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The following is not our typical Chef's Column. It is, however, a compelling read about one, small entrepreneur's quest to "cook up" and bring to market a new standard of premium olive oil. I hope you'll enjoy following Michael Sideris' story of the hard work and innovation required to transform a family treasure into a branded and valued retail offering. The Purest of the Pure I remember all during my childhood hearing my father, Theodore Sideris, explain why the family's Vordonia Athenolia Extra-Virgin Olive Oil was the purest of the pure. In every discussion in the village, always they talked about the Athenolia tree. The villagers and farmers would try to plant other trees, find different varieties which needed less attention or which other farmers had tried in neighboring villages or other countries. And my father always came back with "It's fine to try other trees. But why, when you have the perfect trees and climate here?" Always during planting seasons, I would hear my father tell the others: " Why don't you maintain the king of the olive, the Athenolia? Nothing, not a single tree in the world can match its density and production. You've been on this earth only 40 or 50 years. This tree has been on this earth for over 3,000 years. If it can sustain the ancient Spartans, it can sustain us, the Vordoniates." So, always my father insisted that whenever we expanded our olive groves, we never compromised with other trees, no matter how successful they may have been somewhere else. As I listened to him, I began to think of those trees almost as part of my family. He would name them, choose each one for harvest, check them and groom them, each differently, each in its own way as if it were his son or daughter. He insisted, most of all that, like him, every generation must plant siblings only from our select grove, all derived solely from the original trees. Athenolia even look different, distinct from other trees. You can see it. For example, the leaves are thinner, more silvery and the bark is more hardy and strong. Growing up, I used to look from my balcony and as far as I could see, nothing but Athenolia trees. He had the same passion for them as he did for his growing children. I remember that he would take my brother and me to the fields to put us on the plow for weight. And then, as I sat on my father's plow while he tilled the soil, I became part of it myself. I have grown up to realize from very early childhood that Vordonia is the natural habitat for the Athenolia tree. In our spot about 800 meters above sea level, we have a little natural buffer, a little zone that protects us. Even all our villagers who tried couldn't find a more perfect union between tree, soil, and climate. Our village hardly ever drops below 40 degrees in this zone that protects it from where it snows on the mountain above us and freezes in the valley below us. This micro-climate, the site for the Vordonia village, has protected the villagers and their Athenolia trees for centuries while other types of trees never survive. Those mild winters and dry summers make it all work. My father recognized our gift and stayed true to it even though these trees need constant work. You don't just plant them and let them grow. He would work his fingers to the bone to sustain them by planting for the sun's best rays, for pruning carefully to keep the trees healthy, to fertilize and weed and plow, and watch each tree carefully. I have seen villagers carry buckets of water twice a day to water the young trees. More than that, the Athenolia is the only tree to bear fruit every other year. So you have to plan. Only half of your trees will give you a harvest. If you have planted carefully, your harvest will be plentiful every year. But the taste makes it all worth it. I remember at dinners, when families would get together and bring dishes. The same dishes that my two aunts, not from our village, would bring would taste different from my mom's because of the olive oil. They used blends and mixes; we used pure, smooth, rare Athenolia olive oil. Even desserts would taste completely different. Every meal, every dinner would taste better. And her recipes for those meals inspired us to create Plato's Palate, our village-fare restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, where the soul of the cuisine is the Athenolia oil. Our customers noticed how good the food was and asked what made the dish. And of course it was the oil. The cook makes the food, but the oil makes the dish. As I went back to my village, I watched it shrinking year by year. The youth would abandon my village each successive year. Foreigners, Albanians and Bulgarians, began to come in to do the hard work. While most of the people had gone to other trees that are easier to maintain, our family has stayed true to my father's vision. Although the Athenolia is extremely hard to maintain, it has the heart and soul of a Spartan. Our customers encouraged us but also because the village and olive-oil trade had begun to die out, I took it upon myself to help the village to promote our olive oil, to hope that one day the young would come back to work the fields like their fathers and mothers. Just as I do, maybe they would come back to plow, to work the fields, to prune, to harvest, and to press. So, every year I have enthusiastically traveled to our village with my mom, Angeliki, to hand-harvest the olives. At seventy years old, she's unstoppable. Each of our olives is harvested at its tree-ripened maturity to produce its maximum possible oil. All other orchards must pick in November, and no later than December 15. But remember, the secret lies in the micro-climate. The hot, dry summers and very mild, wet winters allow the olives to reach full natural maturity on the tree. Our Athenolia trees produce one kilo of oil from three kilos of olives, an incredible record because normal extraction yields one kilo of oil from 17-35 kilos of olives. The resulting Athenolia oil contains only the "single cultivar" oil, never blended with that from other trees. It has no enzymes to increase extraction, no "stretching" blends of hazel-nut or other oils as allowed by in Europe and the United States. It's cold-pressed extraction and cold-pressed separation require nearly three hours. Our oil has an average .05 acidity, and a five-year shelf life without added antioxidants. Other purveyors of high-end oils buy the Athenolia oil as a blend to add flavor, and aroma, and to lower the acidity of their oil from other types of olives. The Vordonia Athenolia Extra-Virgin Olive Oil thus tastes like olives only, while other blends create derivative flavors that may include grassy, peppery, artichoke, dry-leaves, or green-tomato tastes. We know, certainly, that different grades of extra-virgin olive oil exist. Blends and varieties characterize much of the market now. Just as vintners have increased wine production and bottling volume with new approaches, so have the producers of olive oil. Even the other small-farmers who produce high-end oil, however, are beholden to their land. All producers are governed by their regions, climates, and soils. There's nothing you can do about it except adapt. Italy and Spain, for example, have fields with a hundred different varieties. Others have between 5 and 120 different varieties in the same fields because they try to find the right tree for that region. And that's what sets us apart; we have inherited the perfect conditions and the perfect match between tree and land, just as my father said. And these all combine to produce an extra-virgin olive oil that is pure and sweet in taste. In Vordonia, the olive tree embodies life itself. Living as long as 3,000, even 5,000 years, the olive tree has provided life and sustenance and crops and products for centuries. Besides its hardiness, it has a kind of magic in its shimmering leaves and blesses, in more than one way, the people who tend it. As with fine wine, we may save the best and most pure for special, even magic moments. And so with olive oil as well. For the special moments in all of our lives, we want to stop, slow down, and relish life, to taste the very best that the world can produce. Our production of 1000 bottles sells quickly. The 2003 harvest, at an introductory price of $79.00, is 60% sold. We hope you will try our olive oil soon. With every bottle, every time, you can taste the purity, taste the family passion, the traditional standards, and the magic of those trees. Best of all, the high shelf-life of Vordonia Athenolia Extra-Virgin Olive Oil lets a bottle wait for you to savor more than one such moment, to anticipate, and to plan to do again. Locations where you can sample and purchase Vordonia Athenolia Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Plato's Palate (Home of the
Ouzoburger) Cornucopia Specialty Foods
Market If you have any questions about our oil, the next harvest or if you would like to order a bottle of Vordonia Athenolia Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you may do so at http://www.vordonia.com/ or contact Michael Sideris at vordonia@comcast.net  |
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