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THE
PAXOS OLIVE PROJECT
Today, the olive industry on the Ionian island of Paxos,
once the island's economic mainstay,
is not what it used to be, as there is very little money
in the production of olives and far more in tourism. But
the two industries should and can so very easily go hand
in hand, which is exactly what is happening on Paxos,
where Chris Griffiths, co-owner of Paxos Life Activities, is working
with local olive grove owner, Spiro Anemoyiannis, on a
project to improve the quality of the olive trees and of
the olive harvest on the island.
Rather than leaving his trees to grow wild, Spiro is
cultivating them, thereby keeping them smaller but at
the same time ensuring that they remain healthier. And
instead of
allowing the olives to remain on the trees until they
drop,
each November he picks them by hand and
encourages everyone else, including Chris, to do
likewise, so that they can all be taken to the cold
press in Fontana on the same day, in order to produce
very high quality truly virgin
olive oil that will attract a far higher price.
There are more than 200,000 olive trees on Paxos and
they are one of the main attractions of the island, so a
project to look after the trees, improve the harvest and
then produce truly virgin olive oil for the island is
extremely important, and it is also particularly fitting
that tourists should be involved in that project. So
Paxos Life Activities is encouraging summer tourists
to return to Paxos each November to help pick the olives
and at the same time learn more about the island and the
way of life there. Paxos Life Activities was actually
set up to improve the experience for visitors by
encouraging them to get to know and understand the
culture, history and geography of the island, and also
to help sustain tourism out of season. The olive project
should help to achieve all this and more.
From time to time
Spiro runs short courses on
‘The Olive and the Vine’
as part of our programme of activities
designed to give visitors the opportunity to learn more
about the culture, history and landscape of Paxos. He
is a real expert on the olive and knows just about
everything there is to know about olive farming, the
production of olive oil, the use of olives and their oil
in cooking, and also about their medicinal uses.
For
Further Information: Please
contact
us.
We will be particularly happy to help anyone who
wishes to visit Paxos in November for the olive picking to
find a suitable property to rent, as this will be
out-of-season and it will therefore be important to
choose a property with heating.
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