For the seventh time taking part in Green Week Berlin, Lithuania is a well known country to many visitors of this international forum for the food, agriculture and horticulture industries. The national pavilion of the country in Grüne Woche 2009 is furnished by the Ministry of Agriculture and has a total floor space of 238 square meters. The Lithuania‘s pavilion is easy to notice as it comes in a form of a replica of a traditional two storey country house.

2009 is a special year for Lithuania, as the country celebrates one thousand years since its name was first mentioned in public domain. A number of events have been scheduled in commemoration of the vibrant history of the nation and the state. Participation in one of the largest and most significant international fairs Grüne Woche 2009 is an outstanding opportunity for Lithuania’s representatives to present country’s products and to facilitate successful development of international business by building valuable contacts. Presenting cultural and culinary heritage of Lithuania on a global scene is both a challenge and an opportunity that can not be overestimated!

The visitors of the international food, agriculture and horticulture exhibition Grüne Woche 2009 shall be able to explore national and cultural heritage of Lithuania, preserved through ages, and presented by family farms, cooperative communities, small food industry businesses, and artisan companies. Ancient production processes and recipes go in perfect accord with contemporary food quality and safety requirements, this is proved by the Lithuanian products showcased at the Grüne Woche fair. All the featured products have been certified by the Foundation for Culinary Heritage of Lithuania as a part of the culinary heritage of the Baltic country.

As many as eight exhibitors shall greet the visitors at the Lithuanian pavilion this year, some of them veterans, some taking part for the first time. The pavilion shall be catered by a restaurant chain Bernelių užeiga, building on its success in previous fairs. Waitresses dressed in folk costumes shall welcome guests at solid wooden tables in a replica road-side inn to taste such delicacies as boletus soup, a slice of bread flavoured with caraway and sweet flag, to warm up with a cup of savoury herbal tea and a honey biscuit, or test themselves against a temptation of Lithuanian home-brewed beer and a cheese snack.

For the fourth time visitors shall be able to meet herbalist and pharmacist Jadvyga Balvočiūtė. Referred to as the wise woman of the Lithuanian meadows, she will charm the visitors with savoury blends and infusions of the most precious herb species to revitalise your health and revive life colours. She will teach how to make an infusion to sooth a

broken heart, to dissipate grief, to bring back the joy of life...

The visitors shall once more meet the people from cooperative beekeeping community Eko medus, presenting organic bee products, including honey collected from a variety of plants, propolis, beebread, and pollen.

Artisans from crafts club Verpstė of the Lithuanian Women’s‘ Farming Society shall present lavish ranges of breath-taking items made from natural materials native to Lithuania, such as linen, wool, timber, clay, amber, etc. Amber jewellery, brass, glass, and deer horn items, earthenware pottery decorated with ethnic ornaments, diverse handcrafts and linen toys filled with buckwheat hulls shall be amply available on display and for purchase.

Countryside Tourism Association of Lithuania will have something to tell and to show about how unique and attractive are rural tourism homesteads of various ethnic lands of Lithuania. The directory ‘Countryside Holidays 2009‘ (Atostogos kaime 2009), freshly out of print, broadly presents the amenities of rustic holiday settings and provides detailed visitor information in four languages.

Businesswomen Stefa Strakšienė and Nijolė Šopienė are glad they are able to introduce their family enterprises at the world-famous international trade fair for the first time. The producers of whole milk cheese, Sūris su visa smetona, will offer a range of gourmet cheeses melting in the mouth.

New to Grüne Woche is also a small family bakery Du Medu presenting home-made organic bread, baked from wholly natural dough containing not a single synthetic additive or preservative, not even yeast. Their range includes black rye bread, scalded rye bread, scalded bread with whole grains Rugelis, sugar-free Rugelis bread, as well as many more delicious Lithuanian breads.

A young meat products enterprise Kanrugėlė, five years in business and for the first time at the exhibition, deserves special attention. They present a highly distinguished range of skilandis, a traditional product made from a pig stomach stuffed with minced meat, and cold-smoked in alder smoke and flavoured with juniper berries. The product was awarded a silver medal in Lithuanian Best Product of the Year contest. Kanrugėlė brings various kinds of Lithuanian sausage to the show as well, including skilandis sausage, ‘hunters’ sausage, and smoked flitch.

The Lithuanian exhibition shall be on display in Hall 8.2. A replica ethnic village house of two storeys is just impossible to miss from any distance. The gate is wide open, welcome everyone!

The RuRal DevelopmenT pRogRamme foR Lithuania 2007–2013 – for the implementation of the State strategyThe years 2007–2013 are the exclusive period for the rural development. The Rural Development Programme for Lithuania 2007–2013 (RDP) was approved and started to be implemented. The common goal of the rural development strategy for the years 2007–2013 is to create the competitive agricultural and food forest farm, the opportunities for the diversification of the economic activity in the countryside and improvement of the quality of life by sustaining the environment and preserving the landscape, to create the alternative jobs, and to develop the feeling of community.

The Ministry of Agriculture, together with other state institutions and social partners, while preparing this programme, followed the concept of the European model of agriculture (EMA). The Rural Development Programme for Lithuania for 2007–2013 is an equivalent of the European model of agriculture.

European agriculture, as a sector of economy, is multifunctional, characterized by multisectoral rural development, maintaining the vital and viable countryside. The EMA is sustainable and competitive, covering the whole EU territory, including also the regions with the specific problems.

The basis of the model is the balance between economic, social and environmental values. It is the necessity of such balance that predetermines the multifunctionality of rural areas. This means that rural residents are involved in the production of food, feeds, fibre, energy or their raw materials, receiving for this the remuneration according to the market laws of supply and demand. However, agriculture, forests and waters – the entire rural area – provides a lot of other non-commodity values, namely, clean water and air (safeguarding and upgrading of the quality of these resources), preservation of biological diversity, maintenance and recreation of cultural landscape, waste disposal in the territory, collection of tangible and intangible cultural ethnic heritage, its preservation, renovation, and exposition in the natural environment, and adaptation to a new destination. Those values perform an important function of infrastructural services, used not only by the rural but also by the whole population of the country and foreign visitors. It takes part of the manufacturer’s costs which shall be compensated, even though all of us, consumers of such products, even do not think we should also pay for it.

The EU support – for the implementation of the State strategy

The EU support is not just a simple distribution of money. It covers the creation of the sector of the state economy, linking the diversity of the forms of support with the strategic objectives of agriculture, food industry and rural development of the country. Social partners, even those, who represent the large-scale sector, understood and maintained the provision of the European Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture that support shall be granted not only to the large-scale economic entities, but also to those who according to the viability indicators of the economy today on the market are on the edge of survival. With the opportunity offered to receive the EU support by the larger number of economic entities, they would be given a chance to undergo a certain selection – some would become stronger, modernized and remain on the market, whereas others could develop the alternative businesses in the countryside and thus to receive the additional income, and still others could apply for environmental measures support.

The EU support under the RDP is provided in four axes: Axis 1 “Improving the Competitiveness of the Agricultural and Forestry Sector”, focused on the increase of the competitiveness of the agriculture, food industry and forestry sector (41.5 per cent of the RDP funds), Axis 2 “Improving the Environment and the Countryside” – on the improvement of the environment and the countryside (36.448 per cent), Axis 3 “The Quality of Life in Rural Areas and Diversification of the Rural Economy” is aimed at improving the quality of life in the rural areas and diversifying the rural economy (18.25 per cent), under Axis 4 the LEADER method is implemented (6.06 per cent), preparation of local action group strategies and their implementation is supported. In total, within this financial period for the RDP measures LTL 7,804 billion was allocated. The funds, allocated for the concrete year, shall be used during the current and another two years (all the funds granted for the RDP will be finally paid out in 2015).

If we compare Lithuania and the EU old countries, a level of modernization of agricultural production differs evidently. In the old EU countries, the farms already are evenly modern, therefore under Axis 1 of the RDP support, intended for the competitiveness of the farms, support is almost not granted completely.

The Rural Development Programme for Lithuania for 2007–2013 linked the activity started by the investment and compensatory measures of the earlier EU membership 2004–2006 period, extending and diversifying it. A considerably greater number of innovations, including support to small farms, were included in the RDP for 2007–2013, as compared to the previous period. The most significant emphasis of the 2007–2013 programme period is that support measures to be used by all the agricultural food sector economic entities increased considerably in number. The support measures are designed for satisfying the most diverse needs of the people of different age and interests.

During this financial period, some 30 RDP measures are being implemented. Each measure is aimed to implement the specific goals, each one helping to solve the most diverse problems relevant to agriculture and forestry, food sector and rural development.

Development of the production of qualitative products and satisfying of the needs of the consumers who focus a still higher importance to the quality of food products are one of the most important factors in implementing the task specified by the Lithuanian agricultural policy – the creation of agricultural and food industry. The manufacturers of products of higher quality and marked with certain marks shall undertake certain obligations concerning the conformity of the product to the requirements of the specifications. The support is necessary to encourage the farmers to produce and place to the market the products of higher quality. Evaluating the fact that two thirds of Lithuanian farms are attributed to the category of small farms, the production of certified products of exclusive quality would give the opportunity to the family farms and small farms to increase their competitiveness, to create the higher added value to the product and to derive the higher income. With the EU support it will be sought to improve the quality and marketing of products, supporting the participation in the food quality plans.

Preservation and development of traditional crafts, products of national heritage, like ethnic cultural values, help to enforce the uniqueness of rural areas and to strengthen their competitiveness. Traditional crafts stimulate tourism in the ethnographic regions of the country and contribute to the economic development of rural areas, diversification of the economic activity and creation of the attractive image of Lithuania.

It is sought through the rural development to implement the principle of the even development of the regions, since the regions with good agricultural conditions from the economic standpoint are much stronger than those existing in the less favourable lands, where income derived from the agricultural production as well as from the direct payments is considerably less. It is important to develop those regions by selecting the proper activities for them. To-date not only rural tourism, the sphere of services and forest business are recognized as the alternative agricultural activity, but also growing and collection of herbs and spice plants, growing of furbearing animals, mushroom business, bee-growing, breeding and keeping of rare birds, snail growing, growing of heathberries and willow-trees. The above-mentioned types of activities are of attraction to more than one farmer; however, their development is being stopped by either too small possible production volumes or rather high investments while seeking to expand the production. It is not only the EU financial support, but also the cooperation of smaller farmers that should help to tackle the said problems.

Especially wide opportunities are offered by the RDP together with the Social Fund for training and requalification of people, and stimulation of entrepreneurship. By joint efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, the needs for training, consultancy, and human resources have been identified. Of special importance is to make use of business incubators, which will consult people during the first 1–1.5 years, will work with each almost individually, so that later they will be able to gain a footing and start their business. Experience of other countries witnesses that a lot of work with people is needed for the stimulation of entrepreneurship. Support will encourage the development of general services, small and medium sized businesses. In this field, Lithuania lags greatly behind the average in the European countries.

Programme implementation results

The implementation of the Rural Development Programme for Lithuania 2007–2013 is under constant monitoring and analysis, where necessary, the programme is being corrected. This programme lasts even for 7 years, therefore the process of its implementation is very responsible as in a rush you can lose a lot. A serious dialogue with social partners and the European Commission representatives is successful; account is taken of all rational proposals. The first amendments to the programme, in fact, are related to the simplification of the requirements for the beneficiaries.Most popular are those measures of the programme which are being implemented not for the first period within the programme and are best known and understandable to the applicants. Traditionally, many applications are submitted according to the measure “Setting up of Young Farmers”, “Modernization of Agricultural Holdings”, “Early Retirement from the Agricultural Commodity Production”. The biggest amount of money was paid according to the measure “Payments to Farmers in Areas with Handicaps, Other than Mountain Areas (Less Favourable Areas)”. The popularity of the measures “Development of Rural Tourism” and “Support for Business Creation and Development” under Axis 3 is especially delightful.

While evaluating the ongoing submission of applications, it is possible to notice that everything keeps pace with reality. The distribution of funds according to Axes, actually, is in compliance with the requests of the people. It is sought to distribute the funds rationally, efficiently and, certainly, transparently. From the beginning of the RDP implementation, i.e. from January 1, 2007 (the programme was approved in 2007) to November 15, 2008, 219,000 applications were received, where support amounting to LTL 1,462 billion was requested. This accounts for 77 per cent of the support granted in 2007–2008 or 19 per cent of the total funds allocated for the financial period. In total, until November 15, 2008, LTL 330,91 million (17,5 per cent of the amount allocated for the years 2007–2008, which should be paid out until the end of 2010) was paid out to the applicants.

A vision of rural development

The countryside should be strongly changed by the year 2013, especially in terms of the diversity of farm structure. Alongside the agricultural activity, a greater number of the enterprises offering services, rural tourism objects, especially in the areas, unfavourable for farming, will come forth. The community feeling will strengthen, this allowing to take strategic decisions and to implement them in the countryside. The countryside will become a more attractive place for life and work, the number of young people, creating here their future, will increase. The Lithuanian countryside with its natural environment, attractive recreation zones and the developed rural tourism will become still more popular as the place for recreation. In the rural tourism farmsteads, the living traditions of the areas will be presented, visitors will be treated to the dishes of cuisine heritage, prepared using the products of local origin. Local crafts – weaving, knitting, cutting, wickerworking, smithery, pottery, ceramics and the like – not only will diversify the economic activity and will derive income for the rural residents, but will also cherish the ethnic cultural heritage. With the EU assistance, through the measures under the 2007–2013 agricultural and rural development programme for Lithuania, the innovations in the countryside will match successfully with history, culture and nature.

ResTauRanT Chain BeRnelių užeiga has a range of Lithuanian culinary heritage dishes to meet the most sophisticated taste

Bernelių užeiga has pleased the visitors of the International Green Week Berlin before with a rich variety of traditional Lithuanian cuisine, and the atmosphere breathing ancient times and ethnic spirit, and will do it again. Bernelių užeiga was the first catering establishment in Lithuania to be awarded a certificate of the Foundation for Culinary Heritage. This is an acknowledgement proving the restaurant chain reflects hospitality and catering experience accumulated over centuries and conveys hospitality traditions and culture of different ethnic lands of Lithuania in all its activity, starting with the atmosphere, welcoming and serving of the guests, through to its cuisine, by reviving traditional food serving techniques.

As you drop by at one of our restaurants styled as a traditional road-side inn, you would sit at a solid wood table covered with a linen table cloth. While you await for your order to be served, you can enjoy our rich interior decorated with ethnic motives and village home appliances. Waitresses dressed in national folk costumes shall be able to offer your to taste some rye spirits (we call it “devil‘s drops“). Ūkininko užkandėlė (“Farmer‘s snack“) will go perfectly alongside, as well as a slice of smoke flavoured skilandis or bacon, and black rye bread. For those who prefer lighter foods, we have something to please them as well: honey biscuits baked according to grandma‘s recipe with savoury herbal tea, bread flavoured with caraway and sweet flag, farmer‘s salad with smoked ham, buckwheat pancakes, apple cheese, as well as many more ancient dishes.

After a light snack you can have a rich dinner with traditional Lithuanian meals: trademark boletus soup served in a hollowed out loaf of black bread, zeppelins, and a range of mouth-melting savoury roasts.

The restaurants and road-side inns of the Bernelių užeiga chain are a perfect alternative to contemporary paced lifestyles bringing back to life traditional hospitality and food serving customs of Lithuanian folk.

The restaurant chain was launched on 28 August 1999 with the first Bernelių užeiga opening its doors in Kaunas, the Lithuania‘s second largest city, in a refurbished building that accommodated a Bernelių užeiga previously, in the soviet era. It is the only building of wooden architecture heritage of the early 18th c. surviving in the Old Town of Kaunas.

Presently, Bernelių užeiga has four restaurants and a summer outdoor café in its chain, and plans to grow further. Do not miss the occasion when you happen to be in Lithuania...

oRganiC heRBal Teas open the door to a rich world of the Lithuanian floraJadvyga Balvočiūtė’s herbal teas provide an excellent opportunity to step into the rich world of Lithuanian herbs, to experience their effects on the body and soul, and to rejoice in the natural aromas and a motley range of colours.

One of the country’s most renowned herbalists, pharmacist and pharmacognosist Jadvyga Balvočiūtė has rejoiced in an invitation from the Ministry of Agriculture to participate in Grüne Woche 2009 as a part of Lithuania’s stand. For the fourth year in a row she will delight the visitors to the International Green Week Berlin fair with an outstandingly rich choice of herbal infusion blends.

Organic teas – for curing sickness and enjoying health

“I would advise anyone who has caught a cold during the day to do just what I do: treat yourself to a herbal infusion in the evening. It has to be as warm as possible and must be drunk in substantial mouthfuls. You would sweat it out and feel better by the morning. A variety of herbs can go in the infusion, including peppermint, mint, German camomile, and oregano. Should you cough or feel pain in your chest, primrose flowers and leaves will help.” The pharmacist never seems short of relevant advice. Plantain leaves would help to relieve a dry cough. Should the cough be too ‘wet’, this must also be remedied by adding rowan flowers to your infusion, which have a disinfecting effect and help to suppress excessive coughing. To facilitate sweating, linden flowers and raspberry canes are the medicines of choice. Raspberry canes are helpful for improving immunity as well. Both common mallow and cluster mallow as well as marshmallow help to relieve a cough. Mixtures containing coneflower are helpful for treating chills in the elderly.

The pharmacist seems to be able to pick the right herb for nearly any known malaise, and to prepare a medicinal mixture according to a doctor’s diagnosis. She offers blends containing herbs with gentle revitalising action, such as Žemaičių žolės, Lazdynas, and Rasakila. The herbalist advises us to sip teas with common hop or garden valerian to treat insomnia, while those suffering from anxiety can find relief in the soothing ‘bright mood infusion’. It is also helpful for getting rid of such dangerous habits as smoking and alcoholism. For the little ones Jadvyga has a gentle tea called Pumpurėliams, blended with herbs beneficial for the developing body.

Still a pioneering branch of organic farming

Medicinal herbs farming has not yet become a traditional business in Lithuania. The Jadvyga Balvočiūtė Organic Farm situated in Žemaitija cultivates over 100 species of plants supplying over 140 different kinds of raw materials, including the flowers of pot marigold, the leaves and seeds of various species of amaranth, the flowering tips of buckwheat, valerian root, etc.

Plants that come from their natural habitats (such as meadows, woods, fields, water courses, etc.) are an important supply for the production of medicinal blends too. Wild plants are picked in ecologically certified areas in accordance with the requirements of a Wild Plant Picker Certificate. The farm’s picking range comprises a total of 180 kinds of raw supplies provided by 151 different species of plants.

Jadvyga’s greatest wish is to promote the use of herbs of European countries for tea infusions, and to encourage people develop an interest in the flora of their locality. She also tries hard to collect and preserve swiftly vanishing knowledge on the application of herbs and their profound effects on health. Participating for the fourth time in Grüne Woche, Jadvyga is well aware of the appreciation by the visitors to this major German fair, as well as the visitors to many other fairs around, of green lifestyles, as well as of their concern for a clean environment and the preservation of our culinary and cultural heritage.

Organic bee prOducts – a delicacy and a medicineAgricultural cooperative Eko Medus participated in the International Green Week Berlin for the first time last year. This year Eko Medus gladly returns to the exhibition to share their built up experience and organic bee products, both a delicacy food and an efficient medicine, with the visitors.

“Our bees live in a natural environment, in woods, forest meadows and outskirts with no settlements, and no intense agriculture undertakings present“, explains Roma Mačienė, a member of the cooperative, nominated the Queen of Bees in 2003. “We have brought buckwheat honey, forest and meadow honey, beebread, beebread with honey, pollen and propolis to the exhibition“.

Buckwheat honey is a dark honey with slightly pungent odour and taste, and has a high content of iron beneficial for those having low blood pressure or exposed to a threat of anaemia. Forest honey has a lesser content of iron although it is very rich in minerals, such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, etc. It is lighter in colour compared to buckwheat honey and has an outstandingly gentle and pleasant taste and aroma. The honey of this kind helps prevent cardiovascular diseases and relieves such disorders should they already be present. Meadow honey is collected by bees from a wide variety of plants blossoming throughout the summer season. It is light in colour with gentle flavour and aroma, perfect to cure chills, and to relieve gastric and liver disorders.

“By the way, honey should not be put into water, tea or any other drink, as it looses a part of its beneficial qualities when dissolved, and its effect is reduced”, cautions Roma Mačienė. “The best way to consume honey is to eat it while seeping warm tea. This way our metabolism is able to best acquire all the beneficial ingredients of honey. All bee products have a revitalising effect making them most suitable to consume in the morning. They improve your mood, and provide with energy for entire day, in addition to strengthening your immune system. Honey is a delicacy food, and a friendly medicine”, concludes Roma Mačienė.

Pollen is known to improve appetite, to help sooth a sensitive nervous system, or an irritable stomach. It is highly beneficial for women during menopause since it contains some ingredients closely resembling natural hormones. On the other hand, it is counterindicated for the adolescent, as it may accelerate maturation. Put 15 grams of pollen in boiled water while it is still warm in the evening and leave it throughout the night. The pollen would be swollen by the morning and should be consumed half an hour before breakfast. Should you dislike the taste, pollen can be mixed with honey to sweeten it. Since honey acts as a preservative, prepared pollen can be stored longer this way. Pollen has a strong revitalising effect and should not be consumed in the evening as it may prevent you from sleeping. It is recommended to consume pollen within a year since it is collected, as it looses curative effect afterwards.

Beebread is a product with a long shelf-life since it contains milk acid acting as a natural preservative. Beebread is good for all ages, the little ones, and the elder as well, to relieve stomach and vascular disorders, constipation, to sooth aching throat. It is highly beneficial after a surgical intervention, especially in case of oncological disorders, while recovering from a flu, and to prevent prostate disorders. Its effects help strengthen the organism and reinforce the immune system.

Propolis is known to act as a natural antibiotic. Its effects seem to be a miracle when it is used properly. It is good to rub aching joints, to rinse the mouth, to relieve bronchitis and even pneumonia. The visitors of the International Green Week Berlin will be offered propolis accompanied with necessary prescriptions of use and instructions how to make a spirit, oil or a different solution of this medicine.

Cooperative Eko Medus has five members working in no lesser accord than the 500 bee families it keeps. The beekeepers came together because of the understanding cooperation, instead of competition, facilitates successful growth of enterprise, where all members supplement each other. The beekeepers have used Governmental support for development of cooperative enterprise made available in 2006, serving as an important impetus for their undertaking.

“I am more than sure it is our purposeful efforts, our complete focusing on our work, inquiring into the depths of the expertise and continued learning that have helped us achieve outstanding results“, says Roma Mačienė. “We have been dealing in the entire range of bee products, including honey, pollen, beebread, propolis, bee‘s wax and milk. Due to a seasonal nature of the business, we also provide beekeepers with a range of processing services. The visitors of Grüne Woche 2009 may take pleasure in our best organic bee products“.

The beekeepers preferred organic farming due to their personal beliefs about humans being an integral part of natural world affected by natural laws. This is how Roma Mačienė describes the idea beyond organic farming: “When we do something detrimental to natural world, we face harsh consequences. This is why we have chosen to produce healthy products. We are able to enjoy living in harmony with the natural world and ourselves“.

“...cheese With cream...”“This is the name for the various un-ripened cheeses made in a traditional way by natural milk: sweet or sour milk cheeses, with caraway seeds, dessert cheeses, cheeses with various herbs and garlic, spicy, for special occasions and others. The milk is boiled in water, in a steam pot of 100 litres, then the sour milk is poured”, – about the cheese production method of North Lithuania tell two nice ladies, the representatives of family farms Stefa Straksienė ir Nijolė Sopiene, who three years ago were awarded the certificate by Culinary Heritage Fund. The received protein mass is poured into separate utensils, then the spices are added – salt, caraway seeds, garlic, tarragon or others, depending on what cheese is made. Further the mass is emptied into special cloth bags, sewn particularly for this purpose, which

then in wooden press are squeezed until all the liquid runs out of the mass. The size and form of the cheese depends on the size and form of the bag. There is a whole assortment of them – from a tiny one which is meant to make souvenir cheeses to the one in which a cheese weighing a kilogram or even more fits in. The cheeses made from fresh milk and stored in a cold place can be kept the whole month, they do not go bad, because are quite fat. They only become slightly drier which makes them only tastier...

Women say that from old times cheeses are a must in both weddings and funerals in Lithuania – the guests are not only treated to them, but also given to take home in a goodie bag for the household.

Cheeses and other milk products have been produced by women for more than 10 years. To develop their business women assimilated EU support for semi-subsistence farms. They both joined strengths together and bought a minibus, refrigerating equipment. Women also milk the cows, make the cheeses, as well as sell them in various exhibitions, fairs and other festivities themselves. All the work is done by only two of them, no help is hired.

Positive customers‘ feedback about delicious, melting in the mouth cheese, acknowledgements of Committee on Rural Affairs of Lithuania “For the Spread of Customs and Traditions“ 2007, Siauliai Trade Fair exhibition’s nomination ”Exhibition product 2008“, acknowledgements of districts‘ municipalities – all that makes women happy and motivate to work harder in order to make better and even more delicious cheeses.

“A trip to international exhibition “Green Week 2009“ is especially honourable and committing. We want to show ourselves and to look at others. We hope that our homemade cheeses from the North of Lithuania will cater to the tastes of both visitors of exhibition and the participants“,– say two hard-working women Stefa Straksienė ir Nijole Sopiene, both dressed in white as if born of milk.

eCologiCal BReaD is Both Healthy and Delicious

A small bakery “Du Medu“ run as a family business produces ecological, healthy, natural and the most important very delicious bread of various types. The crop is grown in the family farm where the bread is baked following ancestral traditions. The fact that everything is taken care of by one family is its biggest quality guarantee.

The dough is made without any synthetic additives, preservatives or yeast. Every loaf is formed manually. “The bread stays fresh, does not become stale, dry or changes its taste. This is so because of special technological process, which nowadays, as in the old times, is equally long and not sped by any additional measures”, says the owner of the bakery Mr. Vytautas Rasisckas from Prienai region.

Black rye bread contains almost everything that a human body needs, that is: carbohydrates, proteins, fat, mineral salts as well as vitamins. The bakery offers scalded rye bread, scalded bread “Rugelis” with grain in the contents of which are – ecological rye, wheat flour, sourdough, malt, caraway seeds, sugar, salt and water. Scalded bread “Rugelis” with grain and without sugar is especially valued by the customers particularly taking care of their health and those who cannot use sugar because of their health.

Bread of various types is supplied to stores specializing in ecological and healthy food.

The highesT QualiTy TRaDiTional liThuanian meaT pRoDuCTs Smelling of Alder Smoke

Young, just five years old, meat processing company ”Kanrugėlė“ uses traditional Lithuanian formula for production of meat products, therefore it has been awarded a Culinary Heritage Fund‘s certificate and a silver medal for high quality cold smoked rounded sausage (Lith. skilandis) in the year product‘s competition organized by Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists.

The head of the company Mr. Virgaudas Kanauka told that the company with 51 employee produces more than 40 kinds of meat products. Only quality meat is bough, which is trimmed manually. This is especially important in the production of rounded sausages when hind pork leg is used. Meat and fat are cut in small cubicles. Then the mass is salted, some peppers and a lot of juniper berries are added. Further the seasoned meat is left for over a week to ferment. Later it is stuffed into a pork‘s bladder, pressed by plates and left for another week. Only then rounded sausage is hanged into a smokehouse where it is smoked for two weeks in alder smoke. And that is not all, after a smoking process rounded sausage is dried until all the moisture evaporates and only then one can enjoy the true taste of it. Distinctive taste and smell, which is so loved and valued by elder generation, is achieved not by spices or meat itself, but by pig‘s bladder, without which the production of traditional rounded sausage would be impossible.

”Kanrugėlė“ to the visitors of the exhibition also offers a sausage, the production technology of which is very similar to rounded sausage, only some more peppers are added and the meat mass is stuffed not into a bladder but into synthetic casings.

To satisfy the taste of foodies smoked bacon seasoned with salt and a pinch of laurel leaves will perfectly do. Pork fat is sprinkled with laurel leaves only before the smoking process. Having savoury appearance and really delicious are cold smoked hunter sausages, produced of pork mixed with beef. The meat is stuffed into sheep’s tripe, therefore the sausages are very thin only of span length and convenient to take into picnics or trips.

Visitors of the exhibition will also be able to try Lithuanian sausage made of pork and stuffed into pork’s tripe, which is then twisted to make separate pieces of sausage as was used from ancient times in Lithuania.

The head of the company Mr. Virgaudas Kanauka says he believes that the first “appearance“ in the exhibition will be successful and will help to make serious business contacts for the future.

Lithuanian FOLk art WOrks Delight the Visitors of the Exhibition for the Fifth Time Initiative, talented, nurturing the old customs and trades women living in the Lithuanian villages united by trade centre “Verpstė“, established by Lithuanian Farmers‘ Society have been participating in the international food industry, agriculture and horticulture exhibition “Green Week” for the fifth time.

The women of the trade centre “Verpstė” established by Lithuanian Farmers‘ Society in 2001 actively participate in exhibitions and fairs not only in Lithuania, but also abroad. The original Lithuanian women folk art works always attract exhibition visitors‘ attention. Therefore this year, no exception, enthusiastic Lithuanian women farmers in the exhibition “Green Week 2009” present their works of pottery (bells out of white and natural pottery, wooden plates with angels and flowers of pottery, various souvenirs with Lithuanian symbolics out of pottery), of wood (wooden utensils, wooden combinations with floristics, manual work spindles and horseshoes, wooden toys), a wide selection of jewellery from amber, brass, glass, deer antlers; works for adults and children decorated in national motifs and filled with ecological buckwheat.

Lithuanian Farmers‘ Society established in 1991 is a self-supporting public organization seeking to improve living and working conditions of women in villages, to unite them in common activities, which aim to improve village life, provide knowledge and self-reliance. The society has always paid a lot of attention to the development of alternative sources of income for village women and promotion of their entrepreneurship, cultivation of commonness, nurturance of cultural and national heritage, and beautification of environment.

The society not only organizes seminars and teaching programmes for village women, but also consults on the questions of the development of communities, collaborate with German, Norwegian, Polish, British non -governmental organizations and execute common project with them. It is also the member of Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania and International Country Woman‘s Association.