The second real day of the exchange week, Saturday the 6th, started early again, with breakfast at the university restaurant of course. We then took the bus to the region of Pelion mountain where we visited an organic vineyard called Pastistis. The owner works here, together with his brother, parents and 2 workers, plus brings in seasonal workers when more work needs to be done on this 5 hectare vineyard. Here they try to make natural wine. This means they use the natural yeast and don’t add artificial ones. This also means the wine cannot be hold for a very long time. They add almost none or no sulphates to the wine, according to regulation for organic wines. They produce around 30 tons of wine a year. The grapes are ready around September, which is when the harvest starts.
If they make white wine, the grapes go into a separator, where the stems and skins get out. Into the pressing machine then with 3 to 4 atmospheres of pressure. Up to 70% of weight can be recovered into juice. The fluid then goes into big tanks so the fermentation can take place. After this the wine gets put into barrels or bottles.
If they make red wine, they slightly crush the grapes, keep the skin in there to get the tannins and then mix this in big tanks for hours or days. They then separate the skins and put the juice in barrels to ferment. The longer you leave it in the tank, the more tannins you’d get. After the big tanks it goes into the press to get the juice out. If you want to make rosé, you leave it in there for some hours and then press.
With the leftover peels they can make Tsipouro (a strong distilled spirit containing 40-50% of alcohol). The stems and peels are used for fertiliser as well. As low waste as possible. We could then taste the products they make in Pastistis. We tasted the olive oil and 3 of their wines after which we had the chance to buy their products.
We made our way up the mountain to Spoon sweets production company in Vizitsa This is a cooperation that was started in 2011 by the local women. The municipality gave them the building, which used to be an old school and they used their own money to buy all the equipment and to renovate the building. With fruits from their own gardens they create all the products (sweets and jams,…) and then sell them in Greece and Germany or on traditional food fairs. In this small town only 70 people live and this cooperation exists of 7 women. The goal is to try to keep the youth in the town and to combine the old and new. They try to blend new techniques with recipes from their grandmas.
We got to see how they make double bake cookies and even helped! Recipe:
2 cups of olive oil 2 cups of baking soda in orange juice a little bit of salt orange peels 2 cups of sugar baking powder 2.5 cups of flour 20 minutes of baking time and then again 10 minutes (double bakes)
Whilst the cookies were in the oven, once and twice, we visited the local orthodox church of Saint Agios Ioannis Prodromos aka John the Baptist, the saint of priests and nuns. The nun there told us a bit about it’s history and the saint of the church. St. John was the last of the Old testaments prophets according to the eastern Orthodox church. He was the forerunner of Christ. He died by beheading, which is why you can see his head on a plate next to him. The church was built in the 18th century, and survived an earthquake but had to be rebuild. The nun is alone in the church right now but soon 2 more women will join her.
The cookies were done, we could take them home and drove back down the mountain. We got ready for the biggest tradition in IAAS, the Trade Fair night! Here every country presents itself through its food and drinks, after which we try to steal each others flag, eat and dance a lot. It was a great night with a lot of great people. Belgium brought chocolate, beers, WAP (sausage, applesauce, potatoes).
After the Trade Fair we went down to a sort of open garage where we saw the live performance of a band called “De luar and the StreetDose”. A psy rock, post rock, folklore band. We danced all night and had a lot of o fun. Check out the many pictures that were taken. Check out their awesome music here.
