Todays lunch was at Theo Periklis and Thea Koula's house. In traditional Greek fashion, there are 3 grown generations of the family living together here: Pericles and Koula, Xristos their son (when he's not off volunteering to help out after earthquakes, we'll tell you more about that later...), and Koula's mother.
Koula made an amazing meal that my mom and sister are still talking about every day (don't worry, you'll be tasting these great recipes soon!). She is part of a women's cooperative in town that uses local produce to make traditional jams, sweets and pastries which are sold throughout Greece with the Velvento name on them. They use traditional recipes and processes (no chemicals), work only when there is fresh local produce available, and share the profits evenly.
Periklis keeps bees and makes his own honey, as well as wine and tsipporo with his sons Kostas and Xristos. The whole village harvests their grapes and makes tsipporo at the same time. Nine families in Velvento have the still (destillery) necessary to make the tsipporo, and from September to November they keep a fire burning underneath 24 hours a day, and everyone in town takes turns making theirs. From the very first night, the Agoratsiou men knew that I was one of them when they saw that I could handle their tsipouro.
Ooooh, yum! That green bean dish look scrumptious! Recipe, anyone?!
ReplyDelete