Olives, no figs!

Yesterday, as I mentioned, the grocery store in Polichnitos was closed in the afternoon, so I went to the small mini market which is about 200 sq ft in size. Inside this store it is somewhat dark to save money on electricity, and the shelves are stacked with a variety of items, but not a great variety, just some of the basics. On my shopping list was a jar of olives from the island since Lesvos has 11 million olive trees and is known for the low acid olive oil. I picked up a jar that appeared to be olives in a dark jar and along with a bag of crusty bread and a few other things, then headed for Vatera.

Our meals consist of juice and fresh fruit for breakfast, (the oranges and apples are excellent) then for lunch we may have a Greek salad or sandwich, for dinner something light, maybe a tomato and cheese sandwich and we have even made pasta with sauce made from scratch. The traditional Greek salad varies by area and restaurant. Our neighborhood restaurant in Renton makes a great Greek salad; it contains lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, olives, and peppercini peppers, and feta cheese, they use a dressing of some sort that is very tasty. Here we have had a variety of salads made with red and green peppers, red onions, cucumbers, no lettuce, lots of olive oil and feta cheese, so the only common ingredients seem to be olives, feta cheese and tomatoes, very basic but still tasty.

But, back to the jar of olives from the mini market. When I looked at the jar after returning to our villa it did not appear to be olives, even though the picture on the label appears to be olives. After opening the lid, I discovered the contents were figs preserved in honey, what a great surprise! The figs are soft and taste slightly of cloves in honey, truly amazing, after eating the figs, the honey can be spread on the hard bread.

We drove to Mytillini this morning to arrange for out Turkey trip which will start on April 14 and involve ferries, driving in Turkey, ferries to Chios, then a ferry back to Mytillini, about five days total. Yiannis is very helpful with the ferries, hotels etc since he also has a travel business. We discovered the family also has olive groves and produce about 2000 liters of olive oil for sale locally. The hotel is called Aphrodite from his grandmother’s name who deeded the property to his mother who deeded the property to Yiannis who built the hotel. These are very nice people, we are treated like family and looking forward to the Easter celebrations, roast lamb on a spit, ouzo and dancing!

Tomorrow we leave early for Santorini! Living on the edge of a crater!