I am Simone Golob, illustrator and designer, and I live in Maastricht.
For twenty-four years, I have spent my summers in Greece, the country of my husband's parents, where his family lives in Central Greece. As a result, Greece has never been just a holiday destination, but a second home.
Three years ago, we started dividing our lives between Maastricht and the region around Kalamata. There we found our own little spot, right at the point where the liveliness of taverns and terraces gives way to the silence and ruggedness of Mani. I fell in love immediately.
The idea for Kalamata Karma actually arose quite spontaneously . We bought a bottle of olive oil from a local farmer. He told us that the oil from this region is often bought up at low prices by buyers for large, usually Italian, supermarket brands. The goal is to boost inferior oils and blend them into anonymous supermarket blends, so that they barely reach the standards of extra virgin in order to be sold. His story touched us.
That evening we sat at the kitchen table. A piece of bread, a small bowl of oil. The first dip.
I had never tasted olive oil like that before. At that moment, we thought, this must be shared.
It would be a win-win situation. We would support ethical olive oil production and introduce people in the Netherlands to olive oil as it should be.
