Off to the mountain villages

 06-02-21, Wednesday

Even the early-rising breakfast eater had to set an alarm this morning! I make sure Ammar won't go back to sleep and off too explore the new breakfast!  There are several rows of steam tables with all the offerings we've come to expect.  (It's very reminiscent of a cruise ship!)  This morning I try the ham and cheese omelet, the grilled veggies, the cheese pie, and olive pie, and the usual suspects!  I'm just getting my second cup of coffee when Ammar joins me.  We finish up just in time to go out from and meet Myra!

We are the only people on the tour today!We do our getting acquainted thing and hop into the van, to climb up into the mountains. The countryside is gorgeous and the van is comfortable and Myra is a delight. She's from South Africa, so you know her accent is a joy to listen to and she knows a great deal about Cyprus, and is willing to share.  Our first stop is in Choulou, at a family goat farm where they make haloumi cheese.  The son was so in love with the making of cheese that as a child he asked for a goat for Christmas! He is now a grown man with kids of his own and has taken over the operation.  His passion for his work is readily apparent as he demonstrates the steps involved in producing this semi-soft cheese from goats' milk.  He now has more than four hundred goats, of two different varieties, and can barely keep up with the demand. His mom and dad are still active and, in fact, Mom brings us a plate with cheese and tomatoes for us to sample. OMG delicious!  There was haloumi on this morning's cheese plate;  but it wasn't anything like this!  The farm cats get to dine on the curds!

The indigenous grapes are shaped differently from ours!

Next we are going to learn how shoushouko is made! And what it is! At first glance you might think you were looking at some large and lumpy candles, instead of a delicious treat! Imagine stringing a series of walnuts or almonds on a string that is about two feet long. Then you dip the string into thickened grape juice fifteen or so times, over a period of, maybe. ten days.  When it is dry, you can sell it and everyone wants some!  You can also use pomegranate juice, but that's more expensive.  You can also spread the treated juice out to dry and sell those treats.  Like the cheese place, this is a family enterprise, run by two brothers, and passed down from their parents.

Myra taught us that grapes planted in rows are newly planted.  The original ones were planted anywhere they could find the room.  Also, their grape vines are all low to the ground and aren't given wires along which to grow.

These are the "instant soup" products that are drying in the sun.

This is just the thickened grape juice that is allowed to dry and is cut up like brownies.

Walnuts on the left; almonds on the right

one of the brothers

Myra bought a kilo for a friend.

Myra and the other brother with an "instant soup" package.  You add it to stock and then add haloumi cheese to your soup.

Our next stop is a lady who makes preserves from whatever is in season, but she is off picking walnuts, so we'll come back to her after taking photos of her beautiful plants.  

Instead we'll go visit the Chrysorrogiattissa Monastery, which dates from the 12th century and is dedicated to Our Lady of the Pomegranate.  We're about 820 meters or about 2700 feet, above MSL! The monks here have always made wine, although the current operation has been moved to a new, modern facility.  But it is a beautiful building and the old wine-making equipment is still in place. Ammar has found a place to get an espresso while I indulge my need to exploration and when we rejoin him Myra produces a bottle of Konstantinos Nama.  It is the oldest continuously produced wine in the world!  It's very like a port or sherry and a small sip backs a disproportionate wallop. It is made from sun-dried grapes of two different varieties.

stairs down to the wine-making cellar

grape stomping down here!

bottling machine

The pointy bottom was buried in the ground and allowed the sediments to accumulate.

Louisa, Myra's compadre in the Cyprus Taste Tours office, tells us that our preserves lady is back and so we return to find the back of her truck filled with crates full of walnuts.  I would never have know that's what they are!  I only think of walnuts as coming in hard, brown, ridged shells!  These smooth green fruits can't be walnuts!  In fact they are!  The hard brown shell in inside there;  but it isn't hard yet and she will soak them in lime so that they don't harden.  She and her husband do a little show and tell before we are invited to sit outside and learn more about the process.  She slices off the stem end and then peels the outermost layer of the walnut before working her magic.  She brings out a tray with our little plates, each containing a large black something on a fork, and four glasses of water.  Those are the preserved walnuts!  And on my goodness are they incredible!!  Myra puts hers in the water between bites because the juice flavors the water!  I have to have a jar of these to bring home!  Oh! So good!! She changes juice as the seasons change and is busy until October!  Beats being a pastry chef, which was her former profession.

She also brings us little demi tasse of Turkish coffee and everyone thinks I'm a weenie without good sense because I prefer sugar in mine.  There is quite a discussion about how it is called Turkish coffee everywhere but no one knows why!

Believe it or not, we are heading for a meze lunch.  Remember the never ending fish dinner?  Well this is the meat version!!  While I go to the bathroom Ammar orders an espresso and Myra takes her turn when I come back. Lunch starts off easily enough with Greek salad - lettuce, tomatoes, onions, feta - pita bread, hummus, fish roe paste (that's the pink one I couldn't identify the other night), olives and a yummy garlic dip.  So far, so good.  Next comes haloumi grilled over a wood fire! There are are two kinds of pork sausage.  And grilled mushrooms in lemon.  And another kind of pork sausage that's much cheewier. Then there's lamb stew which might be my favorite, served with French fries (chips).  Now there's ground pork stuffed inside a pig's stomach (think haggis) and that's actually my other favorite! And now, since we haven't yelled "Uncle" loudly enough, there is roasted lamb!  Oh my god!  Oh my god!!  Who could eat all this food?? 

I convince Myra to take some of it home so I don't feel so guilty about the waste.  She packs it up and while she is going to the bathroom, the unstoppable server brings a plate of watermelon!! And Ammar has another espresso.  Wow!!

Abandoned village, either due to the population dying off, or being Turkish and having to leave.

Our last planned stop is a boutique winery that specializes in wines made from indigenous grapes.  We have a mini tour of the facility and then I have a small tasting of three of their reds.  The first is a French wine but the other two are from local, indigenous grapes and they aren't like anything I've ever had before!  They actually grow on you;  but like eating veggie burgers and not comparing them to an actual burger, you can't compare these wines to anything you've ever had before!

We're winding down when Myra says that she's been asking all day about a craft shop and there seems to be a pottery shop just a little out of the way on our way home.  I say that if it's less than ten minutes out of the way, I'd like to go.  We do;  but there's nothing there calling my name.  Oh well! 

Lickety split and we're home!  Hugs all around!  I've got Myra's email address and she said it's okay if I write and ask her questions about South Africa!  And I'll send her a couple of nice pictures of herself from today.  She give us a small bottle of wine and some literature as a parting gift and drives off.  Ammar gives me the room key while he heads off to the mini mart for something. As I'm putting things away I realize that I left the walnuts in the back of the van.  (Out of sight, out of mind!)  Well, we'll see what happens.  When Ammar comes home, he's got my walnuts!  He ran into Myra in the lobby! So glad she remembered before she got all the way home, wherever that is!

Long about nine thirty Ammar realizes that he's hungry and we cruise down to the market and buy some bread and cheese and some little filled croissants.  His cheese of choice is Philadelphia Cream Cheese!