Leonidas Gotsis | Melissofarma Gotsi

Our story

My name is Leonidas Gkotsis and I am a professional beekeeper. My wife and I started Melissofarma Gkotsi back in 2014, in Epirus, and ever since our work has revolved around one thing: honey, the way it comes honest from the land it belongs to.

We are a family beekeeping operation, and you can see that in everything we do. We do not work the way mass production does. We tend to each hive on its own, we watch when each plant comes into bloom, and we wait for the right moment for every harvest. That is how we gather honey varieties that are hard to come by, each one with its own taste and its own aroma.

Our place

Our base is in Bafra, a village a few kilometres outside Ioannina, where the landscape closes in with the mountains of Epirus and Lake Pamvotida stretches out nearby. It is a place of humidity, cool summers and heavy winters, and that climate keeps the region green and full of vegetation.

But we never stay put. We practise nomadic beekeeping, which means we load up the hives and move them to wherever each flower is in bloom. We follow the flowering seasons across Greece, from the spring vegetation all the way to the chestnut trees and the heather of the mountains in autumn.

Every region gives its own honey, and that is why no jar of ours is ever the same as the one before it. When you taste a Gkotsis honey, you are really tasting a particular place and a particular time of the year.

How we work

Nomadic beekeeping is at the heart of how we do things. We do not leave the bees in one spot to gather whatever they find. We take them to where a specific bloom is happening, the chaste tree, the heather, the chestnut, the thyme, so that every harvest comes out clean in its flavour and true to its variety.

We work with conventional methods and we pay attention to timing. We wait for the honey to ripen inside the hive before we take it, because that is where all the difference in taste and aroma lies. Our goal is simple: to bring to your table honey that holds onto the full character of the place it came from.

At a glance

Producer: Leonidas Gkotsis

Brand: Melissofarma Gkotsi

Location: Mpafra, Ioannina, Epirus

Product: Honey

Varieties: chaste tree, heather, chestnut, thyme

Started: 2014

Method: nomadic beekeeping, conventional cultivation