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| Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity |
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13/05/2009 |
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From Bulgaria to Tuscany
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An exchange recently took place in Tuscany between Montevarchi’s Mercatale and the Pistoian Mountain Pecorino Presidium, and a delegation comprising Dessislava Dimitrova, President of the Ark of Taste Commission for Bulgarian Presidia and producers from the Tcherni Vit Green Cheese Presidium.
Bulgaria is one of the next countries to have an Earth Market and the visit to the Mercatale, the first in Italy, gave the delegation a useful example of how an Earth Market functions, what are the criteria for selecting producers and products, and how the Alliance manages the Market.
 From Montevarchi the delegation then travel to the Apennines, where the group visited three different producers from the Pistoian Mountain Pecorino Presidium: La buca, Il montaione and Gaggini Enrico. Here the Bulgarian producers saw all the different stages in producing Tuscan pecorino, from rearing and feeding the animals, to milking and cheesemaking. The situation is in many respects similar to the one facing the Bulgarian producers, since the families of the Presidium cheesemakers continue to make the pecorino as they did a hundred years ago: they take the Massa sheep up to mountain pastures and only use raw milk and self-produced rennet.
During the two visits a team from Bulgarian National Television made a documentary in four episodes which will be broadcast on the national network. “This is a unique opportunity”, says Dessislava, “to show our people and politicians that a different type of agriculture is possible, an agriculture which gives a new dignity to small farmers. Seeing a market like Montevarchi is a contrast to the situation in Bulgaria, where small producers have enormous difficulty in selling their products directly to the public”. The Association of Bulgarian Convivia has therefore become an advocate for the “Clean Food, Fair Livelihood” alliance which aims to promote national legislation on the direct sale of agricultural products.
The visit of the delegation of Bulgarian producers to Tuscany was made possible thanks to funding from the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity and valuable support from producers of the Pistoian Mountain Pecorino Presidium, from Renzo and Giulio Malvezzi, Tamara Scarpellini and Claudia Panichi and the whole of Slow Food Tuscany.
The Tcherni Vit Green Cheese Presidium is supported by Antica Corte Pallavicina of Spigaroli, Polesine Parmense (province of Parma)
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