Autumn colours

Autumn colours in Zagori

Autumn has arrived for good in Zagori and it is a matter of a few weeks before the foliage peaks. A walk through the woods rewarded us with colours but not only …

… And gathering swallows twitter in the skies

The swallows gathered this morning outside my window in Zagori in anticipation of their southbound trip towards their warmer second home

How beautiful the season is now—How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather—Dian skies—I never liked stubble-fields so much as now—Aye better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow, a stubble-field looks warm—in the same way that…

Crocus olivieri

Crocus olivieri wild flowers in the Zagori region Greece

Crocus olivieri is a fall wild flower in the area of Zagori of the genus Crocus (family Iridaceae).

Truffle hunting in Zagori

Truffle hunting in Zagori Greece

The day started with fog and drizzle but turned out to a be dry one with beautiful autumn colours and clouds. After talking to Katerina over the phone the meeting was set for eastern Zagori where Christos and the three hunting dogs were waiting…

It is the season for tsipouro in Zagoria

Making tsipouro the traditional way in Zagori, Epirus, Greece, with good friends, music, grilled sheep and homemade cheese

Making tsipouro in Zagori using the traditional method of steam distillation, with the company of good friends, traditional Epirotic music (local music from Epirus), … grilled sheep and homemade cheese. Tsipouro (Greek: τσίπουρο), a pomace brandy from Greece that comes in two types: pure and…

Craterellus cornucopioides

Craterellus cornucopioides, or horn of plenty, is an edible mushroom. It can also be known as the black chanterelle, black trumpet, trompette de la mort (French) or trumpet of the dead. One the many autumn mushrooms in the Zagori region in Greece

Craterellus cornucopioides, or horn of plenty, is an edible mushroom. It can also be known as the black chanterelle, black trumpet, trompette de la mort (French) or trumpet of the dead. The Cornucopia, in Greek mythology, referred to the magnificent horn of the nymph…

Autumn in Zagori

Autumn in Zagori Greece

Autumn in Zagori in a few pictures …

Amanita caesarea

Fresh Amanita Caesarea in a forest in the Zagori area in Ioannina

Amanita caesarea, commonly known in English as Caesar’s mushroom, is a highly regarded edible mushroom in the genus Amanita, native to Zagori, Greece. This mushroom was a favorite of early rulers of the Roman Empire hence it’s name Caesarea. It was known to and valued…

Blackberries

Blackberry picking season in the mountains of Epirus

Greek: βατόμουρα A purply black-coloured berry comprising many individual seed-containing fruits surrounding a cone-shaped core. Wonderfully juicy, they’re good raw (straight from the hedge!) or cooked and are bursting with vitamin C. Wild, they’re often called brambles meaning any impenetrable scrub. Sometimes called the “Cabernet…

Honey with an… altitude

Honey, royal jelly, propolis from the Zagori mountainous region in Greece

Local honey producer Manolis Diamantopoulos makes his honey at an altitude of 900m. He keeps his beehives in a meadow bythe village Dilopho in the Zagori region in a forest where oak trees prevail. The basic ingredients of his products are collected from the…