70. Kostos und Pandelis

Near Kostos which is another mountain village lives a Greek named Pandelis Zumis. He took over the Katikia, the old farm house of his grandfather, farming his land and living in the old way. I discovered his place two year ago during my first stay on Paros on a hike across the island. I really I like him and what he is doing. I visit him frequently and the visits are always a pleasure. I enjoy his hospitality and buy his wines and other agricultural products which he sells for a living. Therefore - this is another mélange stretching from visits in 2014 to the most recent one with Benedikt.

Kostos is a small and very quiet place with only one pub and a dozen of churches. But I like the Platia, the main square, which at this time is still flying the Easter decorations.

From Kostos it is about a 30 minutes’ walk to the house of Pandelis. He does a bit of advertising as you can see but the amount of visitors is limited. He says, he doesn’t want it any other way. People who like his products and what he is doing will find him anyway.

The interior of the house is quite amazing. In the present form it is about 150 years old but part of the dwelling is much older. It’s a bit of a museum with a good atmosphere because it is really lived in. It’s full of musical instruments, all played by Pandelis with the amazing fact that he started to learn them only 10 years ago. The room in the middle is the winter quarter as it boasts a wood burning stove. Here some of Pandelis wrought iron work is on display. Among other things he also taught himself the black smith’s craft.

In winter it is a rather lonely place but winter is the time of most of the agricultural work and chores when he spends most of the day in the surrounding fields anyway. But in summer it’s lively. It is best to come in the evening when some of the neighbors also might show up. Then it is a time for drinking and talking and playing music.

Those cute kids are from one of the neighbors. They really had fun while the rest of us socialized. Their father is the man in the upper right hand picture. The impressive tree in the middle is a mulberry tree. Very delicious fruit but you have to eat them right from the tree.

The Katikia boasts a very impressive vegetable garden. It is spread out all around the house with individual vegetables growing in the proper places where they have a perfect environment [sun, wind, shade, moisture]. The white flower on the left belongs to a bottle gourd plant. In the middle is an old variety of artichoke. To the right are some tomato plants. It is a local variety which - aside from the early growing stage - does not need any water. The little half moon shaped indentations are made for the morning dew to collect. Two years ago I was not very successful with my vegetable garden project in the North of Paros. Looking at and seeing the garden of Pandelis I realize why.

The rest of the garden is also full of treasures and surprises, like the edging of this ancient well. There used to be water in any places but nowadays most wells higher up have dried out. It’s due to the decreasing rainfall but also because of the tourists which use incredible amounts of water along the coast during the summer month. This has led to a tremendous lowering of the ground water levels. Spread out over the garden are a number of interesting rocks which Pandelis has collected and shaped sometimes [like the sculpture on the right].

In spite of my frequent visits I still discover things which are new to me or new to the particular season. Like a beautiful old floor tile, an old cooking place [where Pandelis bakes a delicious wheat and barley bread] or fragrant bunches of dried oregano.

Unless I can enlist somebody with a car I take the bus to Kostos and walk back to Marmara. It’s a trail Pandelis has shown me, a shortcut compared to the main road. He told me he has taken this trail twice a week for quite some time to visit his music teacher which used to live in Marmara. It is a really nice walk during spring time.

There are meadows full of bee hives [Paros has excellent honeys] one or the other inevitable romantic little church and old bridges. The one on the right looked doubtful to me from the distance as to its solidity. When I crossed it, it turned out that it is also traversed by lorries [!]. On the left of it [not shown] is a big garbage dump well hidden in the landscape!

Due to this dump the rest of the way is not so nice to the eye. At least not with regard to the mutilated slopes of the valley around me! My remedy is to focus on plant and animal life. Onto the white and pink rockroses, yellow prickly gorse, delicate mountain lilies and a proud billy goat.