RADIO interview October 2017:
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The Oakmeal Acorn Initiative is a multifaceted project that encompasses resource regeneration, food sovereignty, community cohesion and agroecology. We are helping farmers to rekindle the collection of acorn caps for exportation as well as establishing acorn flour based products in the local cuisine. Our activities have led to new hope and a shift in thinking that empowers farm families to save a natural resource and create sustainable income from the ancient Oak forest on Kea Island. All ages and genders have the opportunity to benefit from the initiative, further fostering resilience and optimism at a particularly difficult time in Greece.
Hamada is the Kean (Tziotiko) word for the giant acorn caps collected annually for exportation to leather tanneries in Europe. In 2011: Acorn caps are once again collected and sold after a 49 year gap on Kea: over 100,000 kilos have left the island since then. The Hamada Acorn Initiative organizes and implements the annual cap exportation and aims to restore the acorn as an important factor for the local Kean economy. The Hamada Acorn Initiative holds annual acorn collecting, storing & processing seminars in Greece and maintains an acorn shelling, leaching and pressing facility on Kea Island. The Acorn Festival of Kea is sponsored by the Acorn Initiative. |