Eleni describes to us that despite the difficulties, with passion and a lot of love for pure Greek products, she produces her organic products. Let’s get to know her..!
Tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you get started? How did you come up with the idea to get involved with food?
I am primarily a farmer’s profession. I have an organic citrus farm legacy from my father. The marketing of organic products brought me into contact with stores all over Greece. I saw that organic spoon sweets were missing from their shelves. That is the gap I wanted to fill. The sweets were plentiful in the house I grew up with as well as the molasses, so I felt very proud of the original spoon sweets I made Without Sugar! The recipes were based on the memories and secrets of my grandmother and mom but with modern optic, with new sweeteners, the grape. So I made new recipes myself, since the sweetener was new. The moment I made the decision was when that year we had small fruits and I couldn’t sell a respectable piece of production because the market didn’t want it. Really who make the market rules? Being an organic farmer is an opinion, you respect, you hurt, that’s how I started. The idea of jam was not our family habit, but when I saw that they matched cheese or wine and barbeque, then it became a passion! This is where the sweetener has to do with the grape, it gives the difference and the match!
Tell us a little bit about the brand. What does he stand for? What purpose did you create it for?
My company is called ‘’The Family Farm’’. He declares that it is a family estate and the brand, the carefree little girl who makes swing, the purity of the product and the way it is produced. To produce fruits according to the rules of organic farming is a value!! To make them in a household pot is a value!! Do you know what difference there is in the color if, instead of one kilo of fruit you put two? Huge! The boiling time? It is greatly reduced! Sugar-Free Products!! Huge value!
How did you get started? What difficulties did you face?
Many difficulties, all defeated my passion. Every difficulty higher! When the first orange sweet went to Mrs. Ada in Syntagma in early 2018, he said: are there such products? I still hear her words in my ears. In 2019 they went to Mykonos, in 2020 they were enrolled in gastronomos magazine twice, in 2020 an innovation award of the region of Crete, 2021 in a wellness hotel group. Sales in 2021 grew exponentially.
Tell us about your products. What makes them different?
I don’t know if it’s my products that are different. My goal is my continuous improvement.
My products are certified organically as a final product. Very few products of farmers and not entrepreneurs, belong to this category due to cost. With barcode, QR Code, numbered like wines! The fruits are organic, I grow them, I cultivate them and I choose them from the field in the appropriate ripening, in the appropriate sugars.
NO ADDED SUGAR
No preservatives or additives or unknown elements orange + sweetener (grape)+lemon lemon+sweetener (grape), grapefruit + sweetener (grape). Pure, well-known, ingredients. With respect to the environment and the sustainability of nature, a priority nowadays!
With seasonality!! I haven’t now, it’s not time now to ask for orange. We will have spring again then I will wait for your order. So I talk to every single customer who asks me and I know he will be waiting for me as he expected me last year. Without burdening the planet, since the sweetener did not pollute the environment. An example is agave and maple, etc. they pollute a lot of the environment to come to Greece. They are greek products exclusively, in their entirety and handmade literally as in the old days.
I DON’T WANT MODERNIZATION IN THE BUSINESS. I’M LOOKING FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THE ORIGINALS!
Tell us about the raw materials?
Fruits that I grow, certified organic. Sweetening substance the grape, certified organic Greek grapes.
Are there any of your products that stand out?
I love all my products separately. I have a wide range of recipes and mostly I love these hidden recipes I feel pained that are on the margins of commercialism. I believe that their time will be found, at least one day I will take out if a small booklet of recipes e.g. my great love the grapefruit jam with sejuan pepper. Sejuan pepper is one of the few products that there is no organic. I asked and received permission from the ministry to use them for a year. Let me tell you that I love peppers separately and they made me love jam. This year I learned that we have pipe trees in Crete and my consciousness is clear about the environmental footprint. After making many special recipes such as guava with marjoram I turned to simplicity. I love the lemon jam separately. Ingredients lemon + sweetener (grape).
Give us some suggestions for your products (ways of use except the classics, tips or recipes, etc.)
I will not say ideas that belong to a chef, I will tell you everyday applications all over Greece. For a special breakfast, rustic bread with sourdough spread with galen (Cretan) jam and freshly ground black pepper. A carob cheesecake, with yogurt sauce and jam. For dressing in a green salad, with handmade mustard mustard from Crete, for glazing in roasts. Also, the Cretan apaki blends wonderfully with the orange, as well as the Cretan cheeses graviera, anthotyro. Do not forget white or rosé wine.
Can Greek producers make a difference in the midst of the crisis?
Yes, Greeks can make a difference and make a difference. Their passion and perseverance characterizes us!
The destination of my sweets in the beginning was the bourgeois family. Now it has turned to the visitor of the country, the island, who will take a jar all over Greece. To boast about the farmer producer, about his innovation, to come and visit me in my field, to convey my experience to him and take it with him so the visitor will come again, looking for authentic Greece.
On the other hand, it seems that the large hotel groups have made a turn to authentic, local, organic products. This combination, if implemented correctly and not at the expense of the farmer, will promote Greek products correctly and at the price they should and thus Greece will rise from the crisis.
Why did you choose to participate in and support the Wise Greece Movement?
I like the social face of Wise. This is both my way of thinking and my way of life. It would be an honor to participate with my products for this purpose! this is also the best way to lift Greece a little higher.
