Sami Style

A busy day, gather five lettuces and fifteen onions for each customer. 

Deliver the eggs to the Northern island, check if each restaurant or market needs more.

A sunny day, string the tomato plants against the tressle.
Lay the water pipes along the rows and plant new tomatoes beneath plastic sheeting.

A windy day, pull out all the weeds growing amongst the potato plants.
Prepare plastic covers for the new rows and gather strawberries for customers.

Wait. Pause. Stop.
Take a moment. Look around.

That's enough for today, it is 2pm, have the rest of the day off.

Don't forget to help yourself to all the lettuce, onion, garlic, strawberries, potatoes and zucchini you want.
There are containers of olives already at your house, they are from last season, see what you think and 36 fresh eggs on the bench.

On the island of Kefalonia, we lived in a cottage on the edge of a small town named Sami. A 43 second walk to the beach.
For two weeks we helped Nikos and Themis each morning with their farming chores.

They had patches of land, some owned some leased, spread out across the outskirts of town and in the hills. All within an easy 10 to 15 minute walk for us.

We would meet at 9am and complete a variety of gardening tasks until 2pm, then have the afternoon and evening to ourselves. The weekends were also our free time. Nikos and Themis were constantly busy, undermining rumours we had heard of the Greek work ethic. But they were grateful of any help we could give and wanted us to enjoy the island during our stay.

On a few days we swam in the bay, a little chilly for our taste so early in the Summer.
Other days we hiked the nearby hills, explored old monastery's, a Roman acropolis and two unique cave structures within the limestone island.

Nikos and Themis would provide guidance on our morning tasks, then head out on their scooters to deliver produce to customers. Returning at various times to bring us some coffee's, pastries and beers when we progressed through the days tasks. We came to know the sound of each of their scooters as they approached where we worked.

With a comfortable 22c each day, we enjoyed the outdoor work up until 2pm, then were happy to call a stop and head home for a siesta.

Both were particularly encouraging for us to enjoy the atmosphere, culture and tranquility of the island.

Many occasions we would pause from picking weeds, stand and stretch our backs, look around and admire the beauty of the area. Green, tree covered hills curved around glistening blue water.

After two weeks of gorging on olives, strawberries and wine we accepted that this was a place that we would one day return. The lifestyle was a perfect balance between work, rest and play. Five hours of hard work a day, some rest, then fun and you felt amazingly refreshed for another day.

The time disappeared too quickly. But it was time very well spent.
We board our ferry back to the mainland. Sad to leave Kefalonia.