EFTALOU ART GALLERY ONLINE - The wetlands

 Thanks to abundant rain the is land is green and wet. The wetlands seem to have doubled in size. The little pools and their watersides are like two playmates, creating wonderful landscapes.  Hard not to get inspired: The wetlands.

Material: ink, acryl paint, conte on watercolor paper, sizes: 24 cm by 31 cm, prize: 125 euro.

Chantalle van Eijk (born 1974) finished her study as artist in 1998, then she made long travels and got her inspiration from the faraway countries. In 2003 she fell in love with the Greek island of Lesvos where she stayed and since then lived and worked. The structures, colours and basic forms in the landscape and the sea are her main inspiration.

For more information: chantallevaneijk@yahoo.co.uk

Or on Facebook: Chanti van Eijk

January 7 – A song of churches

(The little church Panagia tis Amalis)

It is not that long ago that the majority of the people living on Lesvos voted for the communist party. The island used to be known as a red island. Which is a little odd, because Lesvos is also known for its large number of churches and its inhabitants still live pretty traditionally: communism and religion here form a pair.

Long ago the island was already exceptional by building lots of churches. Anthony Kaldellis wrote in Lesbos in Late Antiquity* that this abundance might be due to the fact that in pre Christian times Lesvos had bishops who followed doctrines other than those dictated by the main church in Constantinople and that for this reason they built churches for the followers of Constantinople as well as for those who were faithful to their bishop.

They were very pious in those times: Ioannis Moutzouris wrote in his book Ο Μοναχισμός της Λέσβου (the monkhood on Lesvos) that there used to be as many as 35 monasteries around Mytilini and 44 around Methymna (Molyvos). I wonder how he arrived at those numbers; because I don’t know of a single monastery around Molyvos. There must be traces to be found. I’m sure that some of the stones in the older houses will be found to have come from one of those monasteries. And once you go digging in the earth I do believe that whole monasteries and ancient settlements will appear from the earth. It is a matter of reading the old documents.

According to Moutzouris, it can very well be possible that the patron saint of Molyvos, saint Theoktisite (see: The Robinson Crusoe of Molyvos), before she was abducted by pirates, lived in a monastery for women in Mnos. Molyviots eat part of their words and that is why it is possible that the name Mnos comes from the word monastery (monastíri). Most people think that the region Mnos is also called Eftalou. But Mnos is actually just before the first high hill of Eftalou. In the past, during building work at the former taverna of Angelos, ancient walls were found in the ground, just on the spot where it was said there used to be a monastery. But there is no money for excavation and as we know there is so much to dig up in Greece. If you really want to dig up all of Greek history, the whole of Greece would be turned upside down. So the ancient walls in Mnos were recovered with earth and buried again with their secrets (the same happened during the building of the house of the yoga’s Victor van Kooten en Angela Farmer, a little further afield in Eftalou).

If there really were so many monasteries, how many churches would there have been? Not only Lesvos, but all of Greece is full of big churches and even many more little churches or chapels. You see them everywhere, even in the most remote spots. The ‘in-the-middle-of-nowhere’ churches are called xoklisia and they can be very old indeed. According to a study about the landscape on Crete the age of those churches can be very valuable to the history of its region: those churches were not just built on any old spot, but served as a landmark for a road junction, a well or a spring or a settlement.

Lesvos also has lots of old basilicas from early Christian times, built by the church. Some were made of the stones from temples or were built right on the spot of old temples. Kaldellis has a second thought about why there were so many churches here on Lesvos. He suggests that when Christianity was introduced on the island (pretty late, around the fifth century), the merchants who were familiar with the outside world and who introduced Christianity made sure that many churches were built in a modernization effort. The inhabitants were not forced to convert but old pagan believes slowly made way for Christian rites. So no iconoclasm but a transition from temples to churches, with people combining usage of old pagan rites and the belief in one God. Kaldellis also refers us to the sacrifice of the bull, a tradition that existed until not long ago in Agia Paraskevi, where bulls were offered and even nowadays symbolically celebrated each year –a pagan tradition that has never disappeared. 

But most xoklisia were (and still are) not built by the church but by citizens as a tama. Tama is the promise that you make to God when you want something from Him: getting cured from an illness or to acquire something very special. On Chios for example, the island of shipping magnates, it is the norm that for every second ship you buy, you build a little church to show your gratitude.

You will not find shipping owners on Lesvos, but lots of sheep. It might be that for every hundredfold of sheep you build a church? Fact is that even though it is a time of crisis new churches are still being built. But I am sure that once the crisis is over, an even bigger new craze of building churches will appear!

*From the book: Archaeology and History in Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece: Studies; chapter 10 by Anthony Kaldellis: Lesvos in late Antiquity: Live Evidence and new Models for religious Change.

(With thanks to Mary Staples)

@ Smitaki 2013

January 3 - O, Christmas tree!

(a creeping pine tree)

When talking about Greece, pine trees don’t immediately come to mind although there are plenty of pines amongst the many other trees on Lesvos, where throughout all seasons the large pinewoods colour the heart of the island green.

The pine even has a minor role in Greek mythology. The story is brought to mind of the bandit Sinis who used bent pine trees to catapult people into the air or alternately  split them in half. King Theseus, known as the hero who killed the Cretan Minotaur, gave Sinis a bit of his own medicine and so the road to Athens became safe again.

Pan, God of the woods and animals, liked pine trees and nymphs. One day he fell in love with the wood nymph Pitys, who was already being courted by Boreas, God of the Northern winds. But because Pan made much less noise than Boreas and his stormy winds, she choose Pan. Boreas, infuriated by her decision, let Pitys fall from a high rock. Pan found her lifeless and changed her into a pine tree. Since then, when the northern winds are blowing, Pitys cries and her thick tears become the resin that drips from the trees and which in turn are used for retsina.

Pine resin is used for many other purposes and until the end of the Sixties resin was still harvested here on the island (see: When the pine trees still had a face).

Christmas trees also belong to the extended pine tree family (Pinaceae), but the ones which are used in the West of Europe for a decorated tree (like a spruce or a fir tree) do not grow on Lesvos. On the island we mainly find Aleppo pines, black pines, Turkeys pines and here and there Umbrella pines. Of course those can be used also as a Christmas tree, although the smaller ones have limp branches with only a few needles and when decorating the tree it requires great effort to prevent all the lights and balls from crashing to the ground.

Pinecones, the fruit of the pine trees, are other beloved Christmas decorations. And there are plenty on the island. They can be painted gold or silver or just used in their natural colour. They also serve very well in the barbecue or as kindling for a stove or an open fire. But before you throw them in the fire, consider that they have taken quite some time to grow: some of them up to 1.5 to 3 years. I am wondering if that is an explication why, for two years now, the Umbrella pines around my house have not produced any pine nuts. Are the pinecones all of the same age, meaning that they will be ‘born’ in the same year and during the time that they grow, there will be no pine nuts?

Pine trees have more peculiarities. Like the trees I used to call creeping pines, in Dutch ‘kruipden’. Officially a ‘kruipden’ is not a pine tree crawling over the ground, but a Mountain Pine (Pinus mugo): short pines growing on high mountain slopes. Quite different from the big pine trees, they, instead of standing tall, creep over the earth or forming T-junctions in the air with their branches. I have some of these around the house and seeing them makes you happy: a special kind or a stubborn pine that perversely grows side ways.

I do understand why the pine tree was a favourite of Pan: this beautiful tree is stubborn, evergreen and has a lovely fragrance. When just before Christmas I took a walk to the Pessas waterfalls, I became sad because there still doesn’t seem to be much running water: the farmer that illegally drains the water has still not been stopped. But my walk went straight through pinewoods where you can still see the rusted iron buckets for the tears of Pitys and thanks to the drizzley weather and the strong perfume of the trees I got into Christmas mood.

Over Christmas the weather turned beautiful and temperatures rose. Christmas lunch could be eaten in the sun, sheltered from the wind, and in the following days you could still adjust your tan in the warm sunrays. In the nights the moon also contributed to happiness with plenty of light and you could have very romantic walks in the moonlight, feeling the landscape turning into a fairy tale, enjoying the pine trees that sparkled as if they were decorated with candles.

And now we are approaching the second celebration day of the year. In many countries Epiphany (or the Three Kings) is celebrated, but in Greece it is also the day on which the priests bless the waters, boats and seamen (see: Cross throwing). January 6^th is also the day when traditionally all Christmas trees should be banished from the house and in so doing lose that great aroma of the pine trees. But even though there are no real Christmas trees, here on the island there remain plenty of beautiful trees, whose fragrance we can enjoy: sweet and fresh, a stimulating scent for the new year!

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

@ Smitaki 2013

EFTALOU ART GALLERY ONLINE - Love Ikona

(Love Ikona by Chantalle van Eijk)

Greek icons and Indian Gods inspired Chantalle van Eijk to make her Love Icona. With this beautiful picture I wish you:

Happy Holidays and a very good 2013

Chantalle van Eijk (born 1974) finished her study as artist in 1998, then she made long travels and got her inspiration from the faraway countries. In 2003 she fell in love with the Greek island of Lesvos where she stayed and since then lived and worked. The structures, colours and basic forms in the landscape and the sea are her main inspiration.

For more information: chantallevaneijk@yahoo.co.uk

Facebook: Chanti van Eijk

December 14 – I want a Hay-Madam!

 

Photo from  the  internet: Solar cooking at CantinaWest

While you can see snow glistening on one of the mountain peaks in Turkey and temperatures on Lesvos have dived, the sun is still trying to keep the frost out of the earth. But last night I put on my warmest clothes and sat outside to see the stars falling. Well, in fact it was not stars falling last night, but space debris, coming from the meteor Geminides. When I had lost track of the number of flares crossing the sky, I went back to my warm bed, not waiting for the highlight of this meteor shower, because it really was much too cold to stay outside.

And while I was sitting under those twinkling lights I thought that this sky is a world that could never be lost, even though so many stars or debris are falling out of it. And I do hope the same for beautiful Greece. I mean the Hellenic people have already existed for thousands of years. Now they are living through a black spot in their history: a crisis touching so many Greeks in their hearts and in their wallets. In Holland they complain that the Dutch are reining in their spending, here in Greece the people do not even have money to spend.

To economize is the big thing these days for everybody. Shops in Mytilini are barely decorated for Christmas and it is hard to find any luxury items in the food stores (or were they already sold out?). Here the wood stove does its best to keep the house warm. This way, I too I economize on gas, electricity and on fuel, which cost this year has risen by 50 %. Lots of people have already bought a woodstove and I am sure illegal logging will increase this winter. People have rediscovered using olive pits to heat, like they did in earlier times. They are now delivered as an alternative and cheaper fuel for central heating. They also sell olive pits compressed in blocks for wood burners and olive pits can be turned into a bio fuel for cars. Let’s hope that a smart Greek is buying all the olive pits at all the olive presses here on the island and starts a business with it. As far as I know at the moment there is only one business on the island selling these olive pits for the central heating and he sold out his merchandise pretty quickly.

A woodstove is a nice way to economize. Apart from it giving warmth, you can use it to warm up food; preparing food when you have a woodstove with an oven, you can bake bread, pizzas and cakes at any time of the day.

But there are more ways to economize while cooking. In the poor, warm third world countries (and Greece is on its way to re-enter this category) there is experimentation with solar cooking. With mirrors or silver plated panes the warmth of the sun is directed to a central place where you can place a cooker. Just imagine a satellite dish, plated with tinfoil, directed to the sun. In the middle an iron frame keeps a boiling pot and in it you cook. The solar cooking box does the same, but seems to me more practical: a box with mirror sides and the cooking pot is placed at the inside.

In the winter it may be that solar cooking is not possible. Imagine you plan a dinner and there is no sun for the whole day. Then you have to use an open fire, or the hot ashes in a firepit. The drums of old washing machines are easily turned into a fire pit or outside stove: just put an oven grid over the opening and there you can put your cooking pans. But make sure that this pan is fire resisting!

One of the eldest pans used to cook on an open fire was called a Dutch oven. These are heavy iron cast pans that could last for generations, made in Holland. In the nineteenth century they were indispensable and popular amongst the pioneers going to America in search of a new life.

People living in the city can’t always make an open fire, nor use a wood stove. But even without fire or sun it is possible to economize while cooking. The hay box is a box or basket where you place a pan with food in the middle, fill it up with hay and or woollen blankets and the food gets done because the hay and/or blankets will keep the warmth. In Holland they developed a modern hay box, a large upside down tea-cozy, which is a joy to have in the kitchen and is called a hay-madam.

This week I didn’t manage to experiment with young thistles, nor with mushrooms but I have some other Christmas menus which are composed of dishes from my cookbook Almost Greek. I am not sure if you can prepare them all in the above mentioned cooking fashions, because I imagine that these alternative ways of cooking need some practice. But there are enough ideas to set yourself to work. The vegetarian menu I gave in last week’s column Rain, mushrooms and a Christmas menu. Here are a meat and fish menu for Christmas.

Almost Greek meat menu for Christmas

Starter:

Fig-livermousse

+

Chestnut bread rolls

In between:

Peach in champagne

Main course:

Rabit with mushroom sauce

+

Vegetables with pesto

+

Potato pancakes with herbs

Dessert:

Mud from Heaven with figs

Finishing dinner with:

Quince liqueur

Almost Greek fish menu for Christmas

Starter:

Spinach omelettes with shellfish ragout

In between:

Kir-pommegranate

Main course:

Pasta with asparagus-shrimp sauce

+

Carrot salad with almonds

+

Broad Bean Dip Sauce

+

Olive bread

Dessert:

Red jelly pudding

Finishing with:

Fresh apricot bonbons

+

Orange liqueur

(the recipe of orange liqueur is not in the book)

• The cookbook Almost Greek is available through the website Smitaki (in Dutch, English and German), in the shop 1912 (Lisa) in Molyvos (Lesvos, Greece), at the bookstore ΜΟΥΤΑΦΗΣ at Ermou 11 in Mytilini (in English), the book can be paged through at Cafe Joke at Omirou 13, Athens and the Dutch edition is for sale in different book-and cookshops in Holland.  

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

@ Smitaki 2012

December 9 – Rain, mushrooms and a Christmas menu

(Saffron Milkcap)

In the Wild Hunt for Saint Nicholas last week I mentioned that many thunderstorms had passed over the island, causing great lightshows. A reader mailed me, asking why I had written about the bad weather without mentioning how much damage it caused on some parts of the island.

It’s a big island; it can happen that such news does not reach you very quickly. When you don’t follow the national news regularly on television, it can also happen that, especially if you live in the countryside and you’re not regularly connected to the social gossip of a village, you may not be up to date with the news. So I have only just heard what damage these floods and thunderstorms caused in the centre of the island and in Mytilini. Mytilini, Agiasos and Ambeliko had so much rain, that roads flooded in Mytilini, mudslides came off the mountains damaging houses, parts of roads were destroyed in Ampeliko, churches (and other buildings) got flooded and a rapid fall  of water went straight through the theatre of Agiasos, see films on YouTube {the first 5}.

The colossal rains caused lots of damage on the island, but all that water also did some good: mushrooms are shooting out of the earth and even though the weather remains rainy and unpredictable, lots of people are going to the mountains and woods to collect mushrooms.

The ancient Greeks were familiar with all kind of mushrooms. But somewhere in history this knowledge got lost and modern Greece has just recently (since 20 years) regained interest in mushrooms. It was mushroom specialist George Konstantinidis, who started publishing papers and later books in Greek about the mushrooms of Greece and since then more and more people have been infected with mushroom fever.

It’s a similar story here on Lesvos. Some ten years ago most people only knew the pèperites (peppered Milkcap, Lactarius piperatus), that grow in the pine forests and some people were familiar with the meadow mushrooms. But when you showed them a mushroom that they did not recognise, the advice was always the same: “Don’t touch them, they are poisonous, throw them away!” Nowadays plenty of people, gathered in groups, roam over the island on mushroom hunts and even visit their fellow mushroom hunters in Turkey. And slowly the people of the island are learning that there are a lot more tasty mushrooms that can be turned into a meal when the rains finally transform the dry landscape into fertile grounds from which lots of delicacies grow.

Because of the wet weather and the muddy roads I have not ventured too far – for example to Agiasos or Klapados where I know there are ceps growing. I stayed close to home at a spot where plenty of the tasty sister of the peppered Milkcaps can be found: the saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus). Because these Milkcaps love to grow under earth and branches they are quite dirty and the easiest way (yes, I do know that you should not clean mushrooms with water) to clean them is wiping all the dirt off the upper cap under some streaming water. And because between the gills there is often some dirt, I loosen it with a knife, as I also did with the smudgy borders of the cap. This way you get very clean mushrooms to use for delicious dishes. Yesterday I cut them in small pieces and fried them in some butter. The orangey juice of the mushroom mixed with the butter into a delicate sauce, which I kept on boiling in order to reduce and then seasoned it with cream, salt and pepper. I then mixed this saffron Milkcap ragout with boiled red cabbage, which is an excellent combination.

Of course lots of other mushrooms grow around here, although I do not know them all and leave them, like the beautiful bright orange mushrooms that grow under the olive trees, and the small yellow ones with a crenate bordered cap or those parasol-like chocolate coloured mushrooms, who stand up straight out of the grass. The light brown boletus I do know, but since they are not so tasty I leave them and the time for the meadow mushrooms just has yet to start.

I my cookbook Almost Greek you can find the recipe for ‘Peppery Milkcap Fries’, easily to make with the peperites; because they are so big and sturdy they are easily cut into long sticks. You will also find a recipe for how to make a mushroom ragout or how to turn young meadow mushrooms into peppery snacks (‘Spicy Mushrooms’). This month I will remain in culinary mood and in the coming week I will experiment some more with the mushrooms and with the young Maria thistles, which, just like the mushrooms, spurt in big numbers out of the ground. I was surprised even to find some wild asparagus, normally to be found in March or April, which means that indeed nature is somewhat troubled these days.

For Christmas I will make some suggestions for three Christmas menus - vegetarian, meat and fish - composed of recipes out of the book Almost Greek. Here is the first one:

Almost Greek vegetarian Christmas menu

Mezedes

Greek croquettes

+

Spicy mushrooms

+

Filled eggs with asparagus cream

+

Fetacream

+

fig fingers

In between

Courgettetagliatelle with feta and mint sauce

Main course

Pancakes with mushroom ragout

+

wild spinach with orange juice

Desert

Yoghurt-clementine-pudding

Finishing with

Metaxapot

* The cookbook Almost Greek is available through the website Smitaki (in Dutch, English and German), in the shop 1912 (Lisa) in Molyvos (Lesvos, Greece), at the bookstore ΜΟΥΤΑΦΗΣ at Ermou 11 in Mytilini (in English), the book can be paged through at Cafe Joke at Omirou 13, Athens and the Dutch edition is for sale in different book- and cookshops in Holland. 

December 4: The wild hunt for Saint Nicolas

(Thunderstorm approaching Petra; photo: Jeroen Koster)

According to Wikipedia the Wild Hunt “is an ancient folk myth prevalent across Northern, Western and Central Europe. The fundamentals in all instances is the same: a phantasmal, spectral group of huntsmen with the accoutrements of hunting with horses and hounds in mad pursuit, cross the skies or along the ground, or just above it.”, announcing a thunderstorm and mostly taking place in mid–winter.

People still believing in this old legend must have been pretty happy these last few days seeing plenty of the Wild Hunt here on the island. For days heavy thunderstorms passed and each day we could enjoy (or quiver) while seeing bright lightshows as lightning illuminated the clouds like light bulbs, or we could wonder about the freakish lightning that was sent straight into the ground or the sea.

Was it Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus that kept the rain away for a few hours during the Christmas market which was held in the schoolyard in Molyvos on Sunday December 2? Did they also delay the Wild Hunt, in order that the villagers could get in the mood for Christmas? Or was it both Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus — who are believed to be the same person (see: Saint Nicholas)?

In German mythology the leader of the troop of hunters who chased along the thundering sky was the old German god Wodan, but there are also people who believe that it was Saint Nicholas who lead this group of men.

Some people believe that there are connections between the rituals around Wodan and Saint Nicolas celebrated of on December 6^th by the Dutch. They both ride a grey horse, Wodan through the sky, Saint Nicholas over the roofs; Wodan commanded an army of black soldiers, while Saint Nicholas is helped by black servants; Wodan used black ravens to spy for him, Saint Nicholas has his servants spy on the children for him; Wodan had an upbringing role in reprimanding people who were not living according to gods laws and Saint Nicholas puts naughty children in a sack. These and other similarities lead people to believe that a few of these old German stories about Wodan were the origins of some of the Dutch rituals around the Dutch Saint Nicholas celebration.

Here in Greece there are no similarities between Wodan and Saint Nicholas. December 6^th in Greece is the name day for all people named after Saint Nicholas (Agios Nikolaos), the patron saint of the seafarers. That is why there are thousands of Saint Nicholas churches to be found in Greece, most of them close to the sea. There is a Saint Nicholas church in Mytilini, close to the old harbour, an ancient mosque rebuilt in 1912 as a church. Another Saint Nicholas church on the island is the very old basilica in Petra, hidden under a huge plane tree, not far from the rock that is home to the famous Maria Glykofiloussa Church. In this ancient church you will find very old frescoes of a series of saints, amongst them of course Saint Nicholas. Some of the wall paintings are 3 layers thick, the eldest dating as far back as the 16^th century. Beautiful woodcarving and a bishop’s throne 500 years old, complete the faded glory of this old basilica.

Certainly there will be more Saint Nicholas churches on the island; there are still plenty of small ports where fishing boats keep on coming in and out and they all need to be able to burn a candle for a safe journey. On December 6^th all those churches will be lit with extra candles because all men called Nikos will celebrate their name day.

So Saint Nicholas exists in Greece. And it is generally believed that the Saint Nicholas so celebrated in Holland originally was the Greek bishop of Myra. This bishop was also buried in this area (near Demre, Turkey). Italian merchants believed in all the miracles Saint Nicholas did and when the muslims threatened to take over the region of Myra, they exhumed the remains of Saint Nicholas and brought them to Bari in Italy, where they built a basilica, and where his remains still rest.

I think that in Turkey they have no Saint Nicholas celebration, nor are people named after this saint. However, the Turkish government has more than once asked Italy to return the remains of Saint Nicholas: they claim that they belong to the Turkish heritage.

Maybe secretly Saint Nicholas is also for them a patron saint for seafarers. For days now, here on Lesvos as well as at the other side of the sea, intensive storms have raced over the area, causing havoc. The first winds came from the south, shaking the olive trees, causing garden furniture to fly through the air, walls to crumble and streets to flood. For two days there have been long, strong rollers from the west, making some coasts of Lesvos look like Hawaii with huge waves tumbling over the streets. It will be no paradise these days on the sea. May Saint Nicholas keep all seafarers safe.

(With thanks to Mary Staples)

@ Smitaki 2012