Around 100 fruit farmers in the Brkini region have around 120 hectares of orchards. Last year the Municipality of Hrpelje-Kozina organized the Brkini fruit route festival in order to preserve the local tastes and scents. This year the festival will expand to three other municipalities - Divača, Pivka and Ilirska Bistrica.
The Brkini fruit route festival will feature school days in the orchards, open farm days, exhibitions, events, professional lectures and much more. Ten farms from the four municipalities are taking part in the festival. Municipality officials say it's an encouraging start. "We wanted to have one basic group on which we could later build on; in our group of farms we have those who see the need for joint activities, and you can later build on that," explains Ester Mihalič from the Municipality of Hrpelje-Kozina.
"Visitors are invited to visit the farms, pick apples in the orchards, and talk to farmers. As fruit growers we say the initiative is good. More and more people want homemade food. They want to see a farm and see that the food is actually produced there, because they no longer know where the food in the shops is coming from," says a fruit grower from Sabonje, Matjaž Miše.