We’re happy to have lately added Golden GrovesAustralia’s latest natural Additional Virgin Olive Oil model for Hellenic Museum Store. An ode to Mediterranean dwelling, Golden Groves brings its sun-kissed, cold-pressed, natural olive oil into Australian houses.
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The small household enterprise, based by Greek-Australian sisters Katianna and Yianna Velos, shares their household’s premium oil from olives which have been grown and picked up by their household for generations on the land of Greece. The Mani Peninsula.
Legend has it that it was on the small rocky island of Kranai in Mani that Paris of Troy spent his first night time along with his kidnapped lover, Helen of Sparta, essentially the most stunning girl on the planet, an try that sparked the Trojan Struggle…
We had been fortunate sufficient to talk to Katianna and Yianna forward of the arrival of their scrumptious further virgin olive oil within the museum store. In a love of meals, journey and storytelling, the sisters focus on the origins of their Australian model and it is deep Greek roots that seize the artwork of dwelling by meals, household and associates.
You began Golden Groves in 2021. Has COVID spurred a choice to start out your individual enterprise?
Golden Groves, like so many different companies, was born unexpectedly through the instances of COVID. We’re each entrepreneurs by nature, but when somebody had informed us two years in the past that we might begin an olive oil enterprise, we might not have believed them! The enterprise arose organically at a time when a lot of what we loved earlier than COVID was inconceivable. Socializing and eating out had been among the issues folks missed essentially the most throughout COVID, and we had been no totally different. Meals is on the coronary heart of how so many individuals throughout the globe relate to one another. In a time once we had been stripped of our capacity to attach head to head, we noticed folks return to the easy pleasures of residence cooking and the enjoyment that this expertise of sharing and having fun with meals brings.
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Katianna began cooking on Instagram and sharing it throughout lockdown as a interest. As a part of her cooking sequence, she emphasised the significance of olive oil provenance and high quality when cooking. As a Greek, olive oil is in fact a staple in most of her recipes. Our household had at all times imported olive oil for our personal consumption, however when Katianna shared on-line that the olive oil we used at residence was from our household’s groves in Greece, folks had been excited! Our grove is positioned in a small coastal village on the Greek mainland and our associates in Australia needed to attempt it themselves. Requests for bottles of our oil began pouring in and that is how we got here up with the thought of bottling our household’s recipe in 750ml bottles, versus the normal 18L cans which might be intimidating to most individuals due to their measurement.
We cherished with the ability to share a chunk of Greece and our household historical past with Greeks and non-Greeks alike. Our oil is an ode to our robust Greek roots and having a enterprise that completely encapsulates our love for Greece, with a contemporary Australian identification is what evokes us to proceed to develop our enterprise. Sharing our ardour for the Greek way of life, by meals and design, and particularly for our area of Greece, Mani, is one thing that strongly drives our artistic ambition.
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Is your background within the meals business?
Each of our backgrounds are very totally different from the meals business. Yianna has a background in finance and Katianna has a background in regulation. Now we have each labored quite a few company jobs over time, throughout and after our research, however really feel that the platform our levels have given us to discover and pursue our enterprise each creatively and commercially has been immensely worthwhile.
Was it troublesome to start out the Golden Groves enterprise with out with the ability to return to Greece?
Though we might have cherished to go to Greece to do a reconnaissance earlier than beginning the enterprise, we had been very fortunate to have household and associates in Mani with whom we talk recurrently, who assist harvest the olives and press the oil. High quality is every thing to us and this can be very essential to have folks on web site which you can belief and who perceive the course of what you are promoting. Happily, with all of the technological advances in recent times, it’s comparatively simple to speak with folks even in rural Greece. Talking the language can be an actual asset.
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What are your ideas on the olive oil at present out there in Australia?
We consider there are some good olive oils out there right here in Australia, each from native and worldwide producers. Nevertheless, olive oil fraud is widespread all through the world, together with Australia. Olive oil is extremely nutritious and its well being advantages are effectively documented. Nevertheless, many producers adulterate their oil by mixing it with inferior seed oils with a purpose to promote a bigger amount of olive oil at a cheaper price. It’s typically troublesome to determine the standard of the olive oil on the grocery store cabinets, as even ‘gentle’ olive oil, supposed to have a much less intense taste, is definitely blended with cheaper oils that promote irritation within the physique. We’re blessed to dwell in a rustic like Australia the place we now have entry to such nice merchandise and quite a lot of oils. It’s nice to see the Australian olive oil market persevering with to develop, however customers should be cautious to not be fooled by manufacturers promoting ‘premium’ further virgin olive oil, which is in reality a blended inferior olive seed oil hybrid. You are able to do this by checking the again of the label, which ought to checklist the components as ‘100% further virgin olive oil’.
What units your olive oil aside?
Our olive oil is exclusive in that every one olives are handpicked and picked up by our household from groves which have been in our household for generations. Our olive oil is monkey cultivator, created from koroneiki olives, quite a lot of olives native to Greece and particularly for olive oil. Typically the olive oils you discover on the shelf are blended with different kinds of olives from totally different areas. Which means you might be unable to hint the place your olive oil comes from. For us, it is rather essential to know the place our meals comes from and the face behind our meals. The standard can be of the very best caliber: early harvest, chilly pressed, licensed natural and additional virgin to protect the style and dietary worth of the olive oil.
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What’s your favourite dish to make together with your olive oil?
We love utilizing olive oil in and on completely every thing! A selected standout is, nevertheless ‘travihtes pites’ which is a flat dough fried in olive oil till the dough turns into golden and pillowy. These pites are a specialty of the Mani area and are sometimes served with native cheeses or honey. When our mom was a baby, she and her household used to eat these as snacks whereas gathering olives from our household’s groves.
We love your branding – how did you go about creating Golden Groves’ visible identification?
We had been very explicit about our branding as we actually tried to seize the essence of Greece by our personal (Australian) lens whereas additionally paying tribute to our conventional ties to the nation. Happiness is on the coronary heart of what we do. We needed to convey this by channeling a sun-soaked, Mediterranean-inspired, but pared-down creative really feel by our branding. Greek design is basic and grand, however nonetheless feels somewhat understated in comparison with a few of its European counterparts. We sought to mix parts from the solar, the ocean and the land, as though these are the weather discovered all around the world, they’re most stunning to see inside the borders of Greece. Traditional Greek motifs just like the Greek key reinvented in a contemporary, funky manner are emblematic of our classical Greek roots, with out reaching for a kitsch caricature of the Greek identification. Simplicity can be a consider our design processes. We gravitate in the direction of heat, brilliant colours that evoke a way of happiness to convey the heat and pulse of a rustic like Greece relating to its folks and local weather. We additionally had the good privilege to work with Gemma Leslie, a Brisbane-based artist who understood the essence of what we had been attempting to convey by Golden Groves from the model’s inception. We really feel very lucky to have labored with somebody as proficient as Gemma to seize our imaginative and prescient for Golden Groves by her distinctive but recognizable illustrations. Gemma can be the founding father of Meals for everybodya culinary poster store, and so actually understands the meals house.
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What’s the future for Golden Groves?
The way forward for Golden Groves is nice! We see it as a model with limitless potential. At present we provide 750 ml bottles of olive oil, however we now have teamed up with artists and professionals in Greece and Australia to work on a brand new line of merchandise each within the meals area and in addition non-food associated. We consider that meals and vogue are synonymous nowadays, and we hope to convey folks a model that evokes them, empowers them and nourishes their physique and soul, each in and out. Within the meals house, we’re at present planning numerous occasions with wonderful creatives throughout Melbourne, Sydney and Byron Bay. We’re additionally engaged on increasing our community within the retail and restaurant space. Connecting with and dealing with creatives, cooks and restaurateurs has been such a rewarding expertise and we hope to proceed to develop the Golden Groves community each nationally and internationally.
Do you will have a enjoyable reality about olive oil/making oil?
Our olive oil is an early harvest, which implies that the olive harvest begins in October and ends in December. The early harvest cultivation course of implies that the olives are collected earlier than they’re absolutely ripe. This course of preserves the nutritious properties of the olives, akin to their naturally occurring polyphenols, that are then transferred into your oil.
We like to profile native artisans who embody our ethos of colliding previous and new Hellenism. Thanks to your time Yianna and Katianna! We will not wait to drizzle Golden Grove’s Additional Virgin Olive Oil on our subsequent dish. You possibly can store one 750 ml bottle within the Hellenic Museum Purchase now.
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