Meet Penelope Lagakos of Kastania Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Thanks to Fig’s Female Entrepreneur Editorial Sponsor, Key Financial. 

Key Financial believes in empowering women, and lifting up the next generation of female entrepreneurs.

Kastania Olive Oil is alive with the flavors of a unique and ancient terroir. It’s a taste
of home for Penelope Lagakos, whose roots are in Kastania, a tiny village in Greece. After years as a gallery owner in Philadelphia, art consultant, and collector, Penelope took on a new challenge when she joined a team of family members who wanted to make this superior olive oil from their ancestral groves more widely available.

On terraces cut into remote mountainsides in southern Greece, Koroneiki olives bask
in the summer sun as the trees struggle to draw water from the dry, rocky soil. With no fertilizer or pesticides, and with very little rainfall at a high elevation, the yield is low. But, the olives have exceptional aroma and taste. As soon as the olives ripen, they’re hand-harvested and immediately cold-pressed to ensure maximum flavor, nutritional content, and shelf life.

Penelope and her husband Andrei Constantinidi love telling people about their organic, healthy, and delicious olive oil. Patti Brennan, who has encouraged and supported Penelope from the beginning, describes Penelope’s passion for her product, its purity, and its origins as “contagious.”

Penelope’s Kastania business is flourishing and growing with the addition of organic soaps and vinegars, which are also created with the finest ingredients from the region. Various Kastania products can be sourced at the following local businesses: Northbrook Marketplace, The Country Butcher, The Woodlands at Phillips, Floga Bistro, The Carriage House, and Rooted (in New London Marketplace), Harvest Market, as well as for home delivery through Logical Living-Fresh Express. Or, find out which events and markets they attend regularly by visiting Kastania’s Facebook page.