At The Good Life Greece we have been cultivating the naturally clay soil making it more friable for salad vegetables. Depending on the season, we have good crops of French beans, broad beans, local beans, various peppers and chillies, lettuces, rocket (grows wild everywhere) various tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, cabbages, potatoes, cauliflower and range of herbs, including so much basil we have to bottle fresh pesto weekly.
We love it when children staying with us pick their lunch from the garden. The look on a child’s face when they pull up a carrot makes it all worth-while. And when children start to eat vegetables – doubly so. There are also figs in mid summer, grapes in September but lemons and oranges vary according to their varietal. Our local greengrocer is a market gardener, and his produce is also organic, he can deliver to your door.
Our chickens usually lay, and if they are off, a farmer nearby delivers equally golden yoked fresh organic eggs. Our local butcher only sells his own beasts, so when we barbecue he tells us what meat to have, he decides if the beef needs to be hung longer, if the lamb is just right. Who needs choice when the issue is quality. Organic isn’t a marketing tool on Syros, it is simply the way it is.