I have just photographed the purple thyme in the back of our garden. We found them growing wild when we bought the property and we never seize to be amazed by their glorious bloom, early in June. I also took some pictures of the za’tar plant that our friend Lina Tabara brought us last year from Lebanon, in a pot. It is thriving in our garden and the butterflies love it!

I was wondering for many years about za’tar (or zaatar) the mysterious aromatic shrub –often called hyssop or wild thyme– and only now that we grow it in the garden I can safely tell you that it is much closer to the kind of oregano that grows on the island, or the marjoram, than with the wild thyme of Greece. Its aroma is totally different, and I agree with Jihad Noun, an expert in Lebanese plant species, who in a wonderful article about the herb said that za’tar “is a taste more than a species.” He claims that in the Middle East there are about 22 herbs that are called za’tar. (more…)

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As the mass slaughtering of Easter lamb reaches its peak this week for Greek Easter (April 15), not just vegetarians but even meat-loving Americans and northern Europeans express shock at the site of whole, head-on carcasses of young animals spit-roasted over charcoal fire. They are even more appalled seeing the animal’s entrails – the liver, lung, and sweetbreads – meticulously threaded and enclosed in the cowl fatwrapped tightly with the intestines in order to make kokoretsi, the most sought after Greek Easter delicacy.

Slide Show: Making Kokoretsi

Perhaps there should have been an editor’s note or parental advisory rating at the beginning of this piece, given the somewhat graphic nature of the material, but I hope you’ve made it this far and will continue a bit further. Some might find these Easter rituals barbaric, but they are also deeply engrained in our culture as the central rite of one of, if not the most important, celebration of the year. (more…)

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Askolymbri, the crunchy roots of the common golden thistle (Scolymus hispanicus,  or Spanish oyster thistle) braised with lamb and finished with an airy avgolemono (egg and lemon sauce), was probably one of the most unusual and rare delicacies we sampled during this year’s marvelous Worlds of Flavor Conferenceat Greystone, in Napa. Chef Yiannis Tsivourakis from Crete, representing the local organization that promotes the products, healthy traditional diet, and sustainable development of the island, decided to cook this foraged and peculiar plant from Crete. The praise was unanimous, but the common golden thistle was certainly uncommon to most participants – it is hardly known, let alone available, anywhere else in Greece, and certainly not in the US or anyplace else in the world.

But scolymus has been with us since antiquity. Theophrastus, the 4^th c. BC philosopher and botanist, and Dioscorides, the first c. AD author of a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine, both praise scolymus’flavor and its health-promoting properties. Dioscorides advises the reader to “roast scolymus as we do asparagus,” and no doubt it will taste heavenly! The thorny plant with the bright yellow flowers is quite common in the Mediterranean countryside, but it is difficult to gather and to peel, to preserve the integrity of the fleshy root and some of its young shoots. How widespread is the common golden thistle? According toWikipedia, scolymus is “very popular in almost every province of Spain, where it’s usually eaten in stews during spring time. It is also used in salads, soups and with scrambled eggs in Andalusia where it is called ‘tagarnina’. In the sixteenth century in Salamanca the washed young plants used to be eaten with their root, either raw or in stews with meat.” But, looking at the pictures that accompany the Wiki entry, it seems to me that the Spanish scolymus is quite different from the one of Crete, and a distinction must be made. (more…)

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This year’s olive oil from our trees is emerald green, quite peppery, and very aromatic!

We pressed it early with the help of our October KEArtisanal guests. As it trickled from the olive press, still warm and hazy, it tasted heavenly on slices of fresh bread, just out of the oven for the occasion.

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We did not have a large production. Olive trees tend to have a good yield every second year, villagers say. Often pruned as they are harvested, olive trees need time for the new shoots to grow and fill with fruit. We drastically pruned our trees last year, as they had grown large and heavy. We were not expecting to gather many olives, but having purchased our home olive press the year before, we were more than eager to use it again, and share the joy with our guests. (more…)

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