The cultivation of olives is estimated that started the Neolithic era (7000- 3500 B.C ) mainly in southern Crete. Olive fruits were discovered in the Palace of Knossos and in Archanes, while the most impressive find, is considered a cup of edible olives found in the Palace of Zakros, which kept their flesh for over 3.500 years.
Like thousands of years ago, so even today the olive tree still dominates the island, covering it 65% of agricultural land including at least 35 millions of trees, and offer its valuable benefits not only to its inhabitants but to the whole world in many different ways.
Olive oil is the basis of the Mediterranean food chain, which has been shown to be a model of healthy eating and a factor of longevity. It is a rich source of vitamins, metabolic balance factor, ideal composition for bone growth and rich antioxidant activity.
The Extra Virgin Olive Oil "Erotokritos" of the province of Sitia, traveling around the world, has won the consumer over with its low acidity, its fruity and harmonious taste and its rich aromas. He has imprisoned in his body the microclimate of the area and its special soil conditions. An ideal pleasure is to taste it raw in your salad and to enrich your cooking with the aromas of Crete.
It is no coincidence that I chose it, as Director of production and quality control A. Pitenis Bros S.A., for its creation new product line "Pitenis Premium". Using olive oil "Erotokritos" and Kozani yolk extract, and in collaboration with the company's Biologists team, we managed to increase its antioxidant properties (global patent). So the new series consists of Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Kozani yolk "Pitenis", 7 delicious salads and 3 dressings by adding this.
When the chef cooks with his soul, traditionally, always using the best raw materials, As the Extra Virgin Olive Oil of the Papadaki family, the sense of time flow is also different. The slow pace of cooking pleasantly evokes all those senses that refer to other, past times. In the foods that our parents and ancestors cooked, in the Mediterranean diet. This is the kitchen I learned and cook on 20 years.
But the life upgrade and our wrong release from the traditional principles of our culture and at the same time the new foreign way of life, brought about a great change in the eating habits of the Greeks, thus leading him to the unhealthy food that… the phone cooks.
Healthy eating should be a way of life and not an emergency.
Thios saw many trees
man to live,
but the wish of the shower alone
the olive tree has given.
Olive, the symbol of peace
blessed tree,
which is the tear of Christ
spilled on your root.
Avarakis Stylianos
Chef
Production Manager & Quality Control
Member of the Chefs' Club of Northern Greece