Event Address: Grand Hotel, Mgarr, Gozo
Join us for this final event, where we present the results of the project and open the floor for discussion regarding the project and the way forward. At the end of the event please also join us for a networking lunch. Attendance is free. Please register here.
Go to the project webpage on the ENI CBC Med site.
Click here for more information on the project and the participation of GRDF.
]]>The market will be a family-oriented occasion showcasing the work of the best Gozitan produce and artisanal food.
It will feature lots of superb Gozitan food for everyone to enjoy, live entertainment by Tal-Fuklar Folk Group and the Ċittadella Folk Group, as well as a kids area with face painting and other activities.
The market will be held on Sunday, 29 October, 2023, from 9:00am to 1:00pm at Ġnien il-Familja, Triq il-Horg Ta’ Kerċem, Gozo.
Entrance is free.
In case of bad weather, the event will be held under the marquee next to Ta’ Kerċem Civic Centre in Pjazza Orvieto.
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Details about the MedSNAIL project can be found at
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It’s the right way to enjoy the best of summer at the beautiful sister island of Gozo.
The way it works is easy. Entrance is free of charge; patrons will have to purchase a token card and redeem the credit for any food and drinks they desire. Patrons will be also awarded a selection of €15 worth of discount vouchers to be spent in different restaurants across Malta.
Children will be entertained at a special children’s area, and those under 12 years will be given a free ticket to the Malta National Aquarium.
The Gozo Edition of the Malta International Food Festival is being held on Friday 5th & Saturday 6th August from 18:00 – 24:00 at Xewkija Main Square. This is part of Summer in the Square – Xewkija events happening each week in the Village of Xewkija.
]]>L-għaxar edizzjoni tal-festival tat-tin u ikel tradizzjonali Għawdxi ser tiġi organizzata fi Pjazza Il-Vitorja, Xagħra Għawdex, nhar is-Sibt 9 ta’ Lulju 2022 mit-8.30pm ‘il quddiem. Ser ikun hemm akkumpanjament mużikali mill-band ta’ George Curmi Il-Puse’ u żfin folkloristiku mill-Fondazzjoni Kumittiva. Id-dħul huwa b’xejn. Din l-attivita’ hija organizzata mill-Kunsill Lokali tax-Xagħra bil-kollaborazzjoni tal-Ministeru għal Għawdex.
]]>Gozo honey and primary bee products directly from Gozo producers who are members of the Malta Beekeepers Association. Discover the fascinating life of bees and learn about the importance of these busy pollinators to our eco-system.
Roam around themed artisan stalls and find unique crafted goods to keep or to give away to loved ones. Buy trees and shrubs that are important sources for pollinators like bees and help to safeguard the bees’ habitats. The Gozo Honey & Bee Fest is a great way to appreciate all that is local and authentic and to learn about the importance of bees for human well-being. This is a great event to enjoy, taste and share Gozo.
]]>The video deals with the production of sea salt in Gozo, an activity that has a long tradition in Gozo. The saltpans found near Marsalforn are still used today. It’s fascinating to walk along them, very early in the morning, and to watch the salt being collected as it glistens under the rising sun.
For this video we interviewed Leli tal-Melħ.
Salt from Xwejni is harvested once a week, roughly between the summer months of mid-May up till the beginning of September, if the weather permits. The weather plays a crucial part in every single harvest, with hot, sunny days being perfect for the harvesting of the salt. Stormy and rainy days, on the other hand, disrupt the salt-making process and no salt is collected.
After every harvest, each salt pan is manually and individually filled with water through the use of a motor pump, transferring water from the big pools to the small pans. These are then left to dry for about 7 days and the salt crystals start to form. The brine in the big pools is already very highly concentrative relative to the open sea, and therefore the crystallisation process happens much quicker and results in a fresh collection every week.
To this day, salt is harvested using brooms and brushes with thick bristles, the salt from each pan being swept and gathered into small heaps and placed in buckets. These buckets are then transferred to a flat drying surface, and a big heap of salt is formed that is then covered with cloth and left to dry for about 24 hours. The next day the dry salt is packed into 30-kilogram bags and stored.
]]>This bilateral meeting between the Maltese partner and Slow Food clearly draws the guidelines for the mapping of the products, as well as on how to engage with the producers during the lifetime of the project and beyond. In the case of Gozo (Malta), the focus will be on the rediscovery of the island’s culinary heritage, which is inextricably tied to the island’s arid ruggedness, but also with its industrious people, steeped in centuries of influences by a succession of occupiers from all over the Mediterranean.
The result of these influences is the extreme diversity that is crying out to be valorised so as to make the island a unique, all-round experience for the discerning visitor. It is without doubt the main thrust of GRDF’s participation in the project.
It is for this reason that the participants from Gozo followed with great interest the experience of Slow Food in Extremadura (Spain), and even more so that in West Africa. In particular, we found the intertwining of food culture with the local communities particularly inspiring, focusing as it does on how age-old agro-food traditions can be meaningfully directed towards sustainable development that celebrates the social fabrics of entire communities.
One aspect that emerged during the session, and that was particularly enlightening to the participants, was the interplay between traditional extensive, slow-paced methods of food production and food processing, and environmental sustainability. Indeed, the more modern, intensive methods, for the most part, carry significantly more environmental impacts than traditional ones, which is certainly food for thought given the effort that goes into making them more efficient.
Another key takeaway was the concept that a traditional, plant-based and balanced nutrition, such as the Mediterranean diet, carries further and well beyond the much-exalted health benefits. The various classes of items as defined by the food pyramid run inversely to an increasing level of impact of each class as one moves up the pyramid.
All of this implies that a healthy diet is, as an added bonus, also less impactful on the environment. This philosophy of a more acute awareness of the richness of traditional food cultures on more than one level should continue to underpin the project’s efforts. This will be done by engaging with and helping local communities to embrace and preserve the local varieties, breeds and processed food products that together make up a territory’s agro-food heritage.
Such is also a way of empowering local farmers to promote, and in some cases to rediscover, those time-honoured values that contribute to a more community-oriented rural development, and one that is also immeasurably more environmentally sustainable than the harsher options imposed by sheer consumerism and modernity for their own sake. The result, it is hoped, will contribute to enhanced well-being and social equitability.
The MedSNAIL project has a total budget of 2.028.807,74€ and is funded by the EU under the ENI CBC Med Programme by 90% (1.825.926,97 €), it has a three-year duration and aims to foster socially and environmentally sustainable development of agro-food SMEs by giving value to traditional Euro-Mediterranean products according to a “slow” approach and short-chain principles.