{"id":25391,"date":"2023-01-10T15:52:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelkarpathos.gr\/traditional-products\/"},"modified":"2023-01-13T17:56:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T15:56:05","slug":"traditional-products","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/travelkarpathos.gr\/en\/traditional-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional Products"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Karpathos, though mountainous and wild, has proven fruitful and offers rich products such as grapes<\/strong>, citrus<\/strong>, olive oil<\/strong> and honey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Many of the locals are engaged in fishing and thus supply the taverns with skarous<\/strong> (marshmallows), sardeles<\/strong> (sardines), sargous<\/strong> (white seabream) and vlachous<\/strong> (dogtooth grooper) that are quite widespread on the island.<\/p>\n

The rich vineyards in northern Karpathos produce excellent grapes, from which the famous wine is produced.<\/p>\n

The wine of Karpathos is of exceptional quality, delicious and quite different. The most popular is semi-sweet red wine produced mainly in the mountainous Karpathos, Othos and Volada. The most well-known varieties of the island are the athiri<\/strong>, fokiano<\/strong>, as well as the Cretan thrapsathiri<\/strong> and the Cycladic gaidouria<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Karpathian cheeses have a strong taste and are an essential element of the residents’ diet. The most widespread is the very soft manouli<\/strong>, the armyrotiri<\/strong>, which, as its Greek name suggests, is a very salty and hard cheese, with which the locals usually accompany their pasta and meriari<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Honey is a product that housewives of Karpathos often use in their sweets, sesame honey, xerrotegana and baklava. Thyme<\/strong> honey dominates summer produced honey varieties, sage<\/strong> dominates spring produced and heather<\/strong> dominates winter produced.<\/p>\n

Alochorta<\/strong> are small herbs that are usually eaten as a salad. They grow on cliffs between thorns.<\/p>\n

The specialty of Karpathian gastronomy is macarounes<\/strong>, pasta like tagliatelle accompanied by the famous sitaka<\/strong>, a dairy-like yoghurt.<\/p>\n

Tourtes<\/strong> are pies with crust that resembles kourou pie. Filled with myzithra and sprinkled with sesame seeds.<\/p>\n

Samples of the sophistication of Karpathian artistic inquiry and its attachment to the traditional professions are wood carvings<\/strong>, iconostasis<\/strong>, sofas<\/strong>, pagalia<\/strong>, furniture<\/strong>, and handmade footwear (stevania<\/strong>, slippers<\/strong>) which, fortunately, are still manufactured in Olympos.<\/p>\n

What still characterizes the island is the female costume (daily and formal) of Olympos, the kavai<\/strong> and the sakofoustano<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Remnants of old female costume – tsemperi<\/strong>, techremi<\/strong>, fota<\/strong> – can be found in old women, in Mesohori and especially in Spoa.<\/p>\n

Some farmers and livestock farmers still were stevania<\/strong> shoes which are remnants of the traditional male costume and are manufactured in Olympos.<\/p>\n

Many other types of folk art (dishes<\/strong>, mastrapades<\/strong>) and traditional professions are preserved in individual cases in villages such as Halkiades<\/strong> (blacksmiths<\/strong>), weavers<\/strong>, basket weavers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is worthy of admiration and probably does not exist to such an extent elsewhere is the organ construction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In all the villages, there are people of every age who make lyres<\/strong>, champs<\/strong>, lutes<\/strong>, violins<\/strong>, and most of these people \u00a0are the same organ players.<\/p>\n

Traditional products of the island, dominated by honey and wine, are sold in many of the island’s shops, mainly in the town of Pigadia.<\/p>\n