From 22nd August until 1st of September Acarbio organised a youth exchange about Mediterranean kitchen and culture in cooperation with YAP Italia in Tramonti. A few days earlier we started to organise the programm which included cooking workshops of the participants, different workshops about food and sustainability and the preparation of a common cookbook. The difference to the workcamps I worked with before was mainly my role as a facilitator which includes explaining and conducting the different activities. In total 30 participants arrived, 6 each from Greece, Turkey, France, Spain and Italy. The first days were about getting to know each other. I prepared ice breakers and teambuilding activities so the group had a better working and living atmosphere.

After this, Turkey was the first group to prepare some traditional dishes for the other participants and surprised everyone with amzing flavourful food.

One day Antonio and Enzo organised a walk through Tramonti with visits of a mozzarella factory, a farm and a vineyard. We learned the process of producing mozzarella and many interesting things about grapes, vine and other local products. Before coming here I honestly didnt know that you can eat every part of a lemon! My favourite evening was by far the pizza party in our office to which we also invited the current “Make It Blue” team from Minori. 

We started with a conversation with Anna Pia who is working the garden close to the office and who told us about her life in Tramonti. I admire how she is producing nearly everything she is eating by herself and it was very interesting to talk with her about different food habits. Afterwards Franco showed us show to make pizza and later we danced sirtaki and many more greek or italian dances. It was an incredible atmosphere. For the last day of the project every nation prepared one traditional dish including the Re Umberto tomato for a festival in La Casa del Gusto. The community of Tramonti was invited to taste our food and to get more informations about our project. Also the whole Acarbio team was there together!

In general, every dish prepared by the nationality groups during this week was amazing and I learned a lot about those different cultures and their food. Furthermore I enjoyed the discussions about a sustainable handling of food. Most I liked the simulation game about the coffee production chain which shows the unfair wages of farmers.

This whole project was a great experience with a very nice group, amazing food and interesting topics. I discovered more about Tramonti during the walk and during the treasure hunt in Polvica where, for example, the task was to get invited into a local garden. At the end the group created a very professional cookbook including all the recipies we tasted and now I will definitley try to prepare some of them!

(Maike Jebasinski)