Today I want to tell you about the Fundación El Pájaro Azul – The Bluebird Foundation in English – and the first charity olive oil tasting we held together a couple of months ago on 13th March.

El Pájaro Azul is an Asturian NGO, founded in Oviedo in 2009 to create opportunities for those who have none.

The foundation’s name symbolizes the search for happiness, something that, in their words, “can only be found by recognising who we are.”

Their logo, designed by artist Vicente Pastor, features a bluebird lifting stars from the earth into the sky: a metaphor for the light that lives within each of us, and our desire and right to let it shine.

At La Cultivada, our logo is also a bird created by an artist. A bird that can see in the night, whose vision reaches far beyond others.

It symbolises wisdom,the cultivation of the human spirit and good agricultural practice. Owls are in fact a common sight in organic olive groves.

Our two birds brought us together in Seville, on a never-ending journey all the way to Sub-Saharan Africa, where the women leading the Fundación are running childhood education programs, training women in agricultural cooperatives and much, much more.

With such a meaningful collaboration behind it, it’s no surprise that our EVOO tasting, led by Sharon Page, was a great success.

The 25 participants were eager to discover more, leaping into the world of Olive Oil and busting some of the most common myths along the way.

They came away happy having learned to identify the common defects of a Virgin Oil and how to appreciate the qualities of a veritable olive juice.

Among the attendees at this Cultivated event was Inmaculada González-Carbajal García, the founder and president of El Pájaro Azul, who had a wonderful time capturing it all in photos.

Given the growing interest in educating palates and with 100% of the event’s proceeds going directly to the foundation’s projects, this tasting is sure to be the first of many.

To learn more about the foundation: El Pájaro Azul.

Let’s keep cultivating a better world.

Elena Vecino

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