Mt. Kofinas's Extra Virgin Olive Oil Web Site - Our Story Page

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Major Headings for Mt Kofinas's Our Story Web Page

Meet Our Family

• Marika Manousakis, our Yiayia (Grandma), has a brother and sister who also live in the village of Stavies which is situated at the foothills of Mt. Kofinas. She also has another sister who lives a few villages away.
• Manoli Manousakis, our Papou (Grandpa), had 8 sisters and brothers. His only surviving sister lives with her family in the neighboring village of Dionisi.
• Theo (Uncle) Stavros is a Colonel in the Greek Army and lives with his wife Miranda and their children, Mannoli and Maria, in Athens.
• Theo (Uncle) Mihali (elder) is Yiayia's brother. He lives with his wife Maro in the village. They also have a multi-family house in the capital of Crete, Heraklio where they once owned a grocery store. This is where their daughter Eva lives with her husband Mihali.
• Thia (Aunt) Eva and Theo Mihali (younger) live in Heraklio with their children Maria, Sophia, and Giorgio.
• Thia Popi is Yiayia's sister. She lives in the village and also rents an apartment in Heraklio one block from her brother, Mihali. Her oldest son, Adoni lives in Athens with his wife Sara and their two boys. Popi's youngest son Kosta lives in Heraklio with his wife and their two girls.
• Thia Aspasia is Papou's sister. She lives with her husband, Mitso, in Dionisi. Theo Mitso is 98 years old, and still loves to tend to his garden.
• Evie is the daughter of Marika and Manoli. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband John and three boys: Nick, Manos, and Alex.

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About Our Family's Business

Our family has been growing and harvesting olives for generations. Evie Manousakis grew up in the village of Stavies. She eventually met her future husband, John Semertzides, while they were both attending college in Thessaloniki. After they were married, they moved to the United States and now reside in Cincinnati, Ohio. They have three sons, Nick, Manos, and Alex.

Evie is my mother, and like every Greek mom, she knows how to cook very well. Mom always wanted to use quality olive oil in her recipes, but she couldn't find anything close to the family's olive oil. As kids, every time my brothers and I traveled back to the village, Mom would make us carry large tins of oil through Customs coming back to Cincinnati. We could enjoy the taste of the village for only a short time.

Through the years, Mom's friends and family in America requested she bring back bottles for them. Owing to our strong ties to the Cretan way of life and the desire to share quality products with others, we began importing olive oil in larger quantities. Our family takes pride in bringing you our olive oil directly from our very own olive groves in our village, Stavies.

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Why do we call it Mt. Kofinas Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

When choosing a name for our olive oil, we settled on Mt. Kofinas because our village is situated at the foothills of the visually distinct rock face of Mt. Kofinas. It gives the prefecture name to the surrounding villages and is easily recognizable from any of the villages in the Messara Valley.

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What makes our olive oil so special?

Around the village of Stavies, we grow a special type of olive, the "psiloelea," because it makes a great oil! "Psiloelea" literally means "tiny olive."

For generations our family has lived in Stavies and produced olive oil (lathi in Greek) from small groves scattered around the village hillsides. We still cultivate some of the same olive trees that Manoli Manousakis and Marika Stamatakis, Manos's maternal grandparents, planted together when they married more than 60 years ago. With the help of family, the tradition of caring for the olives continues to this day.

Mt. Kofinas's all-natural, pure extra virgin olive oil begins with olives hand gathered at their peak for maximum flavor. The olives are cold pressed (not chemically extracted) soon after harvest to assure superior taste and low acidity. Any oil below 1% acidity level qualifies as "extra virgin," but Mt. Kofinas's Extra Virgin Olive Oil has an acidity level between 0.2% and 0.4%. This is another reason why Mt. Kofinas stands out as a premium quality olive oil.

The result is a healthy olive oil with a distinct natural green color and a distinct, full taste without the bitterness seen in lower quality olive oils.

We assure you that our olive oil is not diluted or mixed with any other oil, before being imported directly from the village of Stavies to the United States. It comes directly from our grandparents' groves, is pressed, and sent directly to our family in the United States. We guarantee our single source, so you can trust that it's a quality olive oil. We are proud to offer this quality product directly from our family's olive groves and are confident that you will enjoy the taste and richness as much as we do.

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Olive Harvest Information

Background

The olive oil business is very labor intensive, culminating in the gathering process. Generally, olive trees start to deeply ripen in December and should be gathered by February. The olives are gathered when the trees are at their peak to ensure that the olives do not over-ripen and also to make sure that not too many green olives are thrown in the mix.

Every olive grove must be visited daily to ensure that the olives are gathered at their peak level of ripeness. Responding to the needs of these micro-climates is very labor intensive. Even trees 20 meters apart can have a 2-week differential in maturity.

To add to the confusion, each tree yields fruit only every other year. However, every tree must be cared for as if it were producing that year.

The olives are gathered by hand with the help of some modern tools. First, large nets are stretched underneath a section of trees. Then, workers use a tool to knock the olives into the nets, which are gathered as the trees are harvested. The olives are then put into large sacks, which are taken to the factory (eliotrivio) to be made into olive oil!

Harvest Report for 2008

The important metric when gathering olives is the "oil-to-sack" ratio. Since sacks are generally the same size, the oil-to-sack ratio can tell other farmers how successful your harvest was.

The first field we harvested had a ratio of 4.6, which is fairly good.

For this particular winter, the Messara plain had some rain in November and December, which led to a very successful harvest. We recently pruned our trees in March, and it has been raining regularly the last few months. So far, everything looks great for next year's harvest!

Once the fresh olive oil has settled in the barrels, we'll be able to ship it from the village to the United States. This year's product is available right now!

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