Oranges to die for!

To this South Dakota farm boy, the rugged, stony landscape of Crete hardly seems like a likely agricultural environment! So it must have seemed also to the Mennonite Central Committee PAX men who came to the Agricultural Demonstration Farm here in Kolymbari in the 1960's. They attempted, partly at the request of the local bishop, to recreate a Midwestern American farm, complete with a Holstein dairy herd.
When you've been on Crete for awhile, you begin to perceive the rich agricultural, rural heritage of this place. Most of the Paxmen did as well during their stay here, and probably ended up realizing that they had at least as much to learn as they had to share, in terms of agricultural knowledge and expertise.
Loretta and I remembered with delight the oranges we ate on Crete for 2 years, 1969 to 1972. We had trouble stomaching oranges shipped in from Florida or California for several years after coming home. Once again, Crete has not diasppointed us! We have been enjoying Cretan oranges since our arrival the end of March. One big bag we bought as a family, along with freshly squeezed orange juice, from a roadside stand in a valley west of Iraklion which seemed to be right for citrus. Again when we drove up to the Plain of Omalos from Chania, we drove through miles of citrus groves. We noticed that the orange trees are bearing and blooming at the same time, and the air was fragrant with orange blossoms as we drove along.
In addition to citrus, Cretan agriculture features olives. There are olive trees literally everywhere on the island. I notice that the mountains are terraced with olive trees much more intensively than when we were here 40 years ago. Kolymbari, where we are staying, has a large olive processing plant, as do many villages around here. A few years ago we brought a large tin of olive oil in Minneapolis produced right here in Kolymbari. We've been cooking with olive oil here, as we often do at home, and olives, cheese, and bread make a marvelous breakfast or lunch.
The fruit of the vine is nearly as common on Crete as the olive. Grapes are produced everywhere, many for raisins which used to be dried in the sun, many for wine, and many for table use.
In terms of livestock, sheep and goats are most common, with herds seen everywhere in the countryside as you drive along or walk. Many of them have bells which create a marvelous experience when you are walking in the countryside. Sheep and goats are used for wool for weaving traditional patterns, for meat of course, but also for cheese. Feta and misithra are the names for cheeses made from goat and sheep milk. There are in addition some wheat and small grain fields, usually small. I don't know how much wheat used for bread is produced locally, but I know that freshly baked bread is most common in the local village bakeries.
Last Sunday as I was walking to the village church I passed a freshly mown patch of aromatic alfalfa which triggered memories of South Dakota, except that this patch was probably a quarter acre instead of the 20 to 40 acre fields most often seen on our farms. There are also many greenhouses producing cucumbers and tomatoes especially.
Here in Kolymbari, we daily see small fishing boats heading out to the Mediterranean, and the restaurants here in the village all feature fresh fish and seafoods of all kinds. We especially enjoy "kalamaria" for an appetizer--squid deepfat fried in olive oil!
In addition to all of this, the villages have many small gardens for fresh vegetables. And now in Springtime especially, you see many villagers out on the mountainside picking "chorta", fresh greens used as salads or cooked vegetables. I'm sure there is much nutrition packed into these greens. And of course, step onto any mountainside, and you will be surrounded with herbs used in cooking--thyme, oregano, marjoram, etc. etc.
Perhaps this gives you a small "taste" of Cretan agriculture, and the rich agricultural heritage of the island. Despite appearances, Crete is a most bountiful island, with rich soil and a climate appropriate for growing just about anything. We've met a number of people who though their main income comes from providing services for tourists still maintain an olive grove or a potato field, or have a few animals for their family. Agriculture is alive and well here on Crete!
Roy

Good Friday on Crete!

Today is Good Friday in Greece, referred to in Greek as "the Great Friday," just as every day in Holy Week here is referred to as the "Great Day."
I attended the Maundy Thursday service at the Monastery Church just up the road last night. It consisted of twelve Gospel readings, the first being the entire Last Supper Discourse of Jesus from John 13-17. (Some of the other readings weren't that long, but the service lasted from 7:00 to 11:00 PM, and I stood the whole time, as did some others. I was able to follow the entire service in my Greek prayer book, holding a candle in one hand and the book in the other.)
At the beginning of the service, a candleabra with twelve candles was lit at the front of the church, and as each Gospel was read, a candle was extinguished, just as in our Tenebrae Good Friday service.
At the point where Jesus was crucified in the narrative readings, a wooden cross with candles on it was carried out of the front of the church and processed throughout the sanctuary among the people. Then it was taken to the front of the church and an wooden icon of Jesus crucified was placed on the cross and nailed on it. This cross was then placed at the front of the church. Between every Gospel reading, people came forward to kiss the cross and make the sign of the cross. Many of these people came just for this and didn't stay for all the readings. But when a Gospel was being read, everyone stood quietly and listened carefully. In between Gospel readings, the priest and chanters sang hymns commenting on the Gospel readings. Many of these readings focussed on Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial, and on the roles of the different characters in the story, entreating the congregation not to be like these people who all participated in some way in Jesus' passion.
Tonight the service will again be very dramatic. The wooden image of Jesus placed on the cross last night will be taken down and placed on a bier. This bier is then carried in a funeral procession throughout the courtyard of the church and even down here to the Academy grounds, I understand.
Saturday night features a midnight liturgy beginning at 11:00 PM and continuing past midnight to celebrate Christ's resurrection. The church which all week has been shrouded in darkness will then have every light and candleabra lit and burning brightly! Sunday morning Greeks break the 40 day Lenten fast, and I understand we will have a lamb roast here at the Academy on Sunday evening!
We are all doing pretty well here. The director's wife gave us an octopus the other night to prepare. We have eaten octopus and enjoy it, but cooking it is another matter, so we shall see how we do at this!
So much for this time.
Roy

Thoughts turning toward home!

This is turning out to be a long week, as Loretta and I are both eager to be back home. Perhaps our time here was just a little long. But the weather has been very nice the last day or so. Tuesday I did my last (12th) spiritual retreat, spending much of the day outdoors. That was a hot windy day, so not as pleasant as I had hoped, but still a good day.
I've been continuing to attend the daily Holy Week liturgies in the local churches, except I missed yesterday. I alternate between the Monastery Church just up the road from the Academy, and the village church down in Kolymbari. Sometimes I am able to follow the service pretty well, and sometimes I seem to be hopelessly lost. With nearly the whole population being Greek Orthodox and therefore knowing what is going on, you typically don't receive a lot of help in being oriented to what is happening in the church. They simply haven't had any experience in that context in knowing how to be helpful, though the Greeks tend in general to be very hospitable people. I expect the tempo of church activity will pick up with this being Maundy Thursday and tomorrow Good Friday. Then there is typically a midnight liturgy on Saturday night leading into Easter Sunday morning. So we will keep you posted on that.
Yesterday we rented a car for the day for a final time so we could make a final shopping trip in Chania, the nearby city. In the afternoon we drove onto a large peninsula, the Akrotiri, where the regional airport is, and saw some old monasteries. We also visited a Center for the Preservation of Cretan Flora and Fauna, a park with many native plants identified. That was a place I had wanted to see, and I was impressed with how well it was done.
Loretta and I are eager to be home, as I said. I'm looking forward to getting back to work, and we are eager to get into a regular routine and work at planting our garden and doing things at home. We hope Spring has finally come to South Dakota!
Roy

It's Holy Week in Greece!

About a month ago, March 16, Loretta and I participated in the enormous Palm Sunday processional in Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives into the old city of Jerusalem. Today I walked the mile or so from the Orthodox Academy of Crete where we are staying to the village church in Kolymbari, in order to participate in the Palm Sunday services here in Greece. Holy Week begins today here, and next Sunday is Easter Sunday. I was determined to get there for the whole service today, so I arrived at 8:00 AM. The priest and choir were already chanting Psalms and prayers, but the Divine Liturgy itself did not begin until 9:00 AM. The church was fairly empty the first hour, but began to fill up as the service continued, as is customary in Greek Orthdox worship. There is a lot of coming and going through these services. By the end of the service the church was quite full, with lots of families and children.
The service had the same liturgy enacted every Sunday, which I could follow easily with my Greek/English parallel copy of the liturgy. There were some special hymns and prayers for the Palm Sunday observance, and the Gospel reading was from John 12:1-19. The priest gave a short homily in which he talked about how popular Jesus was because of the raising of Lazarus, but that the same people who were marveling at this miracle now would be calling out for Jesus' crucifixion later in the week. Everyone attending received a small palm leaf folded into the shape of a cross, with a carnation tucked into it. Later today, and throughout the week, there will be special services in all the churches following the events of Holy Week. I still have to find out where and when and how to get to these, but I hope to participate as much as possible.
With the amount of walking involved to the churches, I'm letting Loretta here in our apartment with Joanne and Kaitlyn for most of these services. Loretta continues to be OK, but her energy level isn't so good. Last evening was bitter sweet for us as I took Dora and Susanna to the airport and dropped off the Fiat Scudo van we had been driving for the past two weeks. It was hard to break up the family circle again, but I was so thankful the girls managed to get two weeks off work in order to join us for this time. We had a very good time together, and enjoyed the archaeological sites we visited, the nature hikes we took, and all our other activities.
Roy