Šovčík Rastislav

He uses rye straw, which he considers to be the softest, most malleable, for making šítok, and for braiding it, he uses willow rods. In recent years, he has grown straw himself on an area of ​​approximately fifty square meters. He got the seed at the Plant Production Research Institute in Turčianske Teplice and he is growing a nice, tall rye. Circumstances forced him to grow it, as it was more difficult to get classic rye straw from large-scale grain growers from year to year - if anyone grew rye at all, it was only triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye. The willow rods that he splits by hand, he uses wild-growing and only fresh, i.e. in winter, when they have no sap.