Ioanna Zourou Organic Olive Farm The Ioanna Zourou organic olive farm is a family business that produces, packages and sells olive oil from the family-owned olive groves. The groves are located at the villages of Moria, Afalonas and Thermi on the island of Lesvos, which lies on Greece's eastern border with Turkey. The family business goes back 100 years During difficult times, Dimitrios Zouros emigrated to America and, after many hardships and great effort, succeeded in purchasing a significant number of olive farms in his homeland, Lesvos. He became the owner of about 30 hectares with 6000 olive trees. Seventy percent of the olive groves were located on the plains and thirty percent were in the mountains. The varieties cultivated are those traditionally found on Lesvos: Kolovi, Adramytini and Ladolia.When Dimitrios Zouros passed away, his wife Electra Zourou took charge of the land. Her son, Yiannis Zouros, took over a number of years later, following the same principles in the care of the olive groves In 1996 he realised that the future of oil production lay in organic farming. With his wife, Ioanna Zourou, he then set out to convert their land to organic production. The olive harvest begins in late October and comes to an end in early January. They soon established that the oil they were producing was of excellent quality, but never reached the consumer's table in its pure form since the wholesale merchants who purchased their oil then mixed it with other olive oils. A few years ago they decided to package and sell their produce themselves. In order to package our oil, says Mr Zouros, we purchased stainless steel olive oil tanks with a capacity of 25 tons and a small packaging machine for three and five litres packing. We also created two five-liter olive oil containers. Today we package Ioanna Zourou extra virgin organic olive oil and Ioanna Zourou virgin organic olive oil Originally used for storing farm produce and equipment, the storehouse located in the yard of the Zourou family home changed function in the last two years and became the location of a small industry. The stainless steel olive oil tanks and packaging machine were installed there after making the necessary alterations so that the temperature and humidity in the storehouse is completely under control. Ioanna Zourou olive oil is not filtered before packaging so that it will preserve all of its aromas, nuances of flavor and phenolic constituents. The oil becomes clear simply by allowing it to settle in the stainless steel tanks. This process takes about four months, immediately after which the oil is packaged and marketed The Zourou family's oil production is sold to the local Lesvos market and to selected customers in central and northern Greece. Once the oil has become clear by the end of the month, the packaging and marketing process will begin. The Ioanna Zourou extra virgin oil will be packaged at an acidity of 4.5 tenths