Medina. A trip to the heart of Mediterranean agriculture

A young French couple seven months travel through the Mediterranean to learn new and traditional agricultural techniques by working and living close to organic growers. For a future quality food production and eco-tourism in Corsica.

Suddenly, while I was searching sources for my last article about Corsica Olive Oil, my attention was caught by  the story of Johann and Marine from Ajaccio who decided, last November, to pack their baggage and to travel around the Mediterranean for seven months.

Medina. Agritourisme en Méditerranée

What pushed them on the road is the aim to explore different cultures and to approach different agricultural practices, working and  learning from a production and a commercial perspective, to enrich their knowledge and to make a good use of it after their return back home  to develop the production of quality food and to boost the green tourism in their home land.


“Medina”, a term that means city in Arabic but is used with the meaning of “old city” in Maghreb area, is the title they choose for their adventure. They consider  all the Mediterranean basin as a unique 2,5 million square kilometers Medina where one can find artisans, farmers, producers proposing their products, selected by quality and origin.
Their trip  touched  France, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Albania and so on to reach Italy and then again Corsica. They travelled slowly from one place to another, to one country to another,  they took ferries, buses, lifts and used airplane only to cover big distances.

Johann and Marine joined the WWOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, system to travel. They were hosted by organic growers who opened the door of their farms and shared with them traditional and modern techniques of cultivation.

When olive harvest time came, they found themselves in Andalusia and collected olives from the trees, they brought harvested olives to local mill and tasted the fresh extracted delicious oil. A visit in Pollença region, in Balearic Islands, was also the occasion to better know the issues olive growers experience in this land, living from tourism revenues but that proudly produces a Denomination of Origin labeled olive oil. The young couple heard about the fears of local olive farmers , afraid of Xylella Fastidiosa , this terrible bacteria that is destroying hectares of olive groves in Apulia and now represents a real threat for all Mediterranean lands planted with olive trees.

To follow the trip of this young couple, look  you can check their updates and watch their pictures and videos over their Facebook page or follow their trip itinerary on http://ontheroad.travelmap.fr/medina-itineraire-previsionnel

A new country producer of olive oil: Armenia

Armenia entered the list of 47 countries producing olive oil last year,  but probably the history of olive tree in Armenian land isn’t so recent, as this small country is often considered as one of the places of origin of olive tree.

Currently the use of olive oil is not so common for Armenians but the great number of people of Middle eastern origin living there, coming especially from Syria recently because of the ongoing conflicts, made olive oil consumption quite wider in the Near-Asian country. Nowadays almost the totality of olives and olive oil for internal consumption is imported, but in Meghri district, close to the Iranian border several trials were attempted by few pioneers.
For long years none believed that olive tree could survive the low temperatures of Armenian winters and give fruits. But Karo Karapetyan didn’t agree with this opinion and went on planting 7ha of olive groves. In 2003 he planted more than 7.000 Ascolana and Sevillano variety trees. He was very patient and, despite the loss of numerous trees caused by the chill of Armenian winter, temperatures could reach -30° C,  and by the hail, he finally succeeded in making his first harvest in 2010. Each tree is reported to have a yield of about 20-30 kg of olives. This brave farmer found not easy to market his products initially but, shortly after, he started packing and selling his olives.
This farmer is strongly convinced that olive is an adaptable tree and for this reason he believes it could grow up and give fruits even in Armenia.  Probably this Southern area of the country is a suitable comfort-zone for olive growing but some luck and not very cold winters are essentials to achieve a good harvest.
The enthusiasm of this man and his ability to go through difficulties  is a beautiful signal of the laboriousness and willingness of people of this country and maybe a signal of hope for a future as a producer of olive oil for Armenia.

Sources

Asbarez-  http://asbarez.com/110702/the-olive-tree-and-armenia/

Yerkir Media-  http://www.yerkirmedia.am/?act=news&lan=en&id=8081