Interesting Readings

▪ A Day on the Farm - Victor Paul Borg

▪ Let's Gozo - Sandra Aquilina

A Day on the Farm - Victor Paul Borg

Have you ever milked sheep – and then used the milk to make the scrumptious Gozo cheese pickled in salt, vinegar and pepper? Have you ever picked and pickled capers? Or planted broad beans? And have you ever been fishing the traditional way, with nets, and then go to a beach to grill your catch?

A new NGO is offering all of these activities and more, and then ploughing back the profits into environmental action and rural development.

“We host many families who come on the programmers because they think it’s good for their children to play with animals or go fishing, and then the adults end up being as engrossed as their children," says Victor Galea, the brains and force behind the Ager Foundation." The central tenet of the programs is to involve the participants in the work itself. And the programs are person-aliased for customers' tastes and preferences – I let the participants tell me what they would like to experience.”

Each experience is authentic – you get to spend a day with a real farmer or fisherman, and do the things he would be doing anyway in his occupation. Guides are at hand to act as intermediaries between the farmer and the participants, and also to organize the logistics and ensure that the farmers actually deliver what’s agreed." I recently went to Tuscany," Victor recounts," and what struck me is that our programs are more genuine than the same activities in Tuscany – ours are less commercial and contrived.”

Victor’s background ensures that it’s kept that way. All the movers behind the Ager Foundation are senior longtime activists in the green party, and the whole point of the Ager Foundation is to aid the development of eco-tourism in Gozo. The idea is to provide a model for the development of a form of tourism that preserves rural traditions and the rural environment." It's important for us that the money spreads around," Victor points out." I have had tour operators contact me with offers of business partnerships, but I turned them down because they are only interested in profits while we want to create something sustainable for the benefit of Gozo and not the benefit of a few individuals. We are also picky on value for money, as that’s the only way we can create something viable in the long-term.”

Every land-based program includes a traditional Gozitan lunch with the host farmer’s family. It often includes an assortment of local antipasti followed by something seasonal, cooked by the host family for everyone to tuck in guests and host family, sharing lunch. In some of the outdoor-based programs lunch would be a traditional Gozo pizza brought on site – using bread dough, anchovies, tomatoes, onions, and herbs, and cooked in a wood-fire oven – one of the most delicious Gozitan dishes. The fishing tour – arguably the most interesting of all, going out to fish in one of the colorful traditional wooden boats – is something else: guests participate in the entire expedition, helping the fisherman in the preparation of the nets and bait, then going out to fish, and afterwards barbecuing the fish on the seashore in Comino.

So interesting and thoughtful are the activities that the Ager Foundation has already achieved enviable recognition in its first year of operation: in 2006 the foundation made it on the short-list of the prestigious British ‘First Choice Responsible Tourism Award.'

In its first year of operation – despite limited resources and the fact that Victor’s work is voluntary in his spare time – the foundation counted 400 contented customers. One customer, Barbara Bode, rote:" Fresh air, fresh food, fresh experiences in an old world setting, what a wonderful way to entertain children and urban visitors.”

Now the Ager Foundation is trying to introduce other activities. These include inside-knowledge tours of Gozo’s archeological remains, eco-walks in rich habitats (especially the garigue, the rocky habitat on high plateaus that is extraordinarily diverse in species, all hardy bushes that grow in pockets of soil), and bird-watching during the spring and autumn bird migrations. Given the destructive-ness of the hunters and their recalcitrance in laying down their guns, bird watching is Victor’s largest challenge." I'm taking the long-route to do this," Victor says." I have been approaching trappers especially, telling them that the times are catching up with them, and soon trapping would be banned – then inviting them to become guides for bird-watchers, something that would allow them to remain close to birds, and make some money, without destroying birdlife.”

Victor is brimming with ideas, all of which are filtered through environmental sensibility. In the long run, he argues, he wants to draw tourists away from the coast and create a viable alternative to coastal-based tourism, and the monstrous hotels and boxy apartment blocks that have ruined part of Gozo’s coast. The time is ripe: with tourism in Gozo decreasing and hotels struggling, a substitute to sun-and-sea tourism seems to stand a business chance." We can grow a lot,”Victor says." It depends on how hard we work, and how much money we can generate to expand our programs and get more hosts and guides working for us. At present we can’t do more than four groups daily, for example, because we don’t have enough hosts and guides. And I choose

the farmers and fishermen who become hosts very carefully: they have to have the right skills, the right attitude and the right aptitude so that we can offer guests something unforgettable.”

One day all-inclusive programs by the Ager Foundation cost Lm8 per person. More details at www.agerfoundation.com. The foundation can be contacted on info@agerfoundation.com, or tel 79017017.

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Let's Gozo - Sandra Aquilina

We take it for granted that Gozo offers a unique holiday experience. However, very few of us get to do and see those parts of it that really distinguish it. But now, with the services of The Ager Foundation, we no longer have any excuses.

It was founded late in 2005 as a non-profit making organization seeking to promote sustainable tourism in Gozo, while improving the quality of life of local communities by involving them in the development of “responsible” tourism and rural development.

These are big, ambitious aims. Yet the Ager Foundation is succeeding.

“This initiative aims at helping the economy of the island, providing opportunities for Gozitans to recognize their strengths and entrepreneurial potential by earning income through their produce and traditions, while offering tourists a truly unique experience in their homes and working environments,” Victor Galea, Ager’s chairperson says.

“This is altogether a much more sustainable form of tourism, and does not entail any further building development in Gozo.

”The project contributes to balancing out the erratic seasonal pattern of Gozo tourism,” he explains. “Agro tourism is basically an all-weather product, easily adaptable to the seasons!”

The Foundation runs a number of services and experiences which feature on its website at www.agerfoundation.com. They include opportunities to share in a number of aspects of traditional rural Gozitan life. The organization invites visitors, Maltese and foreigners alike, to spend a day with a shepherd, participating actively in the production of the cheeslets (ġbejniet). A huge lunch comprising cheese, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and bread, rounded off with other Gozitan dishes is an integral part of the experience.

Ager also enables one to participate in the activities of a Gozitan fisherman. This involves setting out to sea with him and learning the techniques of fishing with a line and rod, and without a reel. This event also includes a meal of fresh grilled fish, and the option to take any fish you manage to catch back home for supper.

You might alternatively opt for a more domestic scenario: hands-on exposure to Gozitan cuisine, a tradition influenced by all the many cultures that have come through the islands. One discovers the origin of Gozitan cuisine, and its dependence on the seasonal produce available. Visitors are given the chance to prepare various fillings for traditional pies, including ingredients like broad beans, courgettes, fish, pumpkin and others, and in the preparation of a regional sweet.

Milking sheep and making "ġbejniet" are very popular. Fresh dairy products are essential to traditional Gozitan cuisine: in some villages, "mellusa", a curdled milk spread like butter on crusty local bread is still a firm favourite.

Fresh herb and caper picking as well as wine making are other alternatives on offer.

The Ager Foundation, however, never loses its focus on protecting and preserving the environment. Agro and eco tourism go hand in hand, and are central to the foundation’s vision of what sustainable development is all about.

In terms of economic sustainability, agro and eco tourism are viable because they are disengaged from destructive commercial rivalry defined by the market weaknesses of others. In contrast, they preserve and resourcefully optimize an already existent infrastructure, undertaking projects offering endless possibilities predicated on constructive competition according to one’s own unrivalled, core strengths.

Guided ecology tours of Gozo’s varied landscapes bear this out, when you are helped to identify the flora and fauna, placing pleasure as the primary cornerstone of learning to appreciate natural beauty. Appreciation leads to valuing.

Even without a guide, this sort of tour is intensely enjoyable given Gozo’s very varied landscape, ranging from lush valleys and expansive fields to rugged garrigue, replete with the scent of thyme, rosemary and other aromatic herbs.

The geology of Gozo is extraordinary. The concentration of hills, valleys and plateaux in such a small area means that slopes are steep and cliffs are high. The rock is very clearly stratified as well, rendering the geological history of the island is clearly discernible.

“We present the authentic flavor of Gozo by advancing from guided sightseeing to experiential tourism where one experiences the daily life of local folk” states Victor Galea with justifiable pride, “It is a dynamic, proactive, inclusive, learning-by-doing hospitality culture.”

It also holds benefits for Gozo’s rural communities. By involving them directly in the projects, the potential to considerably augment their incomes is maximized, improving their standard of living. From an environmental point of view as well, there are benefits. About 30% of former agricultural land that had been abandoned among Ager’s service providers is now under cultivation again. With the interest in techniques, old skills are being revived and new ones acquired: The Ager Foundation reports a marked interest in green agriculture.

Ager’s model works because it harnesses the things that give Gozo its character and drive its value as a destination: the people and their hospitality, the heritage, both natural and cultural, the countryside and agriculture. It blends all these components together to create a very powerful tool. It brings the farmers themselves into the hospitality business, generating considerable wealth in the process.

This is not to say that Gozitan culture is static. Far from it. The culture continues to develop, in tandem with that of the visitors, and the subtle influences each leaves on the other keep the culture alive and vibrant. But appreciation and understanding of where the current cultural climate came from is still important to understand what our culture now, today, actually means.

A day spent with The Ager Foundation is illuminating. They can be contacted at info@agerfoundation.com. It could be the start of a process of discovery and renewal.

Malta Economic Update - Network Publications Ltd - March 2007

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