March 26 – Travelling to Lesvos

(Aristotle's Lagoon)

Nowadays there are many more travellers than centuries ago. Thanks to the airplane you do not need years to arrive at the other end of the world. It is because of this fast transport that we can even consider having a holiday several times a year. In fact going on vacation is not the same as travelling: you know to which place you are going, along which road and how long it will take; while when travelling you may not be sure which road you will take, nor how much time it will take and you may only know your final destination.

Lesvos is a vacation destination. Even in ancient times, when Rome ruled Europe, it already was a vacation place for the Romans, who called the island The Garden of the Aegean. Later on travellers thought Mytilini was the most beautiful city of the Aegean, but until the middle of the nineteenth century most people preferred to travel to the Greek mainland, to visit the classical monuments of ancient times, like the Acropolis or Delphi. Lesvos was too far away and was only visited by a happy few on their way to the Orient.

They missed something, because Lesvos was the island chosen by Aristotle to study animals, later published in his book Historia animalium. He was invited to do so by Theophrastus, a scientist from Eresos, who is seen as the first botanist. The former did the plants, the latter the animals. Aristotle chose the area around the Gulf of Kalloni, where he could observe and dissect fish as well as land animals. The BBC made an interesting documentary about the importance of Aristotle’s study on Lesvos, Aristoteles’ Lagoon, a movie that also serves as a strong advertisement for the island.

Most of those early travellers were well read and wrote about their journeys, resulting in entertaining literature which, above all, depicted life as it was so many years ago. I am fascinated by these travel journals, especially those about Lesvos, but there are so many! You would think that it was a requirement for every traveller to write about his journey. In the Seventeenth century a Dutchman, Gerard Hindelopen, made a report on his journey to Mytilini (see: The Throne of Potamon). On the internet you can find plenty of travel journals from the end of the Nineteenth to middle of the Twentieth century, like the one of  J. Irving Manatt – Aegean Days (1913) or Mary A. Walker – Old tracks and new landmarks (1897), both describing their visit to Mitilene (as the island used to be called).

Most people stayed in Mytilini and from there travelled to other parts of the island. In those times it was popular to visit the harbour of the Gulf of Yera, known as the Olive Harbour. Or they went to the other big harbour in those times, that of (Skala) Kallonis. Those excursions, of course, were very arduous and by foot, horse chart, horse or donkey, or by boat. Mary Walker for example hired a little boat to go to the hot springs in Thermi and to Moria. Going to Molyvos she took the liner that sailed between ‘Cavalla, Imbros, Tenedos, Molivos, Mitylene and Smyrna’. To visit Petra she had to do it by foot from Molyvos, over a dangerous footpath just destroyed by an earthquake.

Even in the Sixties, when the first cars were introduced on the island, an excursion by car to the monastery of Ypsilou was an adventurous enterprise that took more than a day, according to Betty Roland who described this journey in her book Lesbos, the pagan island.

The islanders themselves did not like to travel, except for the merchants, who mainly lived in Mytilini and travelled from there to faraway countries in the Orient, as far as Russia and Egypt. The villagers remained in their familiar surroundings: what should they do in the capital. But sometimes one had to go to Mytilini for business, a journey often meaning adventure. In his book The Mermaid Madonna the Lesviot writer Stratis Myrivilis told the story of a man from Sykaminia who took his little fishingboat to Mytilini and returned totally drunk and with a foundling in his boat.

By the Sixties there was a bus between Molyvos, Petra and Mytilini, but that journey took 2 to 3 hours and when it was rainy it might even take 4 to 5 hours, because rivers had to be crossed. In the book Lesbos, the pagan island Betty Roland describes such a journey, travelling along very bad roads with passengers behaving like they were on a world trek with all their luggage and food.

Now all main roads are tarmacadamed, bridges have been built and it takes only a little bit more than an hour to drive from the North to Mytilini. Just a few tourists now arrive by ship because a journey by airplane is much quicker. Nowadays people are in a hurry; they want to see the sun and have forgotten that travelling will show you beautiful sceneries and adventures.

Flying is quick but it costs. I regularly hear complaints about expensive tickets for the charter planes to the island – the quickest way – or that they are fully booked. But there are many other ways to go to Lesvos, just like the travellers did in earlier times, to arrive by boat on the island, a much more impressing arrival than by plane. The easiest way is to fly to Athens and from there take the ferry from Pireaus to Lesvos. But there is even a quicker and more adventurous way: you take an early morning flight to Izmir in Turkey, from there you take a shuttle bus to Ayvalik or Dikili (a drive along the beautiful Turkish landscape of about 2 hours). Take some time to visit those scenic villages and then take the boat to Mytilini at the end of the afternoon. This way you will even have had your first excursion. This is the cheapest way and you can take beautiful pictures while travelling. And – by the way – Izmir, too, is an interesting city worth a visit, where you could easily stay one or more days.

Lesvos does not belong to the most visited Greek islands. Therefore it is not yet spoiled by mass tourism and what you see on the island is more or less what saw Aristotle, the Romans and all those other travellers who praised the island as a green and fertile garden in the Aegean: an oasis of quietness, nature, friendly people and just a little bit of ancient culture.

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

© Smitaki 2013

March 15 – Carnival

One of the treasures of Lesvos is the large village of Agiasos, which is nestled into the mountains just next to Mt Olympos. It has been there for centuries, see: Emails for Maria. And even though in the past it has been struck by disasters such as hugely destructive wild fires, the village has kept an authentic identity, which explains why it is one of the major tourist attractions of Lesvos.

When arriving in the village you will notice the fresh mountain air, which in the autumnal months becomes mixed with the perfume of overripe fruit like figs, grapes and apples and in the winter months with the sweet fragrance of burning wood stoves. This is a village where you can still find the ancient crafts of wood carving, lace making and pottery; most of these products displayed in crammed shops, just next to the thousands of icons. And each 15^th of August the village turns into a place of pilgrimage thanks to its famous Mary-church.

Agiasos loves to celebrate, not only at The Ascension of Mary but also in the spring during the Cherry Festival and in autumn during the Chestnut festival. And then, nearly each year in the winter Agiasos turns for a few days into a Christmas village, with a covering of thick snow. The highlight of the winter is the carnival, another occasion to celebrate.

While in lots of countries like Holland carnival is just about disguise and beautiful costumes; carnival in Greece and in Agiasos has an important social role: these are the days when people can protest about everything that’s bothering them in Greece.

During the carnival days Agiasos changes into a village where satire reigns, where there’s an abundance of costumes, floats, concerts and theatre productions. In ancient times young men roamed between the coffee houses, dancing and singing, in order to seduce young women. But after someone, in 1902 during the time of Turkish occupation, disguised himself as Alexander the Great trying to fire up nationalism, carnival acquired another meaning for the villagers and became even more popular.

When you saunter along the steep cobbled streets, past the colourful houses and shops of Agiasos, you might get the impression of an old village full of poor country people. But Agiosos may be the most cultural place of Lesvos. Molyvos is the village of the writers and painters but Agiasos is the one of theatre and traditional music. And this is thanks to a local gunmaker who stood up for the rights to education and culture. It was in his store during the Turkish occupation that men met to read the papers (then full of news of the Greek fight for freedom) in search of their cultural and traditional identity. These gatherings became so popular that in 1894 the Agnosterion was created, a cultural organisation that set up a library where Greek papers and magazines from all over the world could be read. Hiding behind a cultural facade, their aims were, of course, political. When in 1897 word got out that on Crete the Greek army routed the enemy, Agiasos send sixty volunteers to the army, they also gathered money for the Greek army’s participation in the Macedonian war (1904 – 1908).

When Lesvos was finally freed from the Turks in 1922 the Agnosterion set up, along with activities like a gym club, a whole series of theatre productions, most of them pretty satirical. During the German occupation it formed the centre of resistance and tried to keep up the moral of the villagers, like putting a float in the carnival procession, which depicted the liberation from the Germans. During the civil war the integrity of some of its board members was disputed and the organisation dissolved, to come back in full strength in 1952. Even now the Agnosterion organizes theatre plays, concerts and other cultural events, they have also been published many CD’s and video’s.

The Agnosterion contributes to the organisation of the carnival at Agiasos. Now the donkeys pulling the floats have been replaced by cars, but still carnival in Agiosos is a celebration where poems are read, plays performed and old traditions, like the colouring people with charcoal, have been revived.

This weekend it is again carnival (the dates of orthodox and catholic carnival, just like Easter, are different). Agiasos will turn into a colourful theatre, where all problems of Greek life will be mercilessly exposed. And there are many in these times of crisis, so I think the Greeks will not have any problem to choose their subject and I am sure the Greek streets will be filled up with lady Merkels, lady Europes and corrupt politicians.

However, just like last year, the carnival celebration will be a little more temperate. In Molyos for example there is no money for a procession and I bet it will not be the only (sub) municipality with this problem. Carnival will finish with Clean Monday, when kites will be put in the air, trying to shoot to heaven, just like many a silent prayer asking that next year life will return to normal and that people can return to the usual disguises of criminals, corrupt monks or sexy weather girls.

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

© Smitaki 2013

EFTALOU GALLERY ONLINE - Now Chapels

The small white chapels belong to the Lesvorian landscape. As they belong in Greek art. Chantalle made a serie of three amazing drawings: deep roots, long wings until heaven, openness, unity, diversity and future.

Material: acryl paint and pen, sizes: 3 x A4, prize for the serie: 300 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

February 25 – The most beautiful flower of spring

(Ophrys (fusca ssp.) sancti-isidorii )

It has taken some time, but finally the almond trees have come into blossom, at bit later than other years. The result is that the Lesvorian landscape is coloured with tufts of pink-white clouds and I’m amazed to see how many almond trees grow on the island. It’s the best time to count them because these fruit trees are always the first ones to deck their branches with these fragile blossoms. And now the first prune trees are slowly starting to open their flowers with the peach and apricot trees soon to follow.

So what can be done with all those almonds. In the local women’s cooperatives, they make marzipan from them, just like they do with walnuts. I must admit that I take the almonds from the trees near the house; but because nut cracking is so time consuming, I still have bags full of almonds that may never get eaten.

The first flowers of the year however are not from a tree but spurt from the earth long before a new year starts. The first anemones (wind-flowers) begin to show their colourful petals in December. But these flowers are at their best when the almond trees are showing off - a scene that gives you a warm spring feeling.

After these first blossomings, other flowers follow in a quick succession - like blue grape hyacinth, irises, red anemones, dandelions and marigolds and soon you will loose count of what will be next.

However, along with the almond blossoms and the anemones there is another flower that starts pretty early in the year: the wild orchid. These flowers are a bit more modest and if you don’t really look for them it is easy to overlook them. The wild orchid secretly adds it colours to the landscape and is so small that most people will have never seen her that early in the year. On January 31^st orchid specialist and photographer Jan van Lent discovered a few Ophrys (fusca ssp.) sancti-isidorii on the island and possibly some Ophrys (fusca ssp.) lindia. Astonished to find them so early he immediately set off for more orchid hunting, resulting in proof that orchids can also be placed amongst the earliest flowers to bloom in spring, along with the anemones and almond blossoms. On February 13^th he even found a flowering Himantoglossum robertianum (the Big Roberts orchid), which is considered to be the biggest orchid in Greece.

These names may not conjure up familiar images for people who are not conversant with wild orchids. But when entering this orchid world, a new universe will open because there are many kinds of orchids, divided in families, species and subspecies. A layman might not see the differences in subspecies but the orchid specialist who studies these flowers does and exchanges his findings with other connoisseurs.

Orchids do have something very special that other flowers do not: they still continue to develop new species. It is a flower world in motion that keep the orchid hunters also on the move. Because not only new flowers get a name; there are orchid specialists who even rename some of the species. So when you have just determined which orchid you have found and if you have not read the latest publications you may be driven mad because professor X may be calling the orchid ‘such’ and mister Y will call it ‘so’. Who is the Pope of the orchids?

It sometimes drives Jan van Lent crazy and he wonders why some people have to rename a flower. I mean, you ask for roses and you then get tulips because someone has decided to replace the name of roses by tulips. The orchid world is a strange one with lots of naming and squabbling.

And orchids do get eaten. Their bulbs are unearthed in order to make flour, which is used to make a kind of power-drink named salep. This milky drink used to be consumed in great quantity in times when coffee was still too expensive for many people. Whilst the drink is now forbidden in Europe, in Athens, for example, you may still find street vendors trying to sell this drink. Although it’s not certain that they sell the real orchid-salep or whether they make this with milk and cornstarch, see Jumping Ropes with Fox Testicles Ice Cream.

Wild orchids are protected flowers: do not touch them, just look at them. When you really look for them, you will discover small amazing beauty queens that can be admired only when you really try hard, just like when looking for mushrooms or wild asparagus, other products of nature that you only will find when you really concentrate.

So whether you are already mad for orchids or would like to take a chance that you will come under their spell, spring and early summer on Lesvos offer you the opportunity to see them. They can be found on the island from January until the end of June. In early summer they will mostly be found in the mountains. For more information about orchids on Lesvos see the orchidblog on the website janvanlent.com

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

© Smitaki 2013

February 17 – Gold fever

(The Mount Ida seen from Lesvos)

Today in Chalkidiki (north of Greece) a group of around forty masked men entered the compound of a goldmine and caused a lot of damage. This aggressive act didn’t just came out of nowhere: for some time the inhabitants of this region have been protesting against the opening of this particular goldmine; it’s called Kouries. The licence to dig was given to Hellas Gold, 95% owned by the Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold, the remaining 5% owned by the Greek company Aktor. 

Activists claim that politicians have put the country up for sale and that’s why controversial mining projects like this can happen. Eldorado Gold mainly operates abroad, in third world countries where, on the whole, governments don’t care about the environment and the population welcomes new jobs. So yes, I guess this means that Greece, this southern part of Europe, has become a third world country.

But what’s wrong with digging for the yellow metal? Gold mining not only destroys large spaces of land where all trees have have to be chopped down, but mercury and cyanide are used to separate the gold from other metals and other heavy metals can come free during this process. When these materials seep into the ground water or are released into the air, there can be contamination of natural resources as well as risks for people. Most of these mines are only operational for a certain number of years, thereafter they are abandoned, leaving the local populace with a polluted and destroyed environment. Here is a good article that is oppositional to this gold digging: Why Are Greeks Protesting Canadian Mining Operations?

It could be that Lesvos might get sold out to just such a large company. But for now, the island can count itself lucky that its western part is threatened ‘only’ by a huge Spanish wind mill park that will destroy part of its nature but will not use poisonous matters like mercury or cyanide.

But Lesvos also has to fear the Golden Danger. Turkey is the leading European country for gold mining and most Turkish gold mines are in the west, not too far from Lesvos, like the Pergama-Ovacik Goldmine. Okay, that’s a bit away, but the danger might also come from closer to home: last year the inhabitants of the small village Zeytinli protested against coming gold mines that are proposing to get the gold out of Mount Kaz.

I look out on this huge mountain in Turkey. It is also called Mount Ida. Most of the time in the winter it’s covered with a bright white layer of snow. It’s said that in ancient times the Olympic Gods used the top as a watchtower to follow the Trojan war. The slopes of this mountain descend all the way to the Golf of Edremit, which is opposite Lesvos. The area is also called the Olive Riviera. Just like Lesvos, a lot of people there make their living from the olive trees and they are not happy about the coming of a polluting gold mine industry.

It has been raining a lot on the island and everywhere rivers and small rivulets are looking for a way to find the sea. But not all the water has descended from the mountains. In flat areas you’ll see water rising up: these days the island has hundreds of wells that only work when the heavens have thrown lots and lots of water down, as in this past winter. In many places now you will need rubber boots to keep dry.

Water can be pushed up from an underground water basin; the more water there is in this basin, the more water is pushed up. It is said that the wells of Lesvos are connected with the wells on Mount Ida as they share the same underground basins (I see it as communicating vessels). So here you can see the danger: when the groundwater in Turkey gets polluted through gold mining, the water on Lesvos will  also get contaminated. And even if this communicating-vessel theory is wrong, there remains the danger that the sea between Turkey and Lesvos will get polluted by materials that are used to make the gold shiny.

In ancient times on Lesvos there was mining; in the region of Molyvos silver, zinc and lead were extracted. In Byzantine times there was even gold mining too. If Mount Ida is full of gold, I wonder if there isn’t gold in our Lesviot hills as well (am I  waking a ‘sleeping dog’?).

I don’t want to start a new gold rush, but a few days ago a friend came with a strange story. He found two small nuggets in his woodstove. The question is how this gold came into the stove: is there gold coming up with the water, getting entangled in the roots of the olive trees, that later find their way to his woodstove, or did somebody loose a heavy golden chain or bracelet that then got entangled in the wood and later melted in the wood stove? It’s a fascinating story, also because I have heard the same story about another person who years ago also found a nugget in his woodstove.

So maybe we don’t in fact need those goldmine polluters to find the gold. We just need to let the trees do the job of getting the gold up from the earth. And then we need to start sifting through all the ashes coming from the stove. So for all you fortune hunters: gold not only comes from the mines, but also from the woodstove!

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

© Smitaki 2013 

February 12 - The Tobacco road

(Old steammachine at Milelia)

It is not easy to quit smoking. Especially when living in a country where the authorities have tried in vain to make public buildings and restaurants smoke free and where the people are reputed to be the biggest smokers of Europe.

I suppose this is understandable as tobacco is actually grown in Greece. Even on Lesvos there were once tobacco fields, particularly around Kalloni. Nowadays it’s only the olive groves and the sheep and goat meadows that form the agrarian landscape, whilst in earlier times the fields were more varied. Along with tobacco, pulses, cotton and wheat were grown in large scale, amongst the export products were wine, figs and acorns (for the leather industry). And, to be honest, until the beginning of the twentieth century many more people lived on the island.

It is said that the Italian family Gattilusio, who reigned the island from 1354 to 1462 stimulated the export of wine and olive oil. Presumably before the inhabitants of the island grew those products only for their own usage. When the Turks took over the island the commerce continued to grow on the island and by 1548 taxes had to be paid on wheat, barley, beans, chickpeas and field-beans, sesame, flax and cotton, must and wine, figs, mulberries and almonds, olives, olive oil, honey, pigs and silk.

At the end of the seventeenth century tobacco appeared in the Lesvorian fields, that’s about one century after Christopher Columbus brought the tobacco plant back from South America. It was the Indians in that faraway part of the world who had discovered that smoke from the tobacco plant had pleasant effects and they started to use it for their rituals. The Spanish used it as a cure for sleeping and in 1560 a doctor who travelled through Portugal sent Catharine de Medici some tobacco leaves as a cure for her headaches.

Tobacco first was a medicine, but as soon they learned how to roll cigars with the leaves, tobacco became a stimulant. However, it was cigarettes that made half of the world addicted to tobacco. The very first cigarettes were rolled (and smoked) by soldiers in the Crimean War (1853 – 1856). Later, in America, a machine that rolled 200 cigarettes a minute was invented and so it started: American soldiers got ammunition and cigarettes to fight in the two World Wars and it was they who introduced cigarettes all over the world.

And so the Greeks started smoking too. And not a little bit! In old Greeks movies you rarely see a hero or heroin without a cigarette in their hand or mouth. Just watch Melina Mercouri in Never on Sunday, and you really want to start smoking again.

There were tobacco fields aplenty in Greece, producing different kinds of tobacco. But strangely enough, when the cigarettes became so popular in the Fifties the tobacco fields on Lesvos had became more or less empty. People had had enough of the island: there was a crisis, people no longer wanted to work the fields for no money and emigration became a must for many.

In 1913 there were 140.000 inhabitants counted on the island: then the economy was at its zenith thanks to commerce with the East. In 1912 the island was freed from the Turkish, but Mytilini continued to be a lively centre of international commerce. It was only in 1922 when Greece lost the war with Turkey and the Orient closed down to Greek commerce that Lesvos suddenly was in crisis. It must have been chaos then because people left the island in large numbers, but refugees filled the empty places up. In 1940, 135.000 people still lived on the island. Trust in any recovery of industry however was then lost and the number of inhabitants lowered rapidly until in 1981 they numbered only 88.000. In this century the estimated number has been around 90.000, although last year another exodus started due to the new crisis.

So, even before the world finally decided that cigarettes were bad, the tobacco fields of Lesvos had already been abandoned, along with the many other products that disappeared from the export list. The island now mainly lives from the byproducts of sheep, goats and olive trees. There is a small export of ouzo and the only new thing is tourism, which is good for a small part of the income of Lesvos.

I wonder where those entrepreneurs who made Lesvos rich have gone. Around 1900 the island was so prosperous that it invested big in steam machines: in 1888 12 steam driven presses were responsible for 60% of the oil production, the remaining 40% was produced by 190 regular presses. In 1908 113 steam driven olive presses took care of 95% of the oil with 97 presses dealing with the remaining 5%. The only investments nowadays are in solar panels and the windmills for green energy. But I wonder how much profit the island will get from it. I saw that the saltpans of Polichnitos were in production again. But who is going to invest in seaweed or who is going to collect wool in order to export it as insolation material for the building industry?

I would like to have a small field with some tobacco plants. I guess that cigarettes made from homegrown tobacco cannot be that dangerous to the health. But in Greece there is this old and strange law that you are not allowed to smoke your homegrown tobacco. So should I really quit smoking? Sigh.

(With thanks to Mary Staples)

@ Smitaki 2013

January 28 - Chorta-la-di-dee

(Dandelion)

One of the things I noticed during the first winter I spent on Lesvos, was the groups of horta collectors. During the summer I had already been invited to go to the mountains in order to look for wild vegetables so I imagined a romantic outing on fresh mountain slopes with superb views. There also was a lady who kept inviting me to a farm in the mountains.

In that winter I found out that the area she referred to is known by the name Seven Hills (Eftalou), but I see this region as pretty flat and not at all mountainous: a sloping land with meadows and where olive trees grows. The farm was actually nearly at the sea and also it seems that the word farm for Greeks has another meaning than we have.

Here on the island nearly no Greek lives on his farm. The Greek farma which is normally only home-made ruins consisting of a collection of old wood and ancient beds set together as a shed which act as a shelter for sheep and goats. The farmers themselves mostly live in the nearest village and do their work from their village home. Agricultural farms are relatively unknown on the island.

So I wonder why you should go into the mountains to look for horta or go to a farma in the mountains: the seven-hill-area is one of the most popular horta regions of the north of Lesvos and as I have written many years ago in my blog: there are days that one group of horta hunters after another appear here in Eftalou, so busy that you could imagine starting a little fish & chips shop at the seaside.

You have very bold horta-hunters, who just roam into your garden or park their car or moped there, tear down the gate from the ‘closed for the season’ hotel (because there in this forbidden place, —the grass [in this case the horta] looks greener and juicer). The hunters behave as if finding horta is like a quest for the holy grail so everything is permitted. They have just one goal: to fill up as best and quickly as they can their plastic bags.

The knowledge of horta is mostly passed from mother to daughter; there are men who also know their greens but their skills lie more in hunting mushrooms. What horta hunters look for depends on what grows in that time, what speciality they have or on their state of health. One can look for horta that can mellow a headache, another looks for a horta that cleanses the blood or something against stomach pains. The fact is that horta is superbly healthy and lots of people do not even care or remember which horta is good for what ailment.

It is not that long ago that it was mostly only old women who went for horta. The horta knowledge was in danger of disappearing. However, nowadays more and more people have picked up the challenge of horta hunting and so I’m hoping that the knowledge of wild vegetables will be saved. Due to the crisis, going for horta is a new mania and why not? Suddenly people realise that nature is a kind of market where you get for free wild greens, seafood and snails. Along the coast you can go for squid, shellfish and sea-urchins, on the land you can gather vegetables. There is no supermarket that sells it that fresh!

When I recently was in Holland I was shocked to see that a big part of the Dutch go to the same supermarket, a super market that reigns a country! Pre-cut vegetables and fruit packed in plastic: who can believe that that is healthy? However tasty they make their products with chemicals, it has less and less to do with real food.

You do not have to live in Greece to go for horta. You will find plenty of edible greenery in your back garden, like burdock, cattails, chicory, dandelions, plantains or purslane. You may even cultivate wild greens as real vegetables: Weeds in your garden? Bite back! Or venture out on Sundays to the country and you will see, hunting horta can be fun.

Here on the island you do not really have to exert too much effort to get some food: the island is surrounded by a huge fish pond and so many wild vegetables grow that you do not have to look far, you’ll just stumble over them. Or the loudly buzzing horta-women will lead you to the best spots.

What is so great about the Greek climate is that, even in winter, nature is full of edible stuff. Besides horta and mushrooms, now the citrus fruit is to be harvested and it is time to brew sweet liquors, to pickle lemons and make and eat lots of orange and clementine puddings.

I wondered if there could also be horta-drinks. Herb drinks, like thyme liquor, are known, just like ouzo is made with plenty of medicinal herbs (that is why it is said that ouzo might cure stomach pains). I read somewhere that some Greeks drink the horta cooking water, seasoned with some lemon juice, as a medicinal drink. I have just remembered that as a child I made ‘wine’ with dandelions: I just soaked the yellow flowers in some water turning it a kind of yellow, which I seriously declared as ‘wine’. But dandelion wine does exist, even though I have not drunk it since my youth. Here is a recipe. And if you prefer to drink beer, here is a recipe for a dandelion beer.

Greece is a green winter-spring-wonderland full of culinary possibilities. It may take more time to collect than to buy ready-to-cook vegetables or fish filets in the supermarket, but at least you get something very healthy and fresh and… for no money!

(with thanks to Mary Staples)

@ Smitaki 2013