Since the mountains are so high and cold, there is a lot of snow melt during the summer, which brings lots of clean, fresh water. Slovaks use this water for drinking and to generate electricity. Around 40% of the country is also forest, supporting the local ecosystem and providing wood for heating and industrial use. The 25% of the country without mountains has excellent soil for agriculture, helping the country's food supply and economy.
Mountains are challenging to live in for lots of reasons. Mountains get very cold in the winter, limit the amount of land people can grow food on and make it difficult for people and goods to get into and out of small villages. Hundreds of years ago, it was extremely common for rock slides and bad weather to close travel routes for days, leaving communities stranded. Without access to the outside world, these villages had to become self-sufficient. They learned to grow their own food, gather their own materials for heating, filter their own water, you name it. These ancient practices influence how mountainous communities in Slovakia live to this day.
Since communities had to become self-sufficient in the cold high-altitude Slovak mountains, they quickly learned which foods grew best. Lots of foods we eat every day in the United States, like tomatoes, peppers, cherries, melons and even wheat could not survive the winter.
