July 16, 2023

Gastronomos Publication

Few weeks ago we welcomed Gastronomos Magazine and went on safari in our exotic landscape, on the southern border of Heraklion with Lasithi. Our founders Giorgos Dimitriou and Giorgos Giannadakis made an appointment with the journalists, in Tertsa Viannou.

“Giorgos Dimitriou, a farmer nearby for twenty years now, collaborated with his cousins Giorgos and Manos Giannadakis – a younger generation of farmers – and they decided to work in an organic way since 2006”

When the journalists from Gastronomos arrived at Vourdolakos, with its subtropical climate, we stepped out of the countryside and welcomed them in our exotic plantation among unknown plants with juicy fruits. “This is our rehearsal”. It’s our plot of land that we do our experiments, plant and test new crops. Our founder Giorgos Dimitriou, a farmer nearby for twenty years now, collaborated with his cousins Giorgos and Manos Giannadakis – a younger generation of farmers – and they decided to work in an organic way since 2006 when they started experiments and tests. We then learned to make compost, found out the advantages of co-cultivation, observed the peculiarities of each plant and identified, for example, that the melia (lilac) can and does retain moisture and coolness in the soil. “We did everything organic and moved on”.

Exploration of our plantation

As we walk through the plantation we notice everything from lemon grass and passion fruit, to seven dozen papayas, aloes, pepinos, tamarillos, guavas and dragon fruits. Next to them are planted bubbles, the fruit that happens to be native to both Peru and southern Crete, where I am informed that the locals call it fragouli. A little further down he has a large banana grove, with trees laden with sweet and honeyed fruit with a strong aroma, and then tomatoes, beans, peanuts, parsley and maratha, mint, beans, chickpeas, kritama, chives and Thai peppers. Walking through their colorful jungle, we cut and offered our guests two juicy passion fruit (a plant related to passion fruit), which is known for its beautiful flower, and whose fruit is small, full of soft and gelatinous crimson seeds, which many know them under the name Passion of the Christ. As well as tamarillo, papayas and mangoes.

“You need to know how all these fruits are used, and part of our job is to communicate this to our customers.”

Some of our fruits are processed, such as bananas and papayas that are dried, avocados from which they extract the oil, and they also make carob honey. “You must know how all these fruits are used, and part of our job is to communicate this to our customers” they explain as we observe Mrs. Angeliki, George’s mother, filling the papayas with rice and vegetables, as if they are tomatoes, and she wraps her dolmadaki in sweet potato leaves.