About us

A ladder against a blue sky, next to it a branch bearing green olives

The Idea

In early 2012, Urte and Ralf Randel founded the Greek-German community project “Platanenblatt”. Their first partner farmer was Prokopis Bantzis.

To revive the community-building and social dimension of olive oil making, direct donations from the sale of the oil flow into the non-profit association Platanenblatt e.V., which uses the money to fund a free, inclusive place of learning in the olive grove.

This founding idea – a personal partnership between a producer family and a community that carries the harvest together – remains the heart of Platanenblatt to this day. With the 2026/27 harvest, a new chapter begins. Read more in our news →

Extended Community-Supported Agriculture

Starting with the 2013/14 harvest, the project evolved into an initiative of extended community-supported agriculture.

The basic idea: a group of people guarantees to buy a farmer’s produce and pre-finances the harvest. Everyone shares the responsibility – and the harvest.

Members receive fresh organic olive oil and a personal relationship with their farmer. The farmer gains a community that supports their work, and a secure income.

This way, even non-regional produce can be made responsibly and sustainably – and become part of conscious consumption.

Your Harvest Share – Your Olive Oil

Your share of the harvest on the Peloponnese is, at best, your entire yearly supply of the finest olive oil. Organic by conviction, olives from a single grove (no blending), picked by hand and processed immediately with care. What you receive is not available in any supermarket – an olive oil produced consistently for optimal quality.

Why “Platanenblatt” – plane tree leaf?

In many Greek villages, a plane tree has stood on the central square for generations. Under its wide canopy people met, exchanged news, celebrated and spent the hottest hours of the day in the shade. So the plane tree became far more than a tree: it became the centre of village life – a sign of community, constancy and home.

Some of these trees have accompanied their villages for centuries. Generations come and go. The tree remains.

The School Project

We enable pupils to use the olive grove as a free, inclusive place of learning.

A new environment can shape personal development. Leaving one’s familiar world interrupts the routines that structure everyday life – making reorientation necessary and new development possible.

This project is especially close to our hearts – which is why we are developing it further together with Theo and his family, so that the olive grove can continue to serve children and young people as a free and inclusive place of learning at its new home on the Peloponnese.

Young people using electric harvesting poles to bring the olives down from the trees; nets are spread beneath

Young people from Germany harvesting in the olive grove – our free place of learning.

Left: Ralf tasting the fresh oil from a small cup in front of the olive press. Right: Theo Kontogiannis filling cow horns with manure for the Demeter preparation horn manure.