Goats and Food

 I'm taking July a day at a time.

The heat goes on and on. 

Yesterday was brutal, today there's a breeze. The Meltemi has started blowing. It brings slight relief . 

High temperatures are predicted for another week at least. What's considered a high temperature? I would say anything over 38oC.

Mid 30s are typical till the end of August.

The wild goats, a herd of 30 or 40, roam in search of water every night.  There's plenty of water bubbling out of the ashphalt but they, along with stray cats, dogs and weasels, drink  our small offering in a bucket as well. The bucket is empty by morning.

There are 5 million goats in Greece I read. Traditional people love the meat, roasted with lemon potatoes, or on the spit, and the cheese and milk.  Feta is made from either goat or sheep milk.  Goat milk feta tends to have a milder taste.  So 'they' say.

Traditional people eat the head, suck the teeth, and pretend to delight in crunching the eyeballs when they have a suitable audience.  The feet are made into soup along with some of the innards.  Nothing is wasted.

This herd of goats is safe though, from us.  K does not shoot or hunt.  Our neighbour shoots however, at anything foolish enough to stray onto his property.

Even with this heat K still wants to eat as normal, though we usually only have one main meal, late in the evening.

We ate fish soup for 3 days. Boiled Scorpion fish which have nasty spines. The fisherman scaled and gutted them .  Fish soup may not seem like an ideal summer meal but we don't eat it hot. It's quite light, the juice of the fish, lemon juice and oil. Sometimes I add rice as well and it has zucchini, carrots, celery and potato boiled with the fish. 

Today I have boiled some  mutton. Again it doesn't sound like an ideal dish in this heat.  But we eat it cold, with those Greek staples olive oil and lemon juice. Potatoes and zucchini were cooked in the sauce. 

Hopefully K will eat that for 2 or 3 days . I'll eat a little bit of that meat but  boiled eggs, cheese and salad are more to my taste.

One evening last week at our local tavern, Paradise

K is eating a huge plate of spaghetti with rooster stewed in tomatoes.  We are not shy about asking them to put the leftovers in a packet.  That was another meal for K

We do eat a lot of vegetable meals too. Stuffed whatever, ratatouille, stewed aubergines, green beans and potatoes, boiled greens, peas and tomatoes, giant dried beans, fava and naturally greek salad with everything.