The Horizon Europe project Hort2theFuture (H2F) and the gardening app Fryd are joining forces to mobilise home gardeners and gardening communities around better soil management through simple, guided experiments. In early November, Fryd Lab will introduce new ways for gardeners to become citizen scientists and transform their gardens and planting pots into horticultural laboratories. Fryd will launch a set of experiments starting in the spring 2026, along with a new Garden Organic feature and an in-app soil quiz. The Hort2theFuture project will contribute to this initiative through the Tea Bag Index experiment – a simple test that measures how quickly soil organisms [...]

The Hort2theFuture consortium gathered at Corvinus University in Budapest this September for its annual meeting, bringing together 28 project partners from 12 European countries. Over two productive days, the consortium reviewed the strong progress made in the first 18 months of the project and aligned plans for the next steps in advancing sustainable horticulture. Sharing the project’s progress The meeting opened with updates from each Work Package Leader, covering project management, communication, and knowledge exchange activities, followed by discussions on sustainability assessment, peat alternatives, and input reduction strategies. Highlights included early results from peat-reduced growing media trials, with wood fibre [...]

A low-tech test with big potential As part of the Hort2thefuture project, the European Training Academy (EUTA), led by Steve Quarrie, is working with growers in Serbia and North Macedonia to test a simple but powerful method for measuring soil health. Known as the teabag test, it uses the rate of teabag decomposition as an indicator of microbial activity in the soil. The idea is straightforward. A teabag is weighed, buried in the soil, and left for a few months. It is then dug up, cleaned, dried, and weighed again. The loss in weight reflects the breakdown of organic material [...]

Supporting change through collaboration Since September 2024, the EUTA team has been visiting growers across Serbia as part of the Hort2thefuture project. Led by Steve Quarrie and Ratko Bojović, and coordinated by Milena Micevski, the team has travelled from Belgrade to Valjevo, Ub, Mionica, and Zrenjanin, engaging with 13 farms in total. These include both conventional and organic producers of fruits, vegetables, salad crops, and wine grapes. The visits form part of Task 6.2 of the project, which focuses on action learning and behavioural change with professional growers. The goal is to support them in testing and co-developing innovative tools [...]

Last year, the EUTA team helped researchers from Serbia, primarily through our review service, to submit 50 project proposals for the Ideja, Science Fund call. Some of our clients with whom we collaborated during the writing of Project Ideas are: Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (IMGGI), Institute for Biological Research Siniša Stanković (IBISS), INN Vinča, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, etc., a total of 19 research institutions. After more than a year, the first stage of project evaluation was completed and 223 out of a [...]

After several years of work with primary schools and organic growers in Serbia, the results of these Strength2Food activities are having a tangible impact. To improve the nutritional quality of school meals and encourage schools to use short food supply chains for their food procurements, EUTA has been working with nearly 30 primary schools. The first of these (OŠ Kralj Petar I, Belgrade) submitted procurement documents for fresh organic vegetables to the procurement web portal in July, 2020. EUTA has been able to demonstrate that organic vegetables are a realistic option for parents to afford. Despite the relatively high prices [...]

Led by Strength2Food partner EUTA, during October 2018, children in 32 Serbian primary schools and their parents completed questionnaires on food preferences and attitudes towards food. Just over 4,000 children and over 3,000 parents completed questionnaires. Schools taking part in the project are now receiving feedback on the results of their children’s food preferences. In addition to an overall report on findings from the children’s food preference questionnaire, reports for individual schools are also being prepared. The overall report, together with accompanying graphics will go on Strength2Food’s Serbian website (https://sites.google.com/view/strength2foodsrbija), and, with the individual report, will also go to the [...]

The half-hour show dedicated to the Strength2Food project was broadcast on February 22, 2019, on the RTS2 channel in Serbia. She focused on working with primary schools in Serbia, including several interviewees participating in the project: Ratko Bojović, Steve Quarrie, Roberto Bassi, Ilaria Rossi, Beatrice Biasini. The show recorded by Dr. Aleksandra Šarković (editor of educational and scientific programs) on the RTS2 channel was created after the visit of the team from Barila and UniPR who demonstrated cooking techniques to chefs in schools in Serbia. (article on the website from December 2018). Interviews with the aforementioned people who actively participate [...]

Three representatives of the BARILLA team, Roberto Bassi (chef) and Ilaria Rossi from Barilla Academia and Beatrice Biassini from Madegus, were in Serbia from 3rd to 5th December to give demonstrations of cooking and advice on meal nutrition to cooks from schools taking part in the Strength2Food project. Two primary schools were selected for the demonstrations: "Kosta Trifković" in Novi Sad and "Dositej Obradović" in Belgrade, chosen because of the availability of suitable facilities for giving demonstrations and the timing of lunches in those schools. Accompanied by the EUTA team, the first day was a visit to each school to [...]