Day 9 - Naxos: Food & Cooking Class!
We had the day free until a late afternoon / early evening cooking class on a family farm. We slept in a little bit and enjoyed coffee on our terrace before wandering into the Old City for some shopping and lunch.
We drove inland up into the mountains to a local farm for our cooking class. Naxos is quite mountainous and after tourism, farming is their main “industry.” The island produces all that it needs and its only export products are potatoes and cheese.
Juliana our host
The farm (20,000 sq. meters) has no electricity. They have running water but it comes naturally from springs via gravity (no pumps).
First dish: Stuffed vegetables
Next dish: Fried cheese bread with feta and oregano, drizzled with honey and sesame seeds
Next dish: Lamb and potatoes with garlic and rosemary (and lemon and orange for acidity)
Around the farm:
Marble quarry
Anthony Bourdain featured Naxos in one of his episodes of Parts Unknown, filmed back in 2015. In it he also was hosted by Juliana! You can see his experience with Juliana and her family starting at 27:00 in this episode. (But watch the whole thing to get another perspective on Naxos!)