The cheesemaker of Skiathos

In the short stories of Alexandros Papadiamantis, where the rural life of the island is recorded in detail, the leading role is played by shepherds and breeders. The so-called according to him Aepoli, which means goat herders, is an ancient Greek word derived from the word αιξ - αιγός. The word apollos is found in Homer and is widely used in the stories of the great Skiathos:

"The poles that lead their goats to the seashore to 'tame'…",

"And the poles that had taken refuge there, with their few goats and their young goats, which had not yet died from the heavy winter of that year, had accumulated a great deal of dry wood and branches."

"The rough epipolites, ithines, had saved both lumberjacks from the blockade of the snow…".

"God brought the joyful day, and the poles were honored to slaughter and roast two tender goats, while the two lumberjacks had brought from the mountain many dozen salted goats."

The years passed, tourism turned pastures into plots for the reconstruction of houses and hotels, animal husbandry disappeared, and so did farmers. But on all my journeys to the northern, northwestern and pristine parts of the island I did not notice either sheep or shepherds - except for a small herd just before the Castle. But on a visit to Beach House they proudly offered me Skiathos cheese, they informed me about its existence unique new modern epilepsy, and with their help I moved straight to meet him.

I met him after a short walk in the Papadiamantika landscapes, away from the "powder" of Tourism. He sat in an olive grove on a slope and fed his sheep with some complementary food. The sheep had gathered around him. His biblical physiognomy and proverbial kindness.

George Cantas He studied at the TEI of Agricultural Technologists in Florina and is a graduate of the American Agricultural School of Thessaloniki with a degree in professional cheese-making, as is his wife who is a graduate of the Department of Food Technology, and among other things deals with the family herd. With the 50 sheep we climbed higher on the mountain to see the cow and the ox, which would exceed 500 kg. I remembered Papadiamantis again:

"Seven or eight oxen graze there in the high meadow, above the first blood (terrace). Blessed animals, as they look with a sullen and simple look, large and with erratic movements that they make often, are able to always scare a person ".

With the milk of the sheep, George produces green cheese, feta, mizithra and galotyri, about 200 kilos per year. He prepares his papers to build a small certified cheese factory, but at the moment he processes the cheeses at home, in the countryside. The making of the cheese brought Papadiamantis back to my mind:

 "Or, after he had poured too much milk into a large cauldron, and poured plenty of salt into it, from which he himself had eaten from shore to shore, the abbot lit a fire and was about to boil it."

In the tourist Skiathos of the 21st century, a modern Apollo, George the cheesemaker, saves the honor of animal husbandry and cheese-making of the island.

We wish him good strength and good cheeses!