About Oregano
The most aromatic Greek oregano is born of struggle. Oregano grows wild in Greece and thrives under the most difficult of conditions on sheer rocky mountain faces exposed to the cold of winter and the blasting heat of the summer sun. These dry and punishing conditions only serve to concentrate the flavor of the herb.
It is the art of the forager to know where and when to pick. Different mountains have oregano of
different flavors and every forager has her own secret favored places to which she can return year after
year. There is also an art to knowing when to gather the oregano in the early summer just as it begins to
flower.
The gathering of oregano often involves struggle of a different sort with foragers clambering up treacherous slopes in pursuit of the best clumps of the herb. Stems are clipped stimulating new growth and renewing the cycle for another year.
After harvest, the clipped oregano stems are gathered into bundles and hung to dry in the shade. A gentle drying out of the sun helps to maintain the aromatic quality and freshness of the oregano. After 4 to 5 days, the drying is complete and the leaves are stripped by hand from the stems yielding the final product.
Tagaras Collective Oregano is hand gathered and dried using methods that would be recognized by the ancients. Our concession to the modern is a good pair of clippers and a car to get up the mountain to our favorite oregano foraging spot high above the Bay of Corinth.
