complicated philosophy, it’s just common sense,” says Repovž. “For generations, families here had to live in harmony with what the land provided, and waste simply wasn’t an option. That instinct never disappeared.”
