Celebrate Malaga province's 'liquid gold' this coming weekend

Riogordo in the Axarquía on the eastern side of Malaga province is celebrating one its main industries this weekend: olive oil. The programme for 'La Molienda' (the milling) includes workshops, tastings, guided tours, exhibitions and cooking demonstrations.

The Fiesta de la Molienda is being held from Friday 21 to Sunday 23 February. On Saturday 22 traditional chickpea stew and on Sunday 23 a typical Axarquía salad, both prepared by Francisco Perdiguero Rivero, will be on offer to try and there will be a market selling local products on Calle Iglesia.

The Ethnographic Museum on Calle Iglesia is hosting the ‘El olivo para el hombre’, exhibition, made up of paintings by Riogordo residents, Ukrainian artist Victoria Dael and Finnish photographer Kristian Kaarna. The exhibition runs until the end of March.

On Saturday at 10am there is a tour of the village's Agro-Olivarera cooperative, where visitors will be offered a traditional miller's breakfast and on the same morning ‘La Molienda de Riogordo’ race, will be taking place. At 1.30pm on Sunday the popular olive stone spitting competition, in which the winner is the person who can spit their stone the furthest, will be taking place.

Also at the Ethnographic Museum, which is in fact a 16th century olive mill, visitors will be able to see the process of the traditional production of 'verdial' olive oil, accompanied by traditional 'Cantes del Olivar' songs sung by ‘El Borbollón’ women's association.

The Ethnographic Museum will also host conferences in Spanish on tasting virgin olive oil given by Alfredo Rivero, director of the Labsur Laboratory in Riogordo, and ‘The importance of local varieties in the framework of 21st century olive growing’, given by David Marcos Merchán, agronomist and head of Viveros Sophie, a marketer of olive plants, especially focused on local and minority varieties with projection.

There will also be a ‘showcooking’ by the Malaga chef Daniel García Peinado and the opportunity to taste local extra virgin olive oil (evoo), cheeses and pastries. Click here for the full programme.