BIC Ljubljana is a public institution offering secondary education programmes in food industry, nutrition, nature conservation and veterinary medicine for youth and adults. It runs the biotechnical general upper secondary school. Its post-secondary level programmes offer education in food processing and nutrition, and tourism and hospitality industry. It carries out formal officially recognised programmes as well as informal education. Its work has strong connections with natural and cultural heritage, and of the latter in particular culinary heritage which is part of its formal and informal programmes (a number of workshops, trainings…). In relation to these contents, BIC Ljubljana carries out diverse projects every year.
BIC Ljubljana participates in the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” as the leading partner and at the same time a project partner. Apart from co-ordination of the partnership, BIC Ljubljana carries numerous workshops on culinary heritage for children, students and adults, along with diverse events for the visitors of the culinary heritage within the project. The events carried out so far include the presentation of culinary heritage in the »Črtice« collection of short stories written by Ivan Cankar, the »Kuharske bukve«, the first cookbook in the Slovenian language written by Valetnin Vodnik, and the research into the culinary heritage of the famous Ljubljana open food market. The events take place at different locations of cultural and natural heritage (Cankarjev dom Congress and Cultural Centre Ljubljana, Museum and galleries of Ljubljana, University Botanic gardens Ljubljana), and in BIC Centre of Gastronomy and Tourism KULT316 (Center kulinarike in turizma KULT316 https://www.kult316.si/). BIC Ljubljana was also the organiser of a competition in the knowledge and skills of secondary and post-secondary students of the Consortium of Biotechnical Schools of Slovenia in culinary heritage. Its aim was to introduce additional knowledge to the process of education of 12 schools from across Slovenia, which are partners of the Consortium. Also other project partners collaborated in the organisation and implementation of the competition. Under this project, BIC Ljubljana organised the fifth international professional conference on Trends and Challenges in Food Technology, Nutrition, Hospitality, Tourism, Education and Training. Together with its associated partners Tourism Ljubljana and the Museum and galleries of Ljubljana, in December 2019 BIC Ljubljana organized Exhibition of the Slovenian sparkling wines with tasting at the City Museum of Ljubljana. Namely, sparkling wines are part of Slovenia’s rich culinary heritage and at the BIC Ljubljana presented over 100 Slovenian sparkling wines, as well as organized and conducted several workshops on sparkling wine for visitors.
BIC Ljubljana is the initiator of the model of the first school tourist agency, which features as something completely new in the Slovenian educational space. It is a licensed agency for the organisation and sale of package travels, with the license awarded by the Slovenian Chamber of Economy. The KULT316 tourist agency was opened on May 7, 2018. Travel being the main activity of tourist agencies, at the opening the guests enjoyed a guided tour across the premises of BIC Ljubljana and its Centre of Gastronomy and Tourism KULT316, where each room offered a different programme for them to become acquainted with different characteristics of different countries, their culinary heritage, traditions etc. Currently, the Agency is carrying out practical training for students of tourism and hospitality industry. This is how the Agency presents to its students its operation, design of different programmes, including those related to culinary heritage. An example of a selected tourist product was prepared by the Agency for each partner of the “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” project, involving the characteristics of the field in which the partner operates and regarding the main theme of the “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” project.
Together with the external contractor and other project partners, the institution prepares this educational online/mobile application presenting the culinary heritage in a new way – through Culinary Adventures with the “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” project designed to educate students and the general public.
Naj Tura is a specialized organizer of events and tours, which in collaboration with various local communities, designs special programs for visitors in a way that enables visitors to have a genuine experience of the tradition in the local environment with local people. They are providers of innovative, authentic tours with stories about Slovenia and abroad.
One of them is the story of Prekmurje, which is being organized in cooperation with the Pottery Village Filovci Institute as a part of the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”. The Filovci open-air museum covers an area of 1000 m². It is located in the middle of the village Filovci and is managed by the Pottery Village Filovci Institute.
The story of Prekmurje has been already carried out many times for various visitors within the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”, and impresses visitors every time. Visitors visit the open-air ethnological museum, which is giving back to Prekmurje its former splendour by reviving the tradition of pottery. Upon arrival, visitors are greeted by the members of the heritage community and they guide them through the program of the story of Prekmurje. With the help of the local housewife-granny, the participants try their hand at preparing the traditional Prekmurje meal – Prekmurje layer pastry (Prekmurska gibanica). Then they visit the pottery museum and observe the clay modelling on the pottery wheel. During the visit, creators of the story of Prekmurje tell visitors how people used to live in this area, what they were doing, why they had such small windows on the houses and many interesting things from the heritage of this village.
In the end, visitors can also test themselves in clay modelling and painting of ceramics, and then take the products home after firing. The fun part is learning the Prekmurje dialect, followed by lunch with traditional Prekmurje dishes, bograč goulash and Prekmurje layer pastry (Prekmurska gibanica) for a dessert.
In this way, visitors relive the characteristics of the Pannonian landscape and culture learn about the area’s traditions, typical cuisine and people.
Vrsar Tourist Board promotes the tourist offer in the area of the destination Vrsar that in part covers the protected cultural and natural heritage areas (including the Vrsar old town and the protected area of the Kontija Forest). For promotional purposes events such as “Fishermen’s Fest” or “Historical fair below the Castle” are organized to foster local gastronomic offer. During the events special attention is paid to preserving tradition and autochthonous dishes. Within the activities of the project, a brand new event was launched – the Gastronomic Cycling Tour »Cycling through olive groves«, which combines gastronomic experiences with active tourism and cycling. The basis of the food tour is the thematic trail of Saint Romuald in Vrsar along where two local olive oil producers are located. The cycling tour was first organized on the trail in November 2018, during which participants have to know the local products and their producers.
The trail starts at the Vrsar waterfront, with the tasting of products, made by local Istrian producers, such as Istrian ox salami, donkey sausages, Istrian sheep’s cheese, truffle cheese, all accompanied by olive oil. During the tasting, all the products are presented. The tasting is followed by a bike ride along the coast, the trail being 9 or 18 kilometres long and passing through the protected area of the Kontija Forest. After an hour of easy driving, the participants stop at the second tasting point at Ursaria Olive Grove, specialized in organic production of olive oil and products made of olives. The olive oil and olive products are certified with organic certificate and ecological production and the owner has been awarded with many prizes for quality production. The tasting includes the interpretation of the story of olive trees growing in Istria and the story of the Ursaria olive grove, a description of the characteristics of the olive trees and the presentation of oil production. After this the visitors find out and try how a proper tasting of olive oil is done and learn the characteristics and uses of olive oil. The event combines outdoor activities, natural heritage (the Protected forest Kontija and the Lim Bay), cultural heritage (olive cultivation traditions), local products and educational content. It’s an event conveying the value of heritage through a personal interpretation of local producers in an authentic environment, with the purpose of preserving the event as a yearly tradition.
»Žumberak – Samoborsko gorje Nature Park« is a nature park that covers an area of 333 km2. The Trail of the Princes is an important archeological site in Budinjak, where a necropolis with 141 late Iron Age tombs – tumuli, containing numerous ceramic pottery, iron weapons and jewellery, is on display today at the City Museum in Zagreb and the Samobor Museum. The site also includes princely graves, in which bronze helmets of characteristic shape have been found, bearing the name Budinjak because of their location.
Public Institution »Žumberak – Samoborsko gorje Nature Park« in the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” in addition to culinary workshops for different target groups and Summer culinary camps, holds an innovative culinary event, i.e. a manifestation called Culinary Millennia. The festival is held in the Budinjak Archaeological Park. During the Culinary Millennia, two-day culinary event, workshops are held to prepare dishes from prehistoric, Roman, medieval and traditional Žumberak cuisine. Visitors under professional guidance initially take the tour on the educational trail, the Trail of the Princes and become acquainted with the rich archaeological heritage as well as other natural and cultural values of this protected area. During the visit, visitors collect the wild edible herbs needed to prepare some of the dishes at the culinary festival. Visitors learn to identify and collect some types of wild edible plants. After sightseeing the trail and picking herbs, the visitors return to the Budinjak visitor’s centre, take part in four thematic workshops and with the help of experienced workshop leaders and cookbooks prepare special dishes on an open fire. In the prehistoric kitchen workshop, visitors prepare fish in clay moulds by cleaning the trout, then wrapping it in arctium leaves and coating it with clay. After drying in the sun, the fish in the clay is boiled and roasted for about an hour. After breaking the clay mold, a trout baked according to a prehistoric recipe is tasted. Nettle dumplings are made of flour, water, and nettle shaped into small dumplings, wrapped in natural linen and bound with raffia. Heated stones are then immersed in water, allowing the water temperature to reach boiling point, cooking the dumplings in several minutes.
Roman and Medieval cuisine workshops prepare Roman wine and nucato – popularly known as “energy bars” and numerous dishes with unusual spices such as Roman liquamen and medieval verjuice.
The traditional Žumberak cuisine is characterized by traditional production of butter – the participants of the workshop “beat” the cream in the »stupa«, which is a one hour long process. The whole festival is traditional with replicas of archeological ceramic finds and other accessories used to prepare and taste the food. The festival takes place in early September and is well attended.
The Association Trbuhovica has been active in the area of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, in Prezid, for more than ten years, in the area of preserving cultural heritage, nature and health. Prezid is known for its source of Trbuhovica, which is the first source of Ljubljanica River. The key activities of the Association Trbuhovica are the preparation of lectures, courses, exhibitions, workshops, field trips on the preservation of cultural and natural heritage, especially culinary heritage through the organization of courses for cooking traditional dishes, regular exhibitions of Easter traditional dishes and everyday dishes in this area. Members of the Association are collectors of old recipes and stories from the Gorski Kotar area.
Trbuhovica, as part of the “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” project, organizes annual meetings of the collectors of wild edible herbs and nature lovers every year in Prezid. A very well attended event takes place in July. All herbalists and nature lovers take a stroll along the Trbuhovica energy trail and discover medicinal herbs that grow around Prezid and visit the various cultural and natural sights of Prezid, such as Vesel House, Prezid Native Collection, Fire Museum, Mlake Spring and the first steam engine in the Balkans, wooden water system and many more.
In addition, Trbuhovica organizes traditional manifestations of barley harvest, pear days, forest fruit days, which relate to preserving and promoting old customs, developing environmental awareness and educating locals and other participants in events.
The recreational trail Trbuhovica runs around the town of Prezid and is 7.5 km long. It is designed so that the visitor can walk alone and the path is well marked. As a part of the organized excursions along the route, guests will see an exhibition of traditional dishes and kitchenware used by the ancestors of the area before the excursion. Tasting of traditional dishes is prepared at individual points of the route and at the very end. A typical dish of this place is called »krumpirjevka«, which can be prepared in a salty or sweet way. As the name implies, the main ingredient are potatoes, which was a basic agricultural crop in the area.
Grm Novo mesto – The Centre of Biotechnics and Tourism is a public educational institution that provides education at secondary and tertiary level while also offering programs for adult learners. Education and research development activities are conducted in the field of agriculture, food industry, horticulture, forestry, nature protection, catering, and tourism. Grm Novo mesto is a leading partner of Consortium of Biotechnical Schools of Slovenia that links 12 schools in the field of biotechnics across Slovenia.
Educational activities of Grm Novo mesto are tightly related to cultural and natural heritage preservation. Those values are part of all other institutional activities. Grm Novo mesto provides formal and informal educational programs. Within the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” Grm Novo mesto provides different formal educational programs and workshops for different target groups. The focus is mostly on food production and processing education program with its practical part being conducted in a real production environment that has given the project special meaning. Catering and tourism activities of Grm Novo mesto are highly valuable for the project, especially the development of rich culinary offer in its House of culinary and tourism. The gastronomic offer of the House of culinary and tourism is based on local, seasonal, and traditional ingredients, while following culinary heritage recipes.
Grm Novo mesto has a nice vineyard with a vineyard cottage in the middle of it. Most of the activities within the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” are closely related to the vineyard cottage. Its renovation finished on St. Martin’s day, 2018.
Over three decades of efforts for getting the grands, the school received around € 300,000 for the renovation of the vineyard cottage within the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”. The renovation strictly followed cultural heritage regulations. The vineyard cottage has several smaller rooms, there is wood-burning cook stove with wood-fired oven in the kitchen area. In the attic, there are accommodation facilities that will serve visitors. In the wine cellar of the vineyard cottage is also a permanent exhibition, an ethnological collection of old vineyard tools and equipment and display panels presenting the history of Trška gora.
The renovated vineyard cottage is multifunctional. It hosts different happenings like degustation events, salami festivals, St. Martin’s festivals, culinary events on church holidays (for example the mass on Virgin Mary’s birthday) and other organized events, such as Slak’s Tour and others. The School vineyard cottage primarily serves for educational purposes focusing on high school students, students, and adult learners. It is a place that offers many possibilities for adventure tourism (story telling about Dolenjska region through cuisine, presentations of wood-fired oven baking, guided tasting of wine Cviček etc.) while strengthening appreciation of culinary and natural heritage.
PARNAS Institute is non-governmental, non-profit organization that works in public interest in the field of cultural heritage, with a strong focus on revitalization and preservation of cultural heritage, especially Christmas bread poprtnik. The organization has rich experiences and knowledge on activating heritage communities. PARNAS Institute was the initiator of the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”. Many of their projects are held in Trubar Homestead in Rašica near Velike Lašče. Heritage is an inspiration for their activities through which they are passing knowledge to heritage communities that are being encouraged and supported.
The most active is heritage community, which focuses on making Christmas bread poprtnik preservation (ritual dish). Since 2013, making Christmas bread poprtnik is, as intangible heritage, registered in the intangible heritage register by Ministry of Culture, which attributes a trademark of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Up until July 2019, there are 14 intangible heritage holders of making Christmas bread poprtnik. PARNAS Institute connects the holders, organizes joint actions, and takes part in actions of individual holders. All the holders unite in the Christmas bread poprtnik heritage community. PARNAS Institute works on expansion of heritage community at international level to gain proclamation of UNESCO’s World Heritage of making Christmas bread poprtnik. They explore the terrain, pursuing Christmas bread heritage preservation. At national level, PARNAS Institute builds a cross-border model of cooperation on Christmas bread heritage preservation within the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”.
In December 2018, PARNAS Institute organized the first cross-border Christmas bread festival as part of the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition” which was held from November 15th 2018 to January 6th 2019 (the festival is already underway from November 2019 until January 2020). During the first year of the festival, 36 events, exhibitions, workshops and other activities were organized by heritage holders who were making Christmas bread in Slovenia and Croatia. The festival was held at various locations in Slovenia and Croatia, in organization with the making Christmas bread poprtnik intangible heritage holders, support institutions (schools, municipalities, associations, institutions, other organizations and individuals) and partners of project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”. During the festival (for which PARNAS Institute and its partners are striving to become traditional in the month of December) much was accomplished: a culinary workshop on baking two-headed birds and sweet bee hives, a workshop on making miniature booklets on making Christmas bread in Prezid, several workshops on making Christmas bread poprtnik and potica, numerous Christmas bread poprtnik exhibitions, several trainings for students as well as general public, and presentations at fairs in Slovenia.
PARNAS Institute also organizes thematic food tours (for example on theme about Martin Krpan – Whose is Krpan?; The Day of Enchanting Plants etc.) performs demonstrations of making various types of dumplings (Let’s go having some dumplings) that are also a part of the festival of dried fruits at Gradež.
ZARA is a public institution active in the field of regional development of Krapina-Zagorje County. ZARA is responsible for enhancing the socio-economic development of the area, and is distinguished by its strong international cooperation.
Within the project “Uživam tradicijo – Enjoy Tradition”, ZARA organizes various culinary workshops for different target groups, and participates in two festivals – Štruklijada (Dumpling festival) and Babiči kolači (Grandma’s pastries), which are held annually. The main goal of Dumpling festival, an event that takes place in Krapina-Zagorje County, is promotion and protection of authentic Zagorje dumplings as well as the distinctive Zagorje brand. In this way, the reputation and originality of the recipe with its ingredients are preserved on the long run. The finest Zagorje caterers compete for the title “Best Zagorski Dumplings”. The event takes place outdoors. Each year, around 20,000 tourists visit the event. They can join tastings, sweepstakes, workshops, displays of ancient customs, and enjoy rich cultural entertainment program as well as performances by artistic and cultural societies’ performance and the great tamburitza artists. Visitors have the opportunity to observe preparation of dumplings and to taste them.
Dumplings are prepared using fresh cottage cheese (curd), eggs, salt, oil (vegetable or sunflower), butter or lard, corn flour, mixed with wheat flour, sour cream, all in specified quantities. Over the years, the original recipe has been altered and so the method of dish preparation. Therefore, experts in the fields of gastronomy, agronomy and tourism created the authentic gastronomic product together with promotion actions of Zagorski dumplings.
The Grandma’s pastries event takes place in the form of Zagorje grandmothers’ competition in preparing traditional desserts made by recipes of their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. It is a special Krapina-Zagorje County event that promotes the values of women and family, and is focused on preserving Zagorje gastronomic tradition. The authenticity of the recipes, ingredients used, taste, appearance, and originality of the presentation are evaluated. Additionally to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trophies, the grandmothers might get award for the best creative presentation of the dish as “Authentic Zagorje”. In this category, overall impression of the clothing chosen for the event by the contestants as well as decoration of their showrooms is being assessed. The judges evaluate how close they managed to come to ancient Zagorje spirit and tradition.
According to the rules, the competition next year is held in town where the grandmother who won the competition comes from. Thus, Grandma’s pastries are held every year at other part of Zagorje. At the end of the event, a recipe book (that includes all the competitors’ recipes) is published every year.