The event will take place on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Paseo de la Costa. The public will be able to purchase this type of products in addition to seasonal seedlings, vegetables, aromatics, flowers, ornamental plants, cacti and succulents, among other proposals.
Like every year at this time, the urban farmers participating in the Ciudad Zapallo contest finished their harvests, thus closing the crop cycle that the program promotes in the case of cucurbits.
In this sense, the Proda program of the Ministry of Production and Industry, organizes the closing of the contest with the traditional weighing of pumpkins, its corresponding awards, the delivery of certificates, the opening of a fair space and the call to the community to They can come and buy pumpkins and products from Neuquén gardens, grown locally and in an agroecological way.
The fair will take place on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Paseo de la Costa. Gardeners from the socio-productive spaces that accompany the program and other people who joined the initiative in November of last year with their pumpkins grown during the summer season will participate.
In addition, seasonal seedlings of vegetables, aromatics, flowers, ornamental plants, cacti and succulents will be put on sale and the different varieties of pumpkins grown in the city’s orchards will be marketed within a framework of social and solidarity economy.
Those who come to the fair will be able to find dehydrated herbs, phytocosmetics, vermicompost and other garden products. Starting at noon, typical meals will be added to the sale, with Colegio Michael being in charge of the gastronomic proposal of the day, with locro and meat empanadas, vegetables, vegan and without TACC.
Institutions and organizations with which Proda works in an articulated manner in the maintenance of socio-productive spaces throughout the territory of the province will participate in the fair space with stands. Thus, at 12 the Punto Saludable team, the health prevention and promotion program of the Ministry of Health, will give a talk on healthy eating.
Members of the Arroyito rehabilitation institute will also be present, a therapeutic community of the Addictions Service of the Castro Rendón provincial hospital, which has an approach experience in which they work through a socio-productive community garden device and have been producing vermicomposting for years. as entrepreneurship.
In turn, the Federal Penitentiary Complex V of Senillosa, which works in conjunction with Proda, to sustain different agri-food experiences, will be present with its pumpkin production and the teams from the Agrarian and Forestry Services Laboratory will participate with institutional stands ( LASAF), from the Secretariat of Production and Industry, offering relevant information on nematode management for family farming; and the integrated violence care device on Line 148 that will provide information on its operation and awareness of the violence care problems it addresses.
Presentation of awards and recognitions
Based on the work of producing its own seeds that the program has been carrying out on some crops considered strategic, it was possible to incorporate during the current edition of the contest, the Atlantica Gigante variety, which has a different management compared to other varieties of pumpkins.
The technical team of the program will offer a talk about the differentiated process that involved the pilot production of these gigantic pumpkins that weighed 200 kilos and the technique of collecting their seeds to be able to include them in the following contests.
In this way, the AG pumpkins that are presented in the competition will do so in a specific category, differentiating themselves from the rest of the varieties, such as Gris Plomo and Musquée.
The Secretary of Production and Industry, Juan Peláez, the Undersecretary, Marcelo Zúniga, and program authorities will participate in defining the contest, who will present the prizes and certificates of participation.
With the collaboration of the Undersecretariat of Tourism of the province of Neuquén, among the prizes that will be awarded in recognition there will be tourist stays for two people for two nights in Neuquén inns, as a distinction of courtesy from NeuquénTur.
Considering that the contest is fundamentally a stimulus to agri-food production, the program has established among its prizes the delivery of a solar dehydrator and tools for daily tasks in the garden spaces. Also adding prizes made by the hands of artisans from our province, which are marketed through the Artesanías Neuquinas brand.
City Zsupport as an excuse
Since 2018, the Ciudad Zapallo contest organized by Proda calls for the participation of residents of the city of Neuquén and surrounding towns, to join in agri-food production, and the social circulation of knowledge, using as an excuse the realization of a contest that avoids simple competition and rather offers the possibility of sharing a productive and awareness-raising experience.
Every year, more people, families, organizations and institutions join the initiative, confirming the heartfelt demand that society makes every day for more healthy, fresh and delicious food to be produced locally.
Seed collection and donation of production
To end the meeting, one of the giant pumpkins will be cut to recover the seeds, with the aim of incorporating them into the Ciudad Zapallo contest, 2024-2025 edition, which will be destined especially for groups, institutions and social organizations that want to focus on their cultivation during the next season.
In this way, the fractionated pulp of these pumpkins will be delivered to the social organization Cáritas for distribution in the communities and soup kitchens with which it works. Already in the 2024 edition, a donation of more than half a ton of pumpkins was made to the organization due to the abundant harvest obtained from giant pumpkins.
As the closing of the event, a live show of folk dances by the “Aña Quén” Group is also contemplated, a folk dance class open to the community, which will feature the participation of a musical group that will play live to accompany the dance and the working day.
Schedule
10.00 assembly of the Fair
11.00 Fair opening.
12.00 health promotion talk “healthy eating”.
12.00 sale of locro and empanadas
12.30 technical talk
13.00 weighing and awards ceremony
1:30 p.m. seed harvest and donation delivery to Cáritas
2:00 p.m. musical show and folk dances.
15.00 closing
