Agroxerxa and APAEM present the Campaign for Local Melon Varieties from Menorca with a talk by Pere Fraga

Agroxerxa and the Association of Menorca Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers launch the Menorca Local Varieties Campaign with the aim of promoting varieties local Menorca each season and promote their conservation and consumption.

The local varieties are part of the richness of the Menorcan agricultural heritage, of a cultivated biodiversity that must be valued and preserved. The chain that this task requires is complex and with fragile interdependent and interconnected links, therefore it is necessary to have a set of associations and entities working together in order to contribute, each from its area of ??action, to the conservation of this valuable heritage.

From Agroxerxa, the local product promotion platform of the OBSAM-IME, we want to disseminate and give visibility to the importance of conserving these local varieties, which contribute to the development of the local economy and to the conservation of the environment. For this reason, the Local Varieties Campaign of Menorca focuses every month on a seasonal local variety - the first was the pomegranate during the month of October - and organized activities aimed at making it possible to find, conserve, plant, consume and spread these varieties.

On Thursday, November 14 at 7 p.m., the first of these activities will take place at the San Crispín Cooperative. It is a talk with a taste of the varieties of melons that we find in Menorca and will have an explanation by the botanist Pere Fraga i Arguimbau, who will address aspects such as their history, the different castes that exist, their traditional uses and the preservation of up to 26 varieties of melons found in Menorca's crops. The talk will culminate with the tasting of a dish proposed by the cook Sílvia Anglada.

Apart from this talk, the Local Varieties Campaign recently released a video on YouTube explaining the details and harvests of the local varieties of Menorca with the aim of also highlighting the importance of these local varieties as cultural food, a heritage which must be preserved as cultural and culinary heritage of the island. This video and information about local varieties such as purple artichoke, mervel, white onion, pepper or long lettuce can be found on the Agroxerxa platform.

The Menorca Local Varieties Campaign has the support of entities, associations and chefs who are part of the local ecosystem that makes possible the characterization, multiplication, preservation, sale and dissemination of this important genetic and cultural heritage.

What is a local variety?
They are those that form part of the agricultural tradition of a specific territory that, among other notable features, such as morphological heterogeneity or organoleptic personality, present a co-evolution with local environmental characteristics. Currently, in Menorca there are around 150 local varieties cataloged in the registers of conservation projects, the main reference studies', but the surveys that continue to be carried out are allowing a few more to be added.

Preserving them is a task for all of society and it starts with their knowledge. We can ask for them from the producers on the island, from the markets and shops that have points of sale such as AUXAM in Maó or the Cooperativa del Camp in Ciutadella, and also by collaborating with the organizations and people who take care of them of its conservation such as the Viver des GOB or Arbres d'Algendar.