Aegean Herbs

Ο Alexandros Kaloutas stage designer in the theater, graphic designer in magazines and record companies, bartender and dj, amateur cook and soon as a restaurant, met the Amorgos as a visitor about 30 years ago. Together with his girlfriend, they decided 5-6 years ago to leave their favorite Exarcheia for the beautiful Dingle, from the need for change and their love for the island.

Η Aegean Herbs is the vehicle but also the result of this decision. We met him in his small workshop in Lagada:

"The love for nature and the tradition of the Cyclades, brought me close to the local herbs, with my interest starting from wild oregano of Amorgos, a unique species with an unusually strong aroma and taste from rare, peppery local sage with the high concentration of essential oils, and along the way I discovered other herbs.

I grow naturally, reproducing only plants that are endemic to the island, without introducing new species and varieties, mainly for ecological reasons, wanting to contribute to the preservation of local biodiversity, but also for the incomparable quality of their characteristics.

The enclosures are located in various parts of the island, most in the mountains of Aegiali. Every plant loves another place, the oregano wants to see the west, the rosemary the south, the sage not to look at the sea, the amaranth loves the wind.

Apply natural cultivation method, which does not "blackmail" the result, does not plow, fertilize, weed. Pesticides are not needed for the simple reason that the plants are endemic to the island, so perfectly adapted to the Amorgian microclimate and exist harmoniously in the nature of the place.

Harvesting is done according to the lunar calendar, only by hand, without mowers, drying in a dark place with natural ventilation, without oven and mechanical means, the final processing and sorting after drying is also done only by hand.

This practice produces clearly less product, but with higher quality characteristics, just as we would find it wild in nature and with the energy footprint of the products being zero, ie no electricity or fuel is consumed for their production.

"Even for packaging, we use 30% less paper than the usual box of a similar size."

The efforts of Alexandros Kaloutas in the summer of 2017 had their reward when in the first Great Taste Awards 2017 competition, where Aegean Herbs participated for the first time with wild oregano and sage got both from a star!