In December I had chance to meet with local producers and farmers from Corinth region famous from orange and lemons orchards.
I have learned how to pick fresh fruits from the trees. I have also visited a storage house that prepares organic food for export to EU.
I had chance to explore interesting initiative Solidarity Exports. It is a new initiative of group of producers in Greece. That is what they write about themselves: “In a nutshell, what we want to do is what we call ‘solidarity exports’, aiming to actively support small farmers of Greece.
Solidarity exports bring the principles and ethics of the CSA movement to the European level by connecting low intensity, small-scale agroecological Greek farmers directly with other CSA networks in Europe.Corinthian Orchards (Περιβόλι Κορίνθου) is a small CSA initiative that started in 2012
between 14 organic farmers around Ancient Corinth and a growing base of consumers 80 kilometres away in Athens. We cultivate outdoor vegetables year round and fruit,mainly oranges, lemons, mandarins, grapes, pomegranates and figs. We also produce a few processed goods like grape syrup and resins. However, the collective quantities of the citrus fruit cannot be absorbed by the Greek market -mainly due to the collapse of purchasing power for the majority of the population.
Another highlight of December was organizing a Tasting Event – an effective and interesting procedure to taste new products and producers that are tested and checked to decide if they comply with cooperative’s expectations. Together with my co-worker Chressoula we have researched and contacted a few producers who provided us with products for the Tasting Event.