Bizi Ona
Slow Food from the Basque Country
The objective of Bizi Ona is to promote a virtuous mode of consumption which takes into account the traditions and history of our territory. Which is fair for our local producers and respectful of the environment.
The life of a territory, the maintenance of our mountains... They have the know-how, we have to make it known!
Slow Food Bizi Ona currency
Denbora Hartu, "Take the time"
2002
The Creation of the convivium of the Basque Country:
BIZI ONA
The story of Bizi Ona is initially that of 5 friends determined to oppose junk food and to preserve the environment in the Basque Country. Because even if gastronomic traditions are more preserved there than in other regions of the world, the Basque Country does not escape health problems such as obesity, urban pressure, the increasing weight of supermarkets and quite simply fragility of this food heritage. This is why, having heard of the Slow Food through the convivium , in 2002 they created the convivium “Bizi Ona, the Slow Food of the Basque Country” to raise awareness about eating better.
The Comvivium very quickly returned to the campaign on the simple idea that you must first sweep your house clean. The famous dishes of the Basque Country too often ran the risk of being misused in imitations, ersatz, ratatouilles under the guise of piperade , hash Parmentier under the guise of axoa , pancakes under the mask of Basque cakes .
We must pay great tribute to several great characters of Bizi Ona such as Henri Bernard Lapeyre, great leader of our convivium , Jean Roland our wise man and teacher of the Lycée Hotelier de Biarritz, Jean Bernard Hiriart treasurer of Bizi Ona , eminent person of our cultural territory.
They left us after giving a lot of their time for our association and our Basque Country.
The objective?
Create “fusions”, links between producers and consumers by going to farms and highlighting quality local products.
How ?
- Go directly to the producers, meet them, understand their production approaches and challenges, taste: an essential approach to discover the sectors and the know-how that could have died out;
Slow Food for Biodiversity programs Arche du Goût , Sentinelles );
- Introduce the bearers of quality Basque gastronomy to a community of members by offering them activities related to eating better, by meeting the producers and tasting the products made by the producers themselves or cooked by restaurateurs.
The members of Bizi Ona are involved through our territory.
Bizi Ona Bayonne celebrations 2024
Bizi Ona preparation of Patxaran 03/08/24
Banka trout 07/09/24
Enautenea Farm, Tambourin family 07/09/24
Harvest at Pomerol Clos St André 09/21/24
Discovery of the Pagos de Araiz estate in Navarre on 09/26/24
Kattalin Kesting
Valérie Thiebaut
The members of the office, missing Julien, Anais and Jenofa.
Iban Lavaud
Virginie Hildelbert
Virginie Hildelbert
Florence Devemy
Arthur Jamin
Bixente Marichular
Karine Alvareda
St Jean de Luz Fermentation Festival 10/19/24
For 15 years Bizi Ona organized the Exceptional Market on the port of St Jean de Luz and then around Les Halles, our local market.
Hundreds of people attend the World Blood Sausage Championship . For the winner, it's quite a publicity stunt.
Ah! The melody of sausages quivering in boiling pans. The smell of charcuterie traveling around the Ciboure fronton from 10 a.m. in the morning. And these hundreds of gourmets who wait for their hot plates before tackling the aperitif (unless it is to digest those from the day before)... Let it be said, the Iparralde world pudding championship , organized by the Ciboure Festival Committee and Bizi Ona Slow Food during Bixintxo, is a real moment of celebration.
But just because it smells like a feast doesn't mean you have to do anything. “It’s a very serious competition, because it’s renowned. It is estimated that the professional who wins the prize sees his turnover increase by 10 to 15% in the following weeks,” assure Rafaël Indo , of the Brotherhood of Basque Gastronomy , and Bixente Marichular , vice-president of Slow Food. Bizi Ona. For this sixth edition, it was Pantxoa Aizpurua , from the Golf butcher's shop in Ciboure , who won the Txapela (beret of honor) of the champion, professional category (butchers, charcutiers, producers).
When blood sausage becomes a science… an art
The best in the world ?
Please note, as stipulated in article 9 of the competition, the organization's quality commission reserves the right to monitor the quality of the winning products. “In the event of failure to monitor the quality of the sausages, the commission reserves the right to make this known through the press. » We told you, the organizers of the Iparralde world blood sausage championship are keeping an eye on things. But why are we talking about a world championship when the competition is only reserved for producers from the French Basque Country? “It’s a translation problem,” smiles the president of the Festival Committee, Jojo Aramburu . We wrote “grandiose” in Basque and it became “global” in French. But we still left the title since. ".
We organized with the Ciboure festival committee as well as the Cofradia of Donostia the Iparralde Boudin World Championship competition.
From the Basque Country to Italy
Sensitive to the foundations of the Slow Food good, clean and fair way of eating , many Basque producers went to Turin in Italy to participate in the International Slow Food Fair “Terra Madre” . This event, which takes place every two years near Bra , the birthplace of Slow Food, brings together producers and actors of the movement from all over the world in favor of maintaining biodiversity. On this occasion, these Basque producers were able to meet other producers from all over the world, share their know-how and talk about their history as well as their work during conferences. Following this Lurrama , the Exhibition of peasant and sustainable agriculture in the Basque Country was born.
Eager to protect and make known their know-how linked to traditional products of the region but threatened with disappearance by the search for profitability of industrial agriculture, some of them, gathered in sectors, worked to gain the support of their products to the programs offered by Slow Food for biodiversity such as the Ark of Taste and the Presidiums .
After a long period of consultation and drafting of specifications detailing their stories and methods, given to one of the 5 representatives of biodiversity in France, 4 are now admitted to the Arche products . of Taste and 8 within the Sentinels .
On the side of the Arch of Taste which recognizes a technique, a breed or a traditional variety of the territory threatened with disappearance, we find:
The Line Hake of Saint Jean de Luz.
Other currently candidate sectors:
Euskal Gaztaina
, the chestnut of the Basque Country . Erle Beltza
, the black bee of the Basque Country . Pirenaica Cow .
Ultimately the sector has two other dimensions:
Social: by allowing all players in the sector to structure themselves and help each other;
Environmental: by moving towards more natural and environmentally friendly practices.
They can claim the status of " sentry ", as is already the case for:
Three of these sentries are today in signs of quality:
Kintoa,
Sheep's cheese, Ardi gasna ( Ossau-Iraty ) with an AOP,
Biper Eztia, sweet pepper with its Red Label,
Arto Gorria Corn , Grand Roux Basque , has its own organic quality brand.
We are working to mobilize chefs who promote Basque gastronomy in order to enhance and promote these high-quality local products.
