We started our trip in Thessaloniki. It was late September, but the temperature was still over 30 degrees. A group of five of us had set out to document slow food and slow travel by travelling via train with Eurail passes across Greece and then through Bulgaria.
I was surprised by the beauty of our train trips. On the day before, approaching Thessaloniki, the train had run past Mount Olympus. Then, on this day, we caught the train to Katerini from Thessaloniki, and with the mountain looking over us, we visited Fotiadi Farm.
Fotiadi Farm: Reviving Greece’s ancient black pig
Fotiadi Farm rears a variety of black pig indigenous to the area around Mount Olympus. We met with Nikos Fotiadi, the owner of the farm, and Lefteris Semertzidis, who works alongside him. The Fotiadi family are Pontian Greeks who had been relocated to the area near Mount Olympus during the bloody population exchange of the 1920’s.
Nikos told us that when his family arrived in the area as refugees, raising animals was the only employment opportunity available to them, and this was the reason he had stayed dedicated to the profession. Lefteris said that first domesticated pig was this black pig; there are findings it was domesticated in 5000 BC. The family tried to find pigs with DNA closest to that ancient breed, and when they started rearing animals, they felt they had a responsibility to preserve them. They currently breed 300 certified sows within their natural environment. However, breeding this type of pig is much harder than farming conventional pigs.
Lefteris said, “We would need about five months to take the conventional pig to about 110 kilos but around a year to get a black pig to that weight.” Black pig had started to disappear because of this. When the Fotiadi family started their program, only about 70 animals were found in Northern Greece.
The family’s initial idea was to create something for Greece that could stand alongside Spain’s Iberico pig. In Spain, they feed their pigs with acorns. The family considered what to do with their national pig, and the best idea they came up with was to feed it their national ingredient, olives.
“And thank god it went well,” Lefteris says. He tells us, laughing, that because of this special diet, the fat of the pigs is so high in nutrients that it could almost be considered a superfood. It has up to 57 per cent more antioxidants than commercially farmed conventional pig meat. The farm goes through 500 kilos of olive paste a day.
Aside from the health benefits, the taste of the meat was vastly improved, especially the fat of the meat, which had no flavour of pork taint. When we asked what the best way to serve their pork was, Nikos replied, “The way that you’re going to taste soon. To have it cooked with salt and nothing else.”
Kourtis Winery: Grapes, heritage, and a feast to remember
Before we went to eat, Nikos took us to visit Apostolos Kourtis of Kourtis Winery. We started in the vineyard in the village of Rachi. Apostolos told us that although his family initially began by cultivating international varietals: Trebbiano, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, the vineyard has now started focusing on Greek varietals: Xinomavro, Assyrtiko, and interestingly Vidiano, an indigenous variety to Crete. Apostolos explained to us as he led us through the vines that he believes Vidiano to be one of the next up-and-coming grapes within Greece but also in the rest of the world. Vidiano is known for its smooth, textured style, creamy and lush, balanced by bright acidity, and is now being planted all over mainland Greece. All the Kourtis wines are organically farmed, and the winery focuses on quality over quantity with a relatively small yearly yield.
After exploring the vineyard, we made our way to the winery, a family-style taverna paved with stone and set under grapevines. There, Apostolos and his family served us Fotiadi Farm pork from the off a spit that was only seasoned with salt. We ate all together, our small team, Nikos, Lefteris and Apostolos. The fat on the pork tasted so clean, like no pork I’d ever eaten.
The wines were so expressive of the place that they were from. The experience was made special because of the warm hospitality from both families, but also because of their dedication to their products, to the landscape and their culture.
*Ella Mittas is a Greek-Australian writer and chef living in Melbourne, Australia.
