The Trimona Yogurt produced in New York by Bulgarian Atanas Vulev has reached the finals of the prestigious "American Made” contest. It is organized by popular TV presenter and businesswoman Martha Stewart, who supports innovation. The contest is very well known in the USA as one that is encouraging local production. Vulev produces organic yogurt using Lactobacillus bulgaricus ferment. The milk is supplied by farmers in the vicinity of New York and no preservatives or thickeners are used. The yogurt produced by Atanas Vulev is named after his home town of Plovdiv that had the name of Trimontium in ancient past. The product became winner in the "Food, agriculture and sustainability" category. Online voting ends on October 13th, 2014 and winners will become known on the next day. They will receive a cash prize and will present their products to investors from the USA. You can vote for Atanas Vulev on the website www.marthastewart.com .  
 
Atanas Vulev told us more about this prestigious contest:

"I start with the essentials. We need as many votes as possible. If 500 people vote for Trimona per day we could win. I say we, because yogurt is something truly Bulgarian and I'm just a promoter of this original Bulgarian product. The time has come to present it in America. The competition involved more than 500 candidates in different categories, but the winner will be only one, selected through online voting. The nine who follow the winner will be selected by the judges. We are fighting for the first place and must win it,"

 
The Bulgarian has a curious story to tell. When he was a young agronomist he went to the U.S. and decided to try his luck there with music and theater, which was his dream. This was some 24 years ago.

Atanas Vulev is an agronomist who graduated from the Institute of Agriculture in Plovdiv with a degree in tropical and subtropical agriculture. This has little to do with yogurt production, but still provided him with solid training. "I studied chemistry, microbiology, plant physiology, and used this knowledge to start my business,” he says.

"I also used to produce raw-fermented sausages according to Bulgarian recipes," Vulev goes on to say. This was an interesting period of my life because I wanted to produce something that was missing in America. Many of the Bulgarian emigrants feel nostalgia for the homeland and always speak about the delicious Bulgarian cuisine. Cooking has always been my hobby and gradually turned into my business. Bulgarians have incredibly delicious food, but Americans do not know about it. Everyone wants to share their culture in this world of immigrants here. In this country people are open to all kinds of innovations. Here various foods from all over the world have become popular. I do not see why Bulgarian sausages, yogurt, cheese, etc. shouldn’t become popular and liked. This has already started happening and the process will not stop."

English: Alexander Markov