Greece has a largely mountainous landscape with one of the longest coastlines in Europe. And while most people view it as a beautiful holiday destination, we saw an opportunity to team up with two of the finest producers of traditional Greek products.
The Chatzakos family came to Greece from Eastern Thrace on boats as refugees in the 1920s. Ending up in Thessaloniki, they continued their ancestral trade in fresh milk, collecting and selling it around the suburbs of the city. They also made yoghurt and rice pudding at their small dairy shop. Today their company, named Mevgal, has grown exponentially, selling Greek yoghurt to businesses around the world, including Spinneys. The milk they use to make it comes from cows that graze on lush Macedonian pastures, specifically chosen for their proximity to Mevgal’s facilities. While modern technology has introduced innovation to the production process, what hasn’t changed is the flavour and texture of the authentic Greek yoghurt made at Mevgal.
Mevgal’s partner dairy farms
The feta made by Roussas is aged in beechwood barrels made by artisan woodworkers
Guarding ancient techniques and expertise passed down to them from their shepherding ancestors, the Roussas family of Thessaly continue to make feta the old-fashioned way using traditional recipes. Unlike their ancestors, they no longer make feta in caves, but they have successfully imitated the old ways with new machinery in a modern dairy. The curd gets dry rubbed with Greek sea salt before it’s aged. The closest product to the ancient artisanal cheese made by their ancestors is the feta aged in beechwood barrels for three months, which gives the cheese its distinctive sharp taste. The barrels themselves are handcrafted by a small handful of artisan woodworking families that build them from beechwood that has been left to dry for two years.
