16thof January – 7thof February 2013
As students from HVMS “KiroBurnaz”, Kumanovo, Macedonia were part of the LDV project “Bio-rural business” in Sicily, Italy in Barcelona P.G. which took place in the period of 16th of January to 7th of February 2013.
We were ten students and the two teachers, we gained many new experiences, ideas and we will do our best to realize even some of them in our school and as well as in the development of business in our future careers, we became aware about their culture, history, process of production that we already had knowledge about and many more that we haven’t been much familiar with.
During the project, it was possible and organized according to the project for us to visit:
1.The vine house Cambria
In which we learned about the whole process for production of wine. Through the presentation and the visit of the place where the wine is produced, we were able to see that they are producing the wine in a special way. The grapes are planted on a special soil according to the variety. Then they make a selection of the grapes. They cut off 60% of the grapes and leave them on the soil to be used as humus, the rest 40% of the grapes are for harvest. After the harvest they are transporting the grapes in reed baskets, to avoid the crush of the grains. Afterwards, next is washing and then crushing which leads us to the final product-wine. The vinery is found in 1865. They produce this wine types: Charming red, Seducing red, Chardonnay, Suaviter, Volcaniksou, Terre di Sicilia.
2. A candied fruit factory
Here the fruits like oranges and lemons are processed seasonal. First they harvest the fruits from the plantations and the process continues on in the factory. We took part in the harvest process and the rest process of produce was performed by the workers. After the few hours of harvest we learn that the fruits need to be harvest with a small twig and leaves, so the fruit will stay fresh longer. After this we watched how are the fruits washed, squeezed in machines, then the peel graded, worked through and the juice comes out.
3. The oil mill Da Campo
Hereas well we get to know all the process of production of the olive oil. Besides, the owner supported us in using the soil in the right way, to plan it not to build on it, he also encouraged us to do the stuff we like so we can succeed in life. We harvest some olives; the plantation was far away from the mill and was surrounded by hills. The following processes were selection of the olives, then cleaning and crashing.
4. A factory for citrus fruits production
In this area the people are dedicated to total use of the land by planting it, not building on it or letting it unused, and the climate is providing them to grow different plants than the plants grown in our country.
So they are capable of cultivated citrus fruits. We were amazed of the new type of fruits. Afterwards we learned that the new type of fruits were hybrid made with crossing two types of fruit like lime and melon and many more varieties, the processes of growing that kind of plants is long. The entire hybrid fruits are used for decoration.
5. Organic production of oranges and lemons- Agro-bio Pietrini,
In property of an old man who dedicate his whole life in organic productions of oranges and lemons. As well he is cultivating honeybees, which fertilize the blossom and produce orange honey. Because of the organic production he is not using pesticides, if there appears any bad insect, but is rare, he is using good insect to eat the bad one, but as long the balance in the nature is good there is no need of this. The organic production is better because the product is healthier and with better quality.
6. Branca- Citrus fruit factory
Is a factory which is giving the best quality products to its users, which can be later re-worked or used as it is. They produce aromas, talc for cosmetic use, extracts for perfume production and juice. This factory isn’t throwing away anything, they use the whole fruit. First they wash the orange, and then strain it, from the upper top of the peel they make cosmetic products, and the rest of the peel is used to provide extracts and from the juice thing they make juice or concentration that the next factory is using to make juice, soft drink or tea. We saw the laboratory in which they examine the quality, the Ph…
7. A factory for cheese production in an old traditional way
Few decades ago this kind of production was forbidden with law, because of the HACCAP system. The system wasn’t approving the use of some old pots, which were giving the special taste of the cheese. But lucky the government of Sicily quickly realize that they can make good profit from the cheese and made some changes in the law so the productions can carry on.They heat the milk in a old cooper pot on a temperature of 80 ‘C, mixing with wooden spoon, then drained and dried the cheese in a cold room. This gives us the idea that we can produce cheese on the old way, because the quality of the cheese is better than the one produced in factory.
8. Agricultural school -IPAA “F.Leonti”,
With this visit we gained the differences between the schools. We realize that the teaching methods are similar, the classrooms and the labs are wellequipped as ours. We found interest in the baby plants. It is a small plant in a tube with special salt that helps it to grow. It is a thing that we are looking forward to do in our school. Also we saw the differences in the education and the behavior but we realize that we can change a lot of ideas and practice if we could start cooperation. We hope that we could continue contacting this school and make a project together in the near future because we share the same field of interest and that is agriculture.