Second Time Around at Medelhavsmuseet
The event was sold out, and while I was prepared for it to be more people than last time, which was also sold out but with a limited crowd of 36 due to Covid-19 restrictions, I had not imagined myself standing before a full aula. Though I knew I would, I felt my pulse increase as people entered the room, and so to ease some of my nervousness, I took a large zip of water with quite some regularity and sought to welcome each visitor as they one by one entered the aula. I had one-by-one washed and sterilized the glass bottles, one-by-one filled them with specific extra virgin olive oils from makers in Southern Puglia, and, with some help, one-by-one labeled them accordingly. I had prepared a visual presentation and went over my notes, not so much to remember them for I know my material by heart, but to have a sense of their order. I had together with the lovely employees at Medelhavsmuseet of Lotta and Elin as well as the interns Edit and Vida, not to forget the amazing staff of Café Bagdad, made sure that the setting was in order for the crowd to enjoy the taste of extra virgin olive oils, olives, frisellini, and taralli. Thus, I was meticulously prepared for the event, yet not for how it made me feel. Not so much of a nervous person in general, I felt energized by the pulse, and as the aula was all filled and the event started, I wanted it to last forever; a blast as it was and a redo that it is supposed to be, I can almost not wait until fall and the third time around.
As with so many food products, and especially those regulated and categorically classified according to specific standards of commodifying measurement, olive oils sometime occur marketed and sold as another quality than they really are. Whether done purposely or as genuine mistakes, this is a problem for the industry as a whole as well as for individual producers, craftsmen and consumers. I talk quite a lot about this in my presentation, and here is a link to a report from the Swedish Livsmedelsverket that I make use of to exemplify this issue: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/livsmedelsverket-17-av-21-olivoljor-felmarkta.
