Our olive groves
Location, varieties, cultivation and more
Landscape & Climate
Our olive groves live in the municipality of Pangaio, on or in the immediate vicinity of our farm and home in Podochori.
The landscape is strikingly beautiful. So much that we didn't want to part with it after a family visit in 2016 and have settled here:
Untouched mountains and foothills of the Pangaio Mountains. At the same time proximity to the sea: the Gulf of Ofrinio, is within sight. Surrounded by old mountain villages, forests, olive groves, vineyards.
The serene silence is occasionally interrupted by the bells of goats, sheep and even mountain cattle.
Our slopes at 320 meters above sea level and the proximity to the sea offer ideal growingconditions for olive trees.
The climate is characterized by contrasts and extremes: hot and dry summers yet bitterly cold winters with high precipitation and strong winds.
Cultivars
When choosing our varieties, we have tried to take many factors into account in order to find the best balance between "the most resistant for our context" and "the best olive for our olive oil ".
We naturally prefer local varieties, but it is also important to us how susceptible the trees are to diseases or plagues, for example - because this presents the biggest challenge for organic farming.
In addition, the selected trees should produce olives that can be easily oiled, have what we consider to be an optimal taste and also achieve high polyphenolic levels.
Finding the right answer to those questions is not easy nor definite. And so our latest grove, which was planted in March 2020, consists of 6 (!) different varieties.
"Megaritiki" has proven itself in our region for many years. The majority of our productive trees are of this variety.
Regenerative agriculture
We believe in organic production, as well as sustainability. According to our understanding though, regenerative agriculture is even better.
We are convinced that growing healthy and tasty produce can go hand in hand with regenerating the soil and ecosystems at the same time.
Our olive groves rarely look "tidy", but are often dominated by the underplanting. It creates a biotope and biodiversity, the microbiological soil organisms become active again and the trees get by with much less external inputs (such as fertilizer, water).
More about regenerative cultivation here.
Transparency & participation
We have chosen our rural life and our agricultural business purposefully, voluntarily and wholeheartedly. We aspire and enjoy to share our enthusiasm, our motivation as well as lessons learned.
We are blessed that our guest house is regularly occupied by friends. And through offering donkey tours or hosting events, we constantly get to meet interesting, curious and appreciative people.
Everyone is welcome to come by, take in the relaxed atmosphere and observe all individual steps of our regenerative olive oil production or even take part in the olive harvest itself.
If time allows, we will also share our experiences on our blog.
Micro producer & Artisan
We are passionately small producers.
Although we call ourselves a 'family business', only 2 of the 3 of us are actively involved in the production of our olive oil.
Our little daughter enjoys contributing wherever she can and her presence, thirst for knowledge and true joy sweeten our work immensely!
Our setup is equally 'minimal' with regard to equipment. As a matter of principle, we don't want to own a tractor (& but rather rent by the hour when absolutely necessary). We enjoy paying skilled people for their valuable time and harvesting by hand instead of having large, rattling harvesters in action.
Even our logo and label was designed with a lot of love by a self-employed graphic designer from the region.
