Our partners, the University of Ljubljana, ZRS and KOTO organised a workshop of the Living Lab ‘Slovenia – Istria’ on 10 October 2024 in Marezige, Istria region, Slovenia.
The event included a tour of the olive grove where we will conduct experiments with the newly formulated soil improver and a visit to the Babič olive mill.
The first part of the event consisted of a visit to the soil improver test site in the olive orchard of ZRS Koper, where we held a workshop on soil sampling and visual soil quality assessment. Doc. Dr. Rok Mihelič gave a practical lecture on tillage and no-till systems, we talked about fertilization and soil improvers and showed the difference between undisturbed forest soils and cultivated orchard soils.
The second part of the event took place in the olive oil mill, where Rok Babič presented the olive oil pressing process. The ingredients for our soil improver were then presented and an overview of their chemical composition was given. The discussion was accompanied by a tasting of fresh olive oil provided by Mr. Babič, a member of the Living Lab and owner of the olive mill.