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On September 26 in the village of Sheltozero there was held a small festival of the Veppsian Kalitka which director of the Karelian Manor agricultural consumer co-operative Victor Kuznetsov and director of Sheltozero Veppsian ethnographic museum Natalia Anhimova expect to have a brilliant future.

Despite of the grey sky and piercing wind, almost one hundred tourists from different corners of the republic and neighbouring regions have come to take a look at the holiday.

There was a competition of jams and picklings. Recipes were printed or written down near the name of the dish, so that visitors could take along secrets of cooks from Verkhny Ruchei and Sheltozero to remember and to please the family.

On the other side of the street tourists were offered Veppsian fish soup and shish kebabs. There also were birch-bark woven goods on sale - horns, caps, baskets, boxes, charms and souvenir bast shoes.

«It's not gods who make pots.» There also were earthen handbells, whistles, necklaces and other beautiful hand-made articles.

It may take long to tell about the Magic Vegetable exhibition and lotteries, about pleasure of the audience that enjoyed performances of the Veppsian national choir founded in 1936. Separate article may be devoted to expositions of Sheltozero Veppsian ethnographic museum where that day the house was full, however, the the hit of the festival, of course, was the Veppsian kalitka itself.

Center of street was vanishing in the haze that rose from samovars and from cups with tea. People were eating and buying kalitkas to take home. Among all the master-classes the most popular was the master-class on baking kalitkas.

Back in 2006 Head of Karelia Sergey Katanandov has signed the agreement on implementation of the priority national project of agriculture development in territory of the republic between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fish Industry and Ecology of the RK and the Government of the RK where, in particular, within the scope of development of the second direction of the priority national program Incentives of Development of Small Management Forms of agroindustrial complex development it was provided creation of agricultural consumer co-operatives. Ministry of Agriculture, Fish Industry and Ecology of the RK has taken active part in initiation of creation of many cooperative societies. The planned target established in the agreement has been executed, and now in territory of Karelia there are more than 40 cooperative societies.

Now the Ministry within the scope of the program supports cooperative societies engaged in both agricultural, and non-agricultural kinds of activity. One of the most successful projects in this activity not related directly to the agriculture was creation of the Karelian Manor agricultural consumer co-operative. Now this is the enterprise which unites owners of guest houses, local cooperative societies, local and other enterprises.

And, director of the Karelian Manor agricultural consumer co-operative Victor Kuznetsov says, now demand for rural tourism exceeds the offer considerably. Thus, the potential is great. According to Victor Kuznetsov, now on preliminary calculations the turnover of rural tourismit involves about one billion roubles. It is also necessary to consider that, according to the statistics, one owner of the small rural house provides work for 5 to 12 people more engaged in the adjacent spheres.

- Rural tourism, - director of the Karelian Manor agricultural consumer co-operative says, - is good for the difference between all houses in every region. In this business there are no enemies, there are only friends and partners.

Negotiations are carried on now on the teamwork with Murmansk region on development of 4 more international projects next year. One of the most perspective is the tourist route offering 3 days in Finland and 2 days in Karelia. As for the Veppsian Kalitka, in particular, Victor Kuznetsov is cherishing hopes that this festival will be celebrated in territory of the entire republic. Though kalitka is a national Karelian dish, it is cooked in every region of the republic in its own way. And now, when the so-called 'gastronomic' tourism becomes popular, such festival may be of great interest for gourmets.