From Fargo to Greece

[Cultivating Culture & Olive Oil]

Story by McKaila Ruud
Photography by M. Schleif Photography

​This past October, I traveled to Greece as a part of a guided trip with Peter Schultz of Aegean Imports. Peter lives in Moorhead, Minn. and achieved his doctoral degree in Archaeology while studying in Greece. His expertise and local know-how are paramount to the experience of this trip. Aegean Imports is a small trading company based out of Fargo, N.D. They focus on cultivating relationships with sustainable, family-based, farm-to-table producers in southern Europe and Central America. The purpose of this trip to Greece was to connect with Olive Oil producers at Mystra Estates and partake in an environmental tour of the olive grove and the surrounding areas.

Read onward to learn about how a local group from the Fargo-Moorhead area got immersed into the Greek culinary scene, walked ancient ruins, and where you can get your hands on the olive oil mentioned in Stop #2. 

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Stop 1 | Athens, Greece

• Where we stayed: Herodion Hotel
• Attractions/Restaurants: Herodion Hotel rooftop bar, Little Tree Books & Coffee, Athenian Acropolis, and Acropolis Museum

We spent our first full day in Greece taking in the main points of interest in Athens. Peter acted as our guide as we walked up to the Athenian Acropolis. At the base of the Acropolis site, our group of eight took a break to learn from Peter about the restoration process of each structure atop the Acropolis and the stories from Greek mythology that are connected with this place. It’s Peter’s expertise in the archaeological history and culture of this city that made it able for the rest of us on this trip to draw meaning, and therefore appreciation, for the things that make up the skyline in Athens. 

Peter brought us to a small, family-owned restaurant a few blocks from our hotel for lunch and we ordered nearly everything off the menu and shared it all family-style, as is customary in Greek culture. A few free hours on our own after lunch had our bed calling us back. 

We took a jet-lag induced nap before checking out a cafe across the street from our hotel that had been recommended to us by a handful of friends, called Little Tree Books & Coffee. The walls were filled to the ceiling with bookshelves and tucked in the corner was a small coffee counter. This was our first cafe stop, so I ordered the local favorite: one Greek coffee. While the technical side of this is a bit more relaxed, the result is the grittiest cup of coffee you’ll find. It wasn’t until I made it nearly all the way to the bottom of my cup that I learned the grit is present in the coffee because the grounds are not filtered out.

Our full group reconvened outside the entrance of the Acropolis Museum. The cold concrete and massive glass windows that construct the modern building stood in stark contrast to the rest of the city, yet paid beautiful homage to its subject, the Athenian Acropolis. With its walls running parallel with the city streets at its base and the top floor twisted on its axis to parallel the walls of the Parthenon, the architect Bernard Tschumi was able to make the museum into a modern reflection of its archeological counterpart. This theme is carried through to the interior exhibits. Metal columns provide the framework for the Parthenon Gallery by mimicking the original marble columns visible through the gallery’s glass walls and each of the antiquities housed in the exhibit are displayed in their correct original order.

The respect that this city has for it’s past is reflected around every corner and within the walls of each archaeological site, landmark, or historic structure. These structures and sites are not being preserved for the sake of preservation. In Athens, the community continues to use its historic spaces for their original intended purposes. The public forums constructed to house the Athenian government still serves the community as a place to gather and share ideas with fellow citizens. Amphitheaters that once gave a stage to the oldest form of acting our world knows are now venues for concerts and plays. The government, citizens, and culture of Athens shows respect for its history and the intention that was put forth by the city’s original architects. 

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Stop 2 | Mystras, Greece
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• Where we stayed: Mystra Estates “The Vine” 
• (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4900845?s=51)
• Attractions/Restaurants: To Kastro, Byzantine Site, Mystra Estates Olive Grove

We traveled by van to our villa in Mystras where we would be spending the majority of our time in Greece. Our very first stop was a restaurant in the center of the small town called To Kastro. There we shared a few dishes with our host for this portion of the trip, Eugene. He and his wife, Olga, own the villa we were staying at and their family olive grove which produces the olive oil that Aegean Imports distributes within the Fargo-Moorhead community and throughout the United States. 
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Eugene has an energetic and gregarious personality that fills any space he is in. He is the center of attention, aided only by his humor and charm. While sitting outside at the restaurant, one woman from our group asked the server for some lemon to put in her water. With few of us noticing, Eugene leaped out of his chair and ran across the street behind a fence. Seconds later he returned with a small, green lemon he had picked off a tree and presented it to the woman with a wink. Shortly after, the server returned with a plate of lemon wedges. We passed both lemons around the table and determined the one fresh off the tree was the clear winner.

The town of Mystras is nestled in the hills overlooking the city of Sparta. At the highest point above the valley sits a Byzantine castle and the ruins of an abandoned city that climbs down the side of the hills. Our afternoon was spent on a guided tour of this archaeological site. We walked through the narrow pathways paved with large stones that had been cut from the hillside and since been overgrown by natural greenery. While the remnants of a city were clearly disappearing bit by bit, an active convent sat in their midst. 

Partway down the hill, we entered into the convent to find wild cats feeding and wildflowers growing abundantly. There, a nun was waiting with hand embroidered towels, placemats, tablecloths and blankets available for visitors to purchase to support the convent. 

We had our first family dinner at the villa on our first night there. Eugene and Olga’s family came and prepared us dinner of potatoes and a variety of meats in the outdoor wood-burning stove. We sat around the table and drank wine from the vines just downhill from the villa, ate bread baked in town with greek salad from their garden and olive oil from their grove. Once everyone had eaten at least their fair share of food, Eugene and his daughter taught us to dance while musicians played traditional Greek music across the patio.

The following morning the group of us walked down the gravel road that leads away from the villa to meet Eugene for a tour of the olive grove. The silvery green leaves of the olive trees sparkled in the sun as we wandered across the uneven ground. They have 10 varieties of olives growing within their grove and use all of them to create their buttery smooth olive oil. 

Each of the trees soaks in the flavor and nutrients of wild herbs growing at the base of their trunks. They receive shelter and protection from heavy storms from massive oak trees that border the grove. As Eugene walked us through the rows of olive trees, he would have us each pick an olive off the branches, pinch it to watch the oils ooze out and rub it into our skin. The oils present in the olives before they are brined, taste bitter but work well as a moisturizer.

The perception of foods in this part of the trip was incredibly unique. With each meal, our hosts would explain that the wine came from the vines just downhill, the olive oil was made of the olives we had just picked off a tree and held in our hands, and the lamb we had for dinner was raised by their neighbors. This hyper-local approach to food wherein you don’t just know that it’s fresh, you know the person who grew it, harvested it, and prepared it for you to eat, speaks volumes about the closeness we felt during our time at the villa. ​

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Stop 3 | Monemvasia, Greece
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•  Malvasia Hotel
•  Attractions: Hike through fortified city

​Our third and final destination before returning to Athens, and going our separate ways, was the fortified city of Monemvasia. Located on an island, just offshore in the Aegean Sea, the city had no vehicles and no roads, only cobblestone corridors that winded up and around the side of the hill the city rests on. 
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In Monemvasia, we did not have any tours and none of our time was guided. This final stop on our Greek adventure was ours to do with as we pleased. There were many small shops with local goods to purchase, bars and restaurants that overlooked the sea, and most prominent of all, a hike through the fortified city up to the highest point on the island where the main castle would have sat. 

We made our way up the switchbacks and through each level of security the city’s walls held until we could see back to the mainland and out to sea from one spot. ​

"The change of pace of this fortified city offered up permission to slow down, to sit and reflect on the impact and history of Greek culture in our lives today."

If you would like to get connected with Aegean Imports, learn more about this experience, and find out how you can get your hands on a bottle of Mystra Estates Olive Oil, head on over to:

• peterschultzimporter.com 

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