The Gold Road Goes to Greece

Yassas! To our little Goldie Roadies (still workshopping that..)

Today, we’re so excited to share our first podcast with you. A pod for your pod! (still workshopping that too). But in all seriousness, we can’t wait to (mentally) transport you to warm places that require passports and sunscreen.

If you squint really hard, your fiddlehead fern in the corner almost looks like this pristine Greek beach, right?

We sat down and chatted with Maria Christodoulou who founded The Greek Herbalist and Marcie Mayer, the founder of The Acorn Initiative in Greece. We’ve packed a lot into 38 minutes of Zooming (and it’s literally our first podcast, ever- so- please forgive any nervous giggles dear listener! Also please do enjoy our very own intro- outro custom pod tunes courtesy of Color Collage!)

This could be us but your country’s on lockdown🥺

We’re going to learn all about the untapped potential something as humble as an Acorn can inspire. Marcie ended up in Greece at a young age, eventually landing in Kea, where she became immersed in the world of the Oak Forests there. The Acorn Initiative is a model of regenerative farming which proves that long term investment in a resource can give back to the land and its people exponentially. She has spearheaded the education of not only how powerful Acorns are nutritionally (VERY!), but the economic value they can provide to the community who collect and export their caps for leather tanning.

Kyra & Aviva while listening to Marcie describe a typical day during Acorn Harvest

Then we’ll learn about which Gods were considered the first herbalists from Maria, and about what Ancient Greek Fortune Telling ASMR was.

We came away from this episode with a renewed passion for travel. To go to a beautiful place and not only sit on the beach and order an afternoon Mojito (though..totally that, too), but to also live through the lens of what natural resources make the place so special. In Greece’s case, this return to agro-tourism is millenia in the making. The natural world and its wonders was foundational to its myths and people. Learning from ladies like these who are sharing their hard work and knowledge was a pleasure. Thank you Maria and Marcie!

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Some resources and links we mentioned in the POD:

Oakmeal 2021

The Greek Herbalist

The New England Acorn Cooperative

Shop the Apis Apotheca Ancient Oak Forest Mask

A day in the life volunteering with Marcie on Kea🌳