Production and marketing of organic olives and olive oil – EcoOlives project 4th meeting took place on 28.06 – 29.06.2023, in Sofia, Bulgaria, at venue: Hotel Eurostars Sofia City.
Eight representatives of the EcoOlives partnership from Germany, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal and Bulgaria met for two days to discuss the project results development and to focus on the enhancement and finalisation of the Training Course materials, as well as to plan the next steps and all upcoming project activities.
Subject of discussion was the PR1 – EcoOlives Learning Model summary that will be made available on the project website https://ecoolives.eu/. The PR2 EcoOlives Training Modules are finalised and soon will be nicely designed and made ready for upload onto the EcoOlives project platform, which is now developed at Beta version. Materials and the platform will be subject of Testing in the next months, so that target group representatives to share their feedback and recommendations for improvement. EcoOlives will also develop a PR3 – EcoOlives Manual for Trainers and PR5 a Guidebook on Certification toward organic olives and EVOO production.
During the meeting, partners took part in lecture about Extra Virgin Olive Oil provided by a Tutor and Sommelier – Mrs. Anna Petkova – creator of My Pure Olive ~ olive oil sommelier ~ educator ~ consultant ~ author. Her activities are focused on olive oil master classes & tasting sessions; educator at HRC academy Bulgaria for culinary arts; column writer “Artichoke & olive oil” at Bacchus – a magazine for wine & gourmet culture; partnership with EVA lifestyle magazine – enhancing the awareness about EVOO, local & seasonal food; author of Sun & Olive oil (stories & recipes about fascinating flavours of the Mediterranean) – Anna’s 1st book & a practical guide into the world of olive oil; educator at olive, wine & travel forums; business consulting; organising & leading thematic dinners & events. She is an ambassador of the EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive oil) in Bulgaria.
The covered topics were: Gastro & cultural OO & OO traditions in Bulgaria; My Pure Olive Good practices – mission, education & experience; EVOO & food pairing – testing with 3 different extra virgin olive oils – Extra Virgin Olive oil from Bulgarian producer (with olives plants from Greece region Maroneia, so Greek EVOO); Croatian Bjelica from the Istria region and Turkish EVOO from the Aiyvalik region.
For the degustation, we AVA the hosts, ensured 3 different type of food – traditional Bulgarian dishes (Musse from butterbeans and roasted peppers; Patatnik) and a desert (Revane with rose water), but the recipes were made suitable for Vegan too, suggested by Mrs. Anna Petkova and realised by Crouton.bg.
Stay tuned for the next steps!
AVAs Team