One place. One fruit. A clear local identity.

My name is Leventi Maroudi and I am a farmer-producer based in Argalasti, the principal village of the Municipality of South Pelion.

Argalasti lies on the southern foothills of Mount Pelion, which together with its unspoiled peninsula enjoys a distinctive reputation because of its mythical aura, its charming Mediterranean landscape with numerous coves and its lush green forests. According to mythology, Pelion was the home of the Centaurs, mythical creatures half human and half horse, among whom Chiron stood out as wise, immortal, deeply cultivated, knowledgeable in medicine, botany, music and martial arts, and a teacher of many heroes. Among those he trained was Asclepius, the greatest physician of mythology, since Chiron taught him medicine, pharmacy, surgery and healing arts and introduced him to herbs, plants and their therapeutic properties, symbolizing the unbreakable bond between medicine and nature. Finally, according to legend, Argalasti is linked with the Argonauts’ passage into the Aegean Sea as they set out on their expedition to Colchis.

The agricultural activity of the wider Argalasti area has long been connected with the cultivation of the Pelion Conservolea variety (Amfissis). Through trade, the area supplied and continues to supply the market with significant quantities of table olives and olive oil intended either for domestic consumption or export.

Driven by dedication, love and the knowledge passed down to us by our fathers and grandfathers for the olive tree, which forms an inseparable part of local and Greek tradition and has deep roots going back to ancient times, together with my family we run a small family business engaged in the cultivation of olive trees with organic methods and consequently in the production of organic olives and organic olive oil, the “liquid gold” of the Mediterranean. In this way, we also contribute to the effort for quality and authentic olive oil to receive the place and value it deserves in the diet not only of Greeks but of people around the world. This effort is collective, and my husband Nikolaos Lavantsiotis and my son Markos Lavantsiotis contribute decisively to it.

All stages, cultivation, production and processing/standardization, are carried out according to the rules and standards of organic farming regulations, whose observance is ensured through continuous inspections at every stage by the companies that certify our products.

Our groves, mostly old and dry-farmed, are characterized by diversity, as they are scattered across the wider semi-mountainous area of Argalasti in South Pelion on the foothills of the mountain of the same name and cover a range of soils and weather conditions, producing their precious fruit in an environment of unique biodiversity embraced by the sea breeze of the Aegean and the Pagasetic Gulf. Thus, each grove has its own soil composition, its own microclimate, altitude and orientation, which affect not only the fruit and the olive oil produced but also the cultivation methods that are adapted accordingly. For this reason, the final product clearly reflects the character of the place.

From these groves we now produce a superior quality organic extra virgin olive oil of low acidity, a blend of different olive varieties (Amfissis, Chalkidiki, Megara, Kalamon, Koroneiki and Oleaster) of the same species, “Olea europaea”, with 80% coming from olives of the Amfissis variety, also known as Pelion Conservolea.

The olives are harvested with gentle mechanical methods that are friendly to the trees and the fruit, and sometimes even by hand, in order to avoid bruising the olives and therefore their oxidation. It is essential that they are transported on the same day from the grove to the mill in perforated crates so that they remain ventilated and their temperature does not rise, thus avoiding any deterioration of quality and achieving the very low acidity value of the olive oil (≤0.4%). In this way, the olive oil is produced within 12 hours of harvest, through short-duration (<45 min) cold extraction (27°C and below) of the olive fruit and only by mechanical methods at the state-of-the-art mills with which we collaborate.

We offer two types of organic extra virgin olive oil. The first is agourelaio, namely early-harvest olive oil from unripe green olives, roughly from September 25 to October 25, from which the green color of the olive oil comes, mainly from the Amfissis, Oleaster and Chalkidiki varieties. The second is the regular/classic olive oil of golden-yellow color from olives that have already started to turn yellow-red, with a small percentage becoming black, usually harvested from around October 25 onwards. The harvest period varies, always within small margins, depending on climate conditions and the stage of ripeness of each grove. The olive oil is stored in stainless steel tanks designed specifically for olive oil, which do not allow contact with oxygen, in specially arranged cool and dark spaces so that it is not altered by heat and the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

The olive oil production process and the stage of ripeness of the olives, especially in the case of agourelaio, are what ensure its fruity, mildly bitter and peppery taste, its intense aromas of cut grass, artichoke, lettuce, green tomato, spinach, finely chopped parsley, white pepper, green tea and thyme, and what account for its high content of polyphenols (Oleacein and Oleocanthal) as well as the preservation of its natural vitamins, giving it antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action together with all those beneficial properties for our health, especially for the brain and the heart.

This is also the reason our agourelaio received distinction for both the 2024-2025 harvest and the 2025-2026 harvest from the World Olive Center for Health and the Olympia Awards, receiving a Bronze Medal, and obtained EU Health Claim 432/2012, certifying its antioxidant action.

Agourelaio in particular carries the local ecosystem in its deep green color and rich yet refined taste, which, together with its freshness and wide spectrum of aromas and flavors, make it ideal for raw use in salads and cold dishes as well as in grilled dishes such as fish and meat, bringing the richness of our Mediterranean diet to the table in a natural way.

In this way, we began our activity in the field of olive oil standardization and we supply local shops in our area, supermarkets and mini markets, with the aim of reaching more businesses beyond the local market.

The Lavantsiotis family.

P.S.

The Ancient Greeks called agourelaio OMPHAKION and used it therapeutically for many ailments.

According to Solon the Athenian (639-559 BC): “The fruit of the olive tree is the greatest good, for every remedy of life.”