Two civil engineers decided to change course in their lives and explore the botanical wealth of the Kamvounia mountains, at 1500 metres altitude, where one of their grandfathers and father once cultivated wheat, oats and potatoes.
Hidden in the mountains of Grevena is the naturalistic passion and love of two friends, Asterios Ganas and Chrysovalantis Koyios, for their region's aromatic plants and herbs.
A lot has changed since the past. The only thing that has remained the same is the authenticity of the virgin land that continues with the same flourishing maturity to contain, for generations and generations, its aromatic treasures.
Authentic rural breakfast
The herbs of Asterios and Chrysovalantis grow in areas with a total surface area of 35 to 40 acres and are cared for using biodynamic cultivation methods.
"We are not talking about extensive crops, and of course, we are not even talking about mass production," Chrysovalantis clarifies to me.
"Before we even started to study the whole business, we entered into a three-year cooperation process with the National Agricultural Research Foundation (ETHIAGE) to clone the DNA of native herbs, replant them and finally certify through a series of tests that the new seeds perfectly match the native plants (the original DNA), in their taste and organoleptic characteristics," he adds.
As Chrisovalantis informs me, the region's microclimate is unique because of the northern winds, low humidity, and temperature differences between day and night.
And just like that, the two friends started building their vision.
"A vision that from the beginning did not move along strictly business paths and that was enlarged more by the need to give society an answer not to what should be produced but to why it should be," clarifies Chrysovalantis.
"Besides," he adds, "we always had a basket of the Greek, rural breakfast in mind and how to promote it to the whole world."
A basket, as I can see by looking at it, is full of herbs, teas, honey, olive oil and dairy products, all of which so strongly embrace the wealth-producing freshness of northern Greece's mountainous and semi-mountainous villages.
Cold herbal drinks for the summer and blended teas for the winter
"Now we have finished the tea harvest, the mint is being prepared, then the fennel, at the beginning of August the lovage and then the blackberries which we collect for the (quantitatively limited) production of our juices (combined with pomegranate)," he says.
The first sorting takes place in Deskati, and then the products arrive at facilities in Larissa.
Harvesting is done by hand, “although we have mechanised some operations due to lack of manpower. Perhaps this development will give us an even better quality product because we harvest when production is still at its peak," Chrysovalantis explains.
In every effort, Chrysovalantis' parents are by their side. With a farming background, they first tried to convince him to return to the land.
“'You studied so many years to become a farmer?' they told me. Although it took me five years to convince them, today, they are proud," he admits.
The Greek market first got to know them with their hot teas: blends of aromatic plants and single-variety products, such as mountain tea, mint, lovage, chamomile, sage, honeysuckle, fennel, and some herbal blends.
Their range of products was then completed by their aromatics, which were enclosed in elaborate triangular packaging made of recycled paper.
The iced herbal tea completed the range, and this "in an attempt to fill the gap that existed in the Greek market", notes Chrysovalantis.
Cold herbal drinks in an impressive product, on which the two friends create in collaboration with the mountainous wealth of their region, all the multi-diversity of the northern Helladic countryside.
"We named this series Botanical, and it has strong antioxidant effects, a finding that came after tests by the Biochemistry Department of the University of Thessaly."
These excellent blends of herbs, without preservatives, sugar, or colourings, are sealed in small and large glass bottles and adorn the shelves of selected delicatessens in Greece and abroad. They are also offered to customers of cafes and luxury hotel complexes on islands and in the rest of mainland Greece.
"We do natural pasteurisation; we bottle at very high temperatures, so we don't have to add preservatives," Chrysovalantis informs me.
Homemade jams and butters for creative cooking
The rural breakfast basket is complemented by pomegranate and raspberry jams from the organically grown trees. They are made from 100% fruit, grape juice and lemon.
"My father," Chrysovalantis explains to me, "used to grow blueberries, then he gave up and we decided to revive these crops."
In their future plans is the expansion of their products to other places abroad (they are already available in Europe and Emirates), such as Canada and the rest of the northern European countries.
"We want to develop our dairy production. We are already doing some tests on butter with the few animals we have on our estates. The butter product that we are launching started by chance, but it is already well received in the restaurant industry. We also brought some truffles from France and we are preparing to make new products addressing the requirements of fine dinning," he said.
Seferi 129, Larissa, tel.: 2410 552220, 2410 552220, info@corphes.gr
Loukia Chrisovitsanou is a columnist for Cantina. Translated by Paul Antonopoulos.
READ MORE: Peter Diamandis was at the “wedding of the year” in India.