So, while we were going all over Greece working on the olive oil and wine, we kept running into other foods that we loved. And we thought if we loved them, other people probably would too.

I want to introduce you to something I’m very excited about: Naturally Greek, the company I started to import and sell unique Greek food products in the United States.

I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships lately. Of course, everybody has all kinds of relationships, but when you are an importer—a middleman, really—they are crucial. And, given what I do, there are a lot of them in my life, and they require a lot of work. Cultivating relationships and nurturing them is a full time job, and at the very core of what I do. Relationships with my employees, with my customers, with my suppliers. Ultimately my business is more ore about the relationship than it is about the product. 

Those who know me, know what Greece means to me. It’s much more than the source of the products I import. Twenty years ago, when I gave up everything I’d been doing in life and decided to hitch my fortunes to Greece, I had no sense of what my relationship to it would become. I knew it as a beguiling and stimulating place that tugged at me and filled me with youthful hope and ambition. Now, two decades later, my life is inseparable from it, and pulls at me even more. Like any longterm relationship, though, as the bonds between me and Greece have deepened, our connection has become more complex. There’s much laughter, beauty, and joy. But also pain, exasperation, and heartache. Altogether, though, these things merge to create a connection that is complex and profound and deeply satisfying. As Epicurus said, “You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.”