The honey island, which you can reach in 3 hours. Such pearls grow on her trees

Malta loved by Poles is not only the delightful bays and monuments from the UNESCO World Heritage List. If you like the story given in a lighter form, it’s best to try local delicacies on the island. It is not about fashionable restaurants with delicious Mediterranean cuisine, although we will find a lot here. Unique memories can also be brought from small farms and apiaries.

Olives in Malta. Only 7 trees of this variety

15 minutes by car from the Malta airport and 7 minutes on foot from the Mula bus stop (bus 61 bus will get there) there is the Olive Gaj Ta’xmun Olive Grove, which is run by an olive enthusiast, Charles Bugeja. The owner inherited the soil from his dad and began to plant trees here. He deepens knowledge about crops several times a year at courses in Italy. However, this is not just a transfer of an Italian idea to Maltese land. Cultivation of olives on the island has long traditions dating back to ancient times. The names of the local towns of Żebbug and Żejtun come from a later period and come from Arabic. They mean olives and olive oil.

The purpose of growing olives in Malta is not mass production and competing with such giants as Italy and Spain. It is about maintaining your own resources in a country that largely imports products from other regions of Europe, including from Sicily.

Sunny, warm and dry conditions of the Mediterranean region is an ideal environment for the cultivation of these trees. Charles says that the last season was difficult – the challenge was insufficient rainfall and a very strong, winter wind from the north -west. The trees prefer a rather light breeze. “We water them every week, but when the rain is not enough, the water does not flush the bacteria from the leaves thoroughly,” he explains. He does not use pesticides for cultivation. – I usually collect 6,000 kilograms of olives a year. To squeeze 1 liter of olive oil, you need 10 kg of fruit. Last season, only 800 kg was squeezed – he says.

Here we will find two native varieties of olives-tal-bent and tal-bay, which have a white color. That is why the latter is called “Maltese pearls”. These are the treasures of local agriculture, which you need to care for. Today, only 70 such trees bloom on Malta farms, and barely 7 of them are in the Ta’xmun we visited. The taste is sweeter than green and black olives.

Fruits are collected by hand, which takes about 8 weeks, from October to December. Lovers help Charles at work.

The olive olive oil obtained from the squeezing of fresh fruit juice is a real extra olive oil. She is unaffected to keep her health. Such a product, however, oxidizes faster and after opening you have to eat it faster. It has a more spicy taste and deeper aroma. Local bread is served for the tasting of olive oil. Oliwa from the tal-beech usually sells first. The one we tried was a mixture of two varieties from the local grove. “Pearls” can also be preserved in brine as a delicacy.

In a wide Mediterranean aspect of this experience, our group was introduced by Dr. Noel Buttigieg, head of the Tourism Management Department at the Maltese University, who is scientifically dealing with the culture of food.

– Malta is an island for which food safety has always been a significant problem. 72 percent Our food comes from import. If there is a lack of food in Sicily, then in Malta too. Pandemia was the moment when even more began to talk about this issue – he emphasized during a meeting with us.

Production revival

Continuation of consumption is not a continuation of production. In the history of the island there was a long break in the intensive cultivation of these fruits. With the fall of the Roman Empire, she gradually lost its importance. The economy switched to cotton cultivation for many centuries. It wasn’t until the end of the 20th century that Malta began to return to olive roots, and the farm like Ta’xmun Olive Grows supports this tradition.

Dinner surrounded by olive trees and lights is a good idea for rest after sightseeing. Prices depend on the type of orders and guests’ wishes – you can reserve the tasting of basic products, as well as more solemn dinners and dinners.

Melite. Honey island

Why do you want to walk endlessly in Malta? Among other things, because the local buildings are famous for his golden, honey shade of Maltese limestone and sandstone. Honey is the basis of the name of this island country. The Greek word Melítē literally means “place of honey”, and Meli itself – honey.

In many Malta souvenir stores you will find jars with honey and beeswax creams. During the visit, it was no accident that I had the opportunity to dress in a beekeeping outfit. Although, as in the case of olives, the island state is not a significant exporter of this product, honey has been made here since antiquity, even before Malta became part of the Roman Empire. Later, production was developed, among others Arabs who conquered the island in the Middle Ages. The religious from the Malta Order present on the island from the 16th century used honey as a sweetener, and also used it for medicinal purposes.

Nowadays, Maltese Miodna bee produces here throughout the year – a subspecies found only in Malta. The philosophy of small producers who care about the health of bees is the same as in Poland. The idea is to leave them the amount of food needed to survive in winter.

“We take honey only from the extension (upper part of the hive), leaving the colonies enough inventory to work. In this way, bees do not require feeding sugar syrups or pastes during winter, and the Cologne manages stocks,” explains beekeeper Ray Scibber.

A visit to the apiary

Golden Island specializes in such breeding bees, which it runs together with Denise Camilleri. Beekeepers invite us to approach the hives reminiscent of boxes. We start by wrapping the legs of a protective costume with a wide tape, and people in sandals must cover their feet. Earlier, we were warned so as not to use perfumes or creams with a filter, because their smell irritates bees. Beekeepers spray smoke so that insects are less inclined to aggresses – among others that they do not sense pheromones alarming threats. It is a challenge to me to get used to the heat in full sun and the bees near the face. Denise explains that the ground does not let the bee be bee of the protective face mesh.

Golden Island apiaries can be found at the well-known archaeological sites of Malta (including TAS-Silġ, with a view of the Marsaxlok bay). Her mission is the production of good quality honey and other bee products and showing the connotation between honey and the long history of the island.

During a visit to the apiary, we watch wooden frames and look for the queen in the colony, bees larger and with a longer abdomen. Its task is to submit up to 2-2.5 thousand. eggs a day. He lives from two to three years, while workers much shorter, usually about 6 weeks. Beekeepers regularly look after the colonies to check the health of the bees.

“To collect honey from the hive, we place a wooden board with a” one -way passage “, which allows bees to leave the honey with honey and do not enter them again – thanks to this we can remove the extensions without much stress for them” – explains Ray. The next stage is to get honey from the frames, but we do not participate in this.

Maltese honey. It tastes like that

We have the opportunity to try honey. Three types of honey are produced in Malta – the first is created, among others from plants around the fishing village Marsaxlokk. It’s spring honey. From February to April, bees work on an almond, cucumber, clover, poppy seed or wild milk. A lot depends on rainfall, which can limit the harvest of flower nectar.

Summer honey (Summer Honey) will taste differently from the northwestern parts of Malta, Gozo and the small island of Comino, where Maltese wild thyme is flourishing. It is not without exaggeration that this is the real taste of this island. According to the research of the Malta University, the local summer honey contains the highest percentage of thyme pollen from all honeys in the world (up to 85-90 percent).

At the end of August, bees begin to collect nectar from eucalyptus and carob trees. Then autumn honey (autumn honey) is formed. It has the darkest color and is easily crystallizing.

If you want to look at the work in the arc in Malta, you can take part in a similar trip – it’s best to look for them under the slogan “Malta Honey Experience” or “Apiar Visits”. Ray explains that in the Golden Island apiary (in various locations on the island) the visit lasts about 60-75 minutes and costs 25 euros per person. A group of 2 to 12 people can take part in it, including children from 12 years, for whom smaller protective costumes are available. Passengers cannot be visited by bee venom.

When traveling to Malta, be sure to look at local vegetation – it is here that bees arrive – travelers who work tirelessly before honey souvenirs go to your suitcases.

The text was created in cooperation with the Maltese Tourist Organization in Warsaw.