Ama's Grove
What are two Americans really doing on a Greek mountain? On the one hand, we are trying to live with greater simplicity in the lap of Mother Nature and make more with less. And here in lies our inspiration for Ama’s Grove….. RESPECT.
Respect for the competence and hard work of our Greek neighbors and friends who grace our lives every day. Respect for Spiro, the local blacksmith and beekeeper, for Voula, who tends to her family, her garden, to us, makes cheese, bread, olives, oil, and shepherds 450 goats besides. Respect for Alecco and his daughter, Georgia, who have made the village gas station into a kind of cultural center for others and a rescue center for us. Respect for Pandelis who knows trees. For
Panayiota – a real Wonder Woman whose work in her own orchards has given such strength to her limbs and brightness to her eyes. Bottom line. These are not people who blow over in the first wind. What is more, it just so happens that every farmer in this valley where we make our home is an expert when it comes to making the best olive oil that we have ever tasted. These farmers in our valley have been harvesting olives for 7,000 years and it is a wonder to see the hills come alive at harvest with the music of families, dogs, and trucks rumbling down the road. As foreigners, we have shared in the bounty of their harvests. From Yannis comes the large tins of oil dropped at our doorstep. At the gas station, we receive apricots. Panayiota is always sharing eggs, herbs and oranges. Voula from Vrousti is always bringing vegetables that should be receiving gold medals in the Zucchini Olympics. Argos is not the oldest town in Greece and Europe without reason. The “bright land” (its ancient name) is where things grow and where things have always grown. It is where the olive trees are spread like beautiful tapestries over the hills.
So this is why we two Silicon Valley residents who live life on a Greek mountain part time would like to introduce you to some very competent characters and in that process bring to you some of the best tasting olive oil in the known world. Just as food is a love language in Greece, we will hope that the olive oil we can bring to you will communicate something of the Greece that we have come to know. The proceeds from Ama’s Grove will benefit our Greek community and its environs. But it will stand for the faces of the Greek families who work these groves and who practice the true arts of civilization with their “day by day excellence.” And this, on behalf of some of us, well, two of us, who have been known (and forgiven) for having had, on occasion, to bleat like a sheep to order a meal! We invite you to meet some of them - our friends, neighbors, and teachers in life, and we hope that you will enjoy the olive we bring to you.