Sweet potatoes are the main ingredient of the festival that starts today and ends on Sunday, December 2, in Aljezur.
In addition to the tuber, which even already has a Protected Geographical Indication (IGP) and the thousand and one ways to make it, from sweets to savory, from traditional to gourmet dishes, there are taverns, producers of medronho, honeydew and liqueurs, handicrafts, proposals rural and nature tourism, herbs and teas, honey, ice cream, chocolates, regional sweets. In other words, there are many reasons to go to the Espaço Multiusos de Aljezur, at Igreja Nova, in these three days.
This year, as revealed to the Sul Informação the mayor of Aljezur, the producers present and the restaurants and taverns hope to sell at least “the 30 tons of sweet potatoes that were sold last year. If not more!».
The Festival will also feature a varied program of entertainment, music and more, with workshops with renowned chefs, who will teach the tricks of a gourmet and haute cuisine use of the product that is the star of this festival, among many other points of the animation.
Good news is that the event maintains free entry, so whoever wants to buy or eat sweet potatoes in a thousand and one ways or other snacks from the regional cuisine will only have to go to that village on the Costa Vicentina.
Chamber president José Amarelinho has no doubt that the Festival "helped dignify the sweet potato product." «This event, which has been taking place for two years at the Espaço Multiusos in Aljezur, is a contribution to the strengthening of agricultural associations around this product that is so important to the local economy».
The mayor also expressed the need to "make the producers understand that the objective will only be achieved when everyone produces the Lyra variety, which is what justifies the PGI attributed to Aljezur's sweet potato."
«The other varieties grow faster and reach the markets earlier, but it is not the Lyra potato, the variety that is typical of the Aljezur product. It is necessary to take the proper advantage and added value of the IGP, which took so much work to achieve», stressed Amarelinho.
The mayor of Aljezur also highlighted all the agri-food activity that has arisen linked to sweet potatoes. «It is a business that has gained some expression, in terms of sweets, for example, but also chocolate with sweet potatoes or sweet potato brandy, for example».
O Aljezur Sweet Potato Festival, which José Amarelinho has no doubts is «the great gastronomic festival in the south of the Tagus during the low tourist season», will have this year close to 90 exhibitors, a number that has increased since last year. “This also attests to the growing interest that the festival arouses”, concludes the mayor.
The event opens on the afternoon of this Friday, the 30th, at 18 pm, by the Secretary of State for Agriculture José Diogo Albuquerque. The festival is open every day from 12 pm to midnight.
The festival is the result of a partnership established for several years between the Municipality of Aljezur and the Association of Sweet Potato Producers of Aljezur with the main purpose of enhancing the agricultural production of this centuries-old product with unique flavor and characteristics, largely due to the soil and the climate that the demarcated area presents for its production.
GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
NOVEMBER 30 (Friday)
12:00 – Opening Festival
14:00 pm – Robot Coupe Chef
15:00h – Sweet Potato Liquor Presentation | Talurdo Aguardentes
16:00h – Chef | Valter Castanheira
(School of Hospitality and Tourism of Portimão)
17:00h – Presentation of the Aljezur Beach Postcard Collection | João Mariano
(Edition: Municipality of Aljezur)
17:20 pm – Local Cook | Ti Cesaltina and Amelia
18:00h – INAUGURATION OF THE FESTIVAL
– Chef | Guram
19:00h – Chef | Pedro Mendes
20:00h – Musical Moment | Music for Pleasure
Amadeu (Guitar) and Isabel Duarte (Mandolin)
Tent Stage Zone
21:00h – Sweet Potato Ice Cream Confection | Lorelli and Loris
22:00h – Wine Presentation | Confraternity of Oenophiles and Gastronomy of the Algarve
23:00h – Closing of the Festival
permanent circus animation
DECEMBER 01st (Saturday)
12:00 – Opening Festival
– Robot Coupe Chef
13:00h – Local Cook | Maria José (Zézinha)
14:00h – Wine Presentation | Confraternity of Oenophiles and Gastronomy of the Algarve
14:30h – Chef | Victor Esteves
– Musical Moment | Students from EBI/JI Aljezur (Students from Rogil)
Tent Stage Zone
15:15 pm – Book Presentation | “Moments” by Zabel Moita
(Edition: 1000Olhos – Image and Communication | Support: Municipality of Aljezur)
16:00 pm – Sweet Potato Confectionery Contest
17:00h – Chef | Valter Castanheira
(School of Hospitality and Tourism of Portimão)
17:40h – Musical Moment | little earth
Municipality Stand Zone
18:00h – Circus Activity Moment | Rachel Nicoletti
Somewhere on the Pavilion Ceiling
18:20h – Chef | Sweet cake
19:00h – Sweet Potato Liquor Presentation | Talurdo Aguardentes
19:10h – Musical Moment | All Mandala and friends
Tent Stage Zone
19:20h – Chef | cane
20:00h – Fashion show “Babies and Children from 0 to 16 years old” | Kidswear SUSA.PT
Municipality Stand Area
21:00h – Circus Activity Moment | Rachel Nicoletti
Somewhere on the Pavilion Ceiling
21:30h – Musical Moment | All Mandala and friends
Tent Stage Zone
– Sweet Potato Ice Cream Confection | Lorella and Loris
22:15 pm – Robot Coupe Chef
23:00h – Closing of the Festival
Permanent circus animation. |
DECEMBER 02 (Sunday)
12:00 – Opening Festival
13:00 pm – Robot Coupe Chef
14:00h – Chef | Bengaló + Victor Esteves
15:00h – Circus Activity Moment | Rachel Nicoletti
Somewhere on the Pavilion Ceiling
15:20 pm – Chef | José Moura
(School of Hospitality and Tourism of Portimão)
– Musical Moment | little earth
Tent Stage Zone
16:00h – Chef | Augusto Lima
17:00h – Chef | Sweet cake
– Musical Moment | little earth
Tent Stage Zone
17:40h – Presentation of the Aljezur Historic Postcards Collection | João Mariano
(Edition: 1000Olhos – Image and Communication and Association for the Defense of Heritage
History and Archeology of Aljezur)
18:00h – Circus Activity Moment | Rachel Nicoletti
Somewhere on the Pavilion Ceiling
18:20h – Local Cook | Miss Rosa
– Musical Moment | Amadeu (Guitar) and Isabel Duarte (Mandolin)
Tent Stage Zone
20:00h – Wine Presentation | Confraternity of Oenophiles and Gastronomy of the Algarve
– Musical Moment | little earth
Tent Stage Zone
21:00 pm – Robot Coupe Chef
22:00h – Closing of the Festival
permanent circus animation
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