05.05.2008
Slow Food Pozegaca Plum Slatko from Ustikolina, Bosnia
Presentation of the producers of the original Pozegaca Plum Slatko from Filipovici/Ustikolina (supported by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity) in the Drina valley in the Southeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Documentary interview about the slow food group of the Pocegaca-Plum in Ustikolina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slivovica is a world renowned plum distillate from the Balkans. The most high grade Slivovica comes from the Pozegaca plum. In certain regions of the former Yugoslavia they still use the same variety of fruit, though less frequently than before, to make a preserve in syrup called slatko, meaning ‘sweet’. In the upper valley of the Drina River, 120 kilometers southeast of Sarajevo near Gorazde, the women prepare the slatko with a particular variety of plum called pozegaca (Prunus insititia), which are gathered in the middle of September.
The semi-wild Pozegaca plums on the banks of the River Drina are not grafted and grown entirely from seed. The women scald them in boiling water, peel them and then remove the pits with a skewer or a knitting needle. They firm them up by soaking them in water and lime for a half hour and then boil them in sugar water flavored with lemon slices, at times adding cloves and walnuts. Gorazde used to be a land of vineyards and orchards. Abandoned in the 1950s, they were replaced by war and chemical industries, swept away after 1989 by the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Today an attempt is being made to recover a farming economy that can once again become a source of income for the population. The slatko from pozegaca plums, whose color varies from honey yellow to dark pink, has a creamy consistency and delicate flavor that is somewhat reminiscent of Turkish rose petal preserves. It is served with fresh cheeses and in Gorazde it is eaten with kaymak (a creamy cheese) or with goat’s milk feta. And it is often served in little bronze bowls, containing a cooked plum each, accompanied by Turkish coffee. At present five women produce the Presidium slatko, but the group may grow. It all depends on how well it is commercialized. As a start, the group worked with elderly women to define the traditional recipe. Their slatko is prepared over a wood fire in the village of di Filipovici (Ustikolina-Gorazde), using plums grown on the banks of the River Drina.
In November 2005 the group set up the Emina Association. For now the female producers sell the slatko locally (Gorazde and Sarajevo), but thanks to the Agropodrinje cooperative they plan to export it. The producers of the Pozegaca Plum Slatko from Gorazde are member of the Terra Madre network with 1.600 small food communities in 150 countries and belongs to the group of 300 food communities, which are also presidia. Projects launched by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity to support small producers (farmers, breeders, fishermen, cheesemakers, and so on) and to support products in danger of extinction.
