Giant Beans of Laista Zagori

Greece, Epirus, Ioannina

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Athanasios Tzimas

Producer

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Business
Producer of Agricultural Products
Export Activity
Yes

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Welcome to Our Village!

Laista is one of the most beautiful and remote villages of Zagori area in Northern Greece. Built at an altitude of 1,100 meters many centuries ago amidst a vast landscape of greenery, it proudly dominates the area, sitting across from “Papigo” at Mt. Pindos. The crystal clear waters of Pindos stream down throughout the village, gushing with the fresh waters to the small area of crops cultivated, mainly legumes and pulses. Undoubtedly factors like water, soil and the microclimate have a remarkable impact on the production of high quality beans. The excellent reputation of the Laistenian elephant/gίgantes beans goes far back in time as they are exceptionally easy to boil, as well as thin-skinned and tender.

Local, selected seed and excellent soil!

An important factor for the production of our high quality beans was the unique, local seeds and the unspoilt components of the soil of Laista, sampled and analyzed by the Laboratory of Applied Soil Science of the School of Agriculture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The results were really encouraging indications leading us to sign a contract with BIOHELLAS to certify our crop as organic by an ongoing observation of our practices and methods throughout all stages of production.

Crystal clear waters flow down on our crops from an altitude of 1,600 meters…

It’s well known that good quality water is essential for the growth of beans! So when the water is abundant and crystal clear, the yield will also come out pristine just like the proud, untrodden mountains of Pindos and as beautiful and shiny

as the snow on Epirus mountains!

Natural drying out, husking by hand, deworming free of pesticides & chemicals

In the central square of our village, in compliance to all

strict regulations, we have built a laboratory for the processing and packaging of our beans. The procedure we follow is simple and absolutely ecological. The beans dry out with a natural process on drying beds placed on a screen complying to edible item specifications. Then, the beans get husked and quality checked by hand on big galvanized counters in our workshop.

Packaging in suitable for food bags

After the process of drying without any use of pesticides or chemicals at all, we freeze the beans for eight hours at -18ºC in order to destroy any micro-organisms hatched by insects.

Αfter that, our beans are spread out on the galvanized surfaces of counters in our workshop under controlled humidity for a few hours. When processing is completed

we pack the beans into airtight, suitable for food bags.