Ask Greeks about their country\u2019s cheesemaking history and they might refer you to Homer\u2019s Odyssey, in which the mention of cheese involves a shepherd, a Cyclops cheesemaker, and a cave with curd made from sheep\u2019s and goat\u2019s milk. Ask Naxians the same question about their island and they might mention a legend which claims that Apollo left his son Aristaeus, the god of shepherds, beekeeping, and cheesemaking, on Naxos to teach the islanders the art of cheesemaking. But go closer to the source and speak to a Naxian cheesemaker and they\u2019ll recount how their great-grandfather started the family\u2019s business with just a few animals, and how today they\u2019re continuing it by making one of the island\u2019s most celebrated cheeses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>The largest island in the Cyclades archipelago, Naxos is located about a four-hour ferry ride or a one-hour flight from Athens. While its glitzy cousins Santorini and Mykonos are famous for their sweeping vistas, dramatic sunsets, and exciting nightlife, Naxos has a reputation for self-sufficiency; with a long history of living from the land, the island could sustain itself without any imports. Today agriculture provides about 60 percent of the island\u2019s income and employs more than half of its inhabitants. Of those, more than one-third are involved in animal husbandry, taking care of the island\u2019s approximately 7,000 cows and shepherding close to 150,000 free-roaming goats and sheep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the shepherds and their flocks are concentrated around the traditional villages established in the ninth century by migrants from Crete. Because the Cretans who came to Naxos were traditionally involved in livestock production, and because several of the settlements they found were in the rain shadow of Mount Zas (Zeus)\u2014rendering it too dry for agriculture\u2014animal husbandry thrived there. Obscured from the sea, the area provided a shield from pirates while the local phrygana, the Mediterranean heathland full of species-rich plant communities, offered the perfect grazing environment. \u201cGoat production, goat herding has a long history in this part of Naxos,\u201d says Dr. Johannes Foufopoulos, an associate professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability who has done ecological research on the island. \u201cPeople identify as goat herders\u2014it\u2019s not, \u2018Hey I\u2019m just doing a job,\u2019 it\u2019s, \u2018This is who I am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That identity often encompasses cheesemaker. \u201cEveryone on Naxos knows how to make cheese,\u201d one of the islanders tells me. While today\u2014with most of the coastal population engaged in tourism\u2014it might be an exaggeration, cheesemaking is in the island\u2019s DNA. To make cheese in the past, villagers convened in their local cheesemaker\u2019s \u03bc\u03b1\u03b6\u03c9\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2 (mazomos), a shack-like, low-ceiling dwelling whose name derived from the Greek word \u03bc\u03b1\u03b6\u03b5\u03cd\u03c9 meaning \u201cto gather.\u201d Milk contributed by those who owned livestock but didn\u2019t have the equipment to make their own curd was measured, and the amount of cheese every family got at the end of the week was calculated. Cheesemakers were often paid with cheese, which they later exchanged for other goods or sold at a local \u03bb\u03b1\u03ca\u03ba\u03ae (laiki), farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today many of those cheesemakers\u2019 descendants produce the curd that sells beyond the island and often abroad. I meet one of them, third-generation cheesemaker Stefanos Liofagou Maeras, who makes his Arseniko Naxou in the old mazomos just outside the village of Filoti. Synonymous with the word \u201ccheese\u201d for many Naxians, Arseniko is made from unpasteurized goat\u2019s and sheep\u2019s milk and gets its name from the Greek word for \u201cmasculine,\u201d a reference to its strong and piquant flavor. Maeras uses 60 percent sheep\u2019s and 40 percent goat\u2019s milk\u2014in proportion with his herd\u2014and prepares his Arseniko in the 100-year-old stainless-steel cauldron his grandfather used. He adds rennet to the fresh milk and stirs it with a wooden stick until the mixture thickens into kernel-size curd pieces. He then packs the cheese by hand into plastic molds, rubbing it with salt the next day to dry it. Maeras ages his Arseniko in the basement of his house in Filoti, sometimes brushing it with the olive oil from his own olive trees\u2014an aging process that adds complexity to the cheese\u2019s taste and a black, paraffin-like casing to its skin. Because Arseniko is made from raw milk, it needs to be aged at least three months, but Stefanos often keeps it for longer. The older Arseniko is, the sharper and spicier its taste\u2014and the higher its value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With only about 200 animals, Maeras is one of the island\u2019s smaller producers. Despite his relatively modest production, he has chosen to obtain the Protected Destination of Origin (PDO) certification for his Arseniko. A recent phenomenon\u2014PDO for Arseniko Naxou was granted by the EU in 2020\u2014it\u2019s an opportunity several of the island\u2019s cheesemakers have embraced. To have the PDO means more than just the ability to export the cheese to other European countries; for some cheesemakers, like the Babounis family, it also means growing awareness of their cheeses. \u201cWe are interested in making the product more recognizable on the Greek market,\u201d says Manolis Babounis, a third-generation cheesemaker who, with his son, George\u2014the fourth generation\u2014became the first on the island to apply for and receive the PDO for Arseniko. \u201c[Later] the goal is to develop older versions of the cheese [to] show its true character,\u201d he adds. The Babounis family\u2019s animals\u2014about 1,000 heads in all\u2014graze on the sea-mist-swept phrygana of the Agiassos Bay and often drink seawater, which, according to Manolis Babounis, adds to the complexity of the cheese\u2019s taste. International judges must agree: the family has won several awards for their Arseniko, the most recent a Bronze at the 2021 World Cheese Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Receiving PDO for Arseniko Naxou is meant to provide shepherds with added value they otherwise wouldn\u2019t get from their dairy production. Selling Arseniko isn\u2019t allowed without certification, and for those shepherds who have yet to get the PDO, that means living off sales of the milk. I meet one of them\u2014Giorgios Manios\u2014at his mazomos near the summit of Mount Zas, which sits about 1,000 meters above sea level. The views are dizzying, but it\u2019s not the vistas that Manios is most proud off. At 70 he is still working\u2014intent on following in the footsteps of his father, who worked until he was 100. Every morning, with his son and grandson, he milks the family\u2019s goats by hand. With about 700 animals in his care, Manios would like to expand into producing cheese rather than selling the milk to a larger cheese producer, but the mazomos\u2014which he built himself\u2014doesn\u2019t have electricity or running water; using a gas tank to heat the milk, he makes small amounts of cheese for the family. Although Arseniko is normally produced between November and April and I visit in June, he offers me a demonstration of his cheesemaking skills. From pouring the fresh milk into the cauldron to adding rennet to stirring the mixture and then packing the curds into molds, the process is done entirely by hand. \u201cOur production is traditional,\u201d Manios says, \u201cNot industrial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to Arseniko, the island\u2019s cheesemakers produce other kinds of cheeses. Both Manios and Maeras make mizithra\u2014a white, soft cheese with a creamy texture. Prepared immediately following Arseniko by adding fresh milk to the remaining whey and then heating the mixture, glykomizithra\u2014a sweet mizithra\u2014is a favorite of children who eat it with bread for breakfast or with watermelon as a snack. When aged, glykomizithra turns into what Naxians refer to as thiliko, a semi-hard or hard white cheese with a slightly salty and nutty flavor. With its name derived from the Greek word for \u201cfeminine,\u201d thiliko is milder and contains less fat than the \u201cmasculine\u201d Arseniko, from the remnants of which it has been produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While glykomizithra and Arseniko are made during the winter months, xynomizithra\u2014the sour mizithra\u2014is usually a warmer weather special. Made with full-fat goat\u2019s and sheep\u2019s milk instead of whey, xynomizithra has a pleasant sour taste and is often served by Naxos chefs as a feta substitute in salads. Xynotiro is aged xynomizithra; with its stronger flavor and hard, flaky texture it\u2019s most often grated over a dish of pasta or a casserole. It\u2019s the cheese Iouliani Polykretis\u2014a yiayia, or grandmother, chef extraordinaire who cooked with Anthony Bourdain in 2015, and who offers cooking classes at the small organic farm she owns with her husband Stathis\u2014uses to sprinkle over kayiana, a Peloponnese dish of scrambled eggs with tomatoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been invited to cook with Polykretis, and because I\u2019m on the island to explore all things curd, she\u2019s planned the menu accordingly\u2014the first dish we will be making is saganaki. A popular Greek meze (appetizer), saganaki is pan-seared cheese usually made by drenching the cheese in flour and then frying it in olive oil until tender on the inside but crispy and golden on the outside. Different kinds of cheese can be used for saganaki, but Iouliani has chosen Graviera Naxou\u2014another Naxian cheese and one of the three Greek Gravieras with PDO certification. Often thought of as Greece\u2019s Gruy\u00e8re, Graviera is a yellow table cheese that\u2019s popular with cheesemakers throughout the country, though its contents\u2014and therefore its taste\u2014vary from region to region. Graviera Naxou contains about 80 percent cow\u2019s milk and 20 percent sheep\u2019s and\/or goat\u2019s milk and is admired for its mild, buttery taste; Some shop owners say it\u2019s a bestseller among tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Graviera Polykretis is frying is made by Nikolas Pittaras, a family friend and another local cheesemaker. Most at home when he talks about his cheese and the cows that produce it, Nikolas took over the family\u2019s dairy production from his father who started it in 1970\u2014the year Nikolas was born\u2014with just one cow. It was Nikolas who, after 38 years of producing milk and selling it to another cheesemaker, steered the family business into cheese production in 2008. \u201cI wanted to make the whole circle of production myself,\u201d he explains. The circle he refers to begins with the feed\u2014to ensure his 200 dairy cows get non-GMO feed, Pittaras grows and produces his own\u2014and ends in labeling, packaging, and selling the cheese. \u201cEvery part of this work is part of my soul,\u201d he says. He isn\u2019t the only Naxian cheesemaker to express that sentiment. Continuing the island\u2019s long history of making cheese\u2014a history that might have begun with the Cyclops, the Aristaeus, or both\u2014Naxos cheesemakers pay homage to the traditions and identity that have thrived there for centuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From shepherding to production, Arseniko Naxou PDO and other island cheeses are made by hand Photographed by Margarita Gokun Silver Ask Greeks about their country\u2019s cheesemaking history and they might refer you to Homer\u2019s Odyssey, in which the mention of cheese involves a shepherd, a Cyclops cheesemaker, and a cave with curd made from sheep\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":43662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26354,11],"tags":[3723,1296,178,33544,33548,3720,3721,33543,2085,33542,33545,33546,33547],"coauthors":[4116],"class_list":["post-43706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-travel","tag-arseniko-naxou","tag-cheesemakers","tag-cheesemaking","tag-glykomizithra","tag-graviera-naxou","tag-greece","tag-greek-cheese","tag-greek-islands","tag-mizithra","tag-naxos","tag-thiliko","tag-xynomizithra","tag-xynotiro"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhere to stay and eat on Naxos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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