Just up from Maroulas' charming main square you’ll find tiny Marianna’s Workshop. Marianna Founti-Vassi collects aromatic medicinal herbs from the mountains to make her unique range of teas and oils from natural extracts using traditional methods. There are potions for all manner of ailments, including a tea made from 40 herbs once used by midwives.
Marianna’s interest in alternative therapies became a full-time focus when she moved to Maroulas in the mid-1990s and consulted locals about identifying Crete’s many herbs. Marianna says that animals were another guide to herbs and flowers, as they don’t touch toxic plants. Indeed, kri-kri (Cretan goats) have been observed using Crete’s endemic diktamo to heal their wounds.
