Kalderimi, Wood Fired Stoves and more Olives

Kalderimi- Turkish word for cobblestone path

The kalderimi is a network of cobblestone trails that since ancient times connected the mountain villages of the Pelion. We had read about these in the Lonely Planet and had planned to do some hiking along these in our free time. It is after all one of the features of the Pelion. The ``Friends of the Kalderimi`` who are also mentioned in the Lonely Planet maintain the trails.

Dimitri (our host) is a member of this organization so we were lucky enough to join this group for their Sunday hike and to see first hand what they are currently working on to extend this network of trails. Most of the walk was through one olive grove after the next but there are portions where bush whacking is involved. This would be a great project for WWOOFers but we won't take 'that on', not this trip. Really nice people, beautiful day followed by a really great meal.

the bee keeper

             

                                                                                                                                                                                  The whole pennisula seems to be covered in olive groves. Dimitri's grove is small in comparison to most because he is subsistence farming and has a small property. He also has an organic vegetable garden which still needs watering, fruit trees and beehives from which we extracted honey this week.

Liquid gold

mitri keeps 4 hives of bees. Since the weather is still warm the bees are very active. The hives need to be checked regularly, on so Dave was volunteered to assist. A little apprehensive (from a childhood wasp nest experience) Dave stuck a bee keepers hat over his head and joined the buzzing of the bees. We lifted out 16 frames full of honey. Amazingly, the bees are willing to share and only sting if you crush one (which seems easy to do since there are so many of them crawling all over the place, but doesn't happend very often). Breathing a sigh of relief, we then had to extract the honey using, what else, a honey extractor. This is basically a hand powered centrifuge. Insert 4 frames filled with honey, rotate the handle and the honey is sprayed onto the sides of the extractor and is then collected into bowls. We filled 26 1 litre jars with honey that tasted absolutely wonderful. Since there are still plants flowering, the bees aren't lacking for pollen. And how do you go about cleaning this huge extraction device, well you simply give it back to the bees and let them clean up all the mess. The wonders of nature. The humans are stuck cleaning up the spilled honey off the floor with a mop.

Dimitri like many people in Greece, still uses wood as his main energy source. He uses a woodstove for heat and baking. And outside he has a clay oven which he uses for baking bread. This week Dave and I decided to do some baking and were surprised with our results. Dave made a delicious pizza in the clay oven and now wants to build one when we get home. I baked pies in the wood stove. I must admit I was a little apprehensive not being able to control the temperature with a dial. Life is lived at a slower pace in the mountains of the Pelion and we are enjoying this feature along with the fresh olive oil and feta..... simply the best.

The cats like the clay oven too.

Along the kalderimi 

 

 

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The Happy Wanderers