Human activity in Syros: Agriculture
Compiled by: Marina Konstantopoulou
Human presence on the island of Syros has existed for 5.000 years, as archaeological findings in the areas of Halandriani and Kastrios suggest. Homer describes the island of Sirius as: “You will not call it an island of many people, but a rich one, it feeds cattle and sheep, it is a land of wine and produces a wealth of grain.”
Syros as a Cycladic island has a rich agricultural life which was and still is to a large extent the foundation for the economic prosperity of the island. The southern part of the island, with its milder climate and valleys, lends itself to extensive cultivation. A leap in agricultural production was seen in 1963, after the Dutch agronomist Paul Kuypers was invited by the Catholic Church and the first greenhouses appeared. In the northern part of the island, Apano Meria, the human presence is already evident from the boat with dry-stone walls dominating the rocky, rugged landscape. These dry-stone structures fulfil a triple role. On the one hand, to demarcate properties. On the other, to contain the herds and protect the crops. Finally, to create terraces that retain the soil and resist erosion by the north wind and rain.
Living on an arid dry island, local farmers have developed a number of water-saving techniques, one of which is dry farming. This and other traditional farming methods are used by the locals to produce wine, fruit and vegetables.
Sources: The “Countryside” of Syros
Homer’s Odyssey (Rhapsody I), translated by N. Kazantzakis and I. Kakridis
Below you will find a text by Anna Maria Christopoulou-Marangou and Melina Darzenda, high school students (1999), about the human activity in Ano Meria:
“Human interference in Apano Meria (Upper Place) is both a thoughtful and necessary intervention. For many years, many generations, the workers of that land, hunched over the soil, tracking its moisture and other properties, examining the flora and fauna, listening to the wind and observing its every twist, calculating the sun’s trajectory through the sky, have tamed this wild landscape; subdued it without ever disrespecting it.
The cultivation and development of the land, the beekeeping and raising of livestock in Apano Meria, emerged directly from the imperative to survive and are based on knowledge passed from generation to generation on the symbiosis between humans and their environment that can only come from close observation. Many years ago, the inhabitants of Apano Meria investigated, experimented and discovered techniques and means to produce fruit, vegetables, wine, honey, as well as dairy and meat products like cheeses and sausages. The development took place slowly, steadily and efficiently. They tuned into the land and drew their tools from it. This is evident everywhere: from the dryland farming with its terraces and stone walls to the traditional grape-stomping and the pig-slaughter festivals. They did not diminish the landscape. They did not change their ancestors’ techniques merely for the sake of novelty. The few who remain active today, don’t mind the toil nor do they bemoan the difficulties. They go on producing “as they were taught”, making the most of the mountain.
Local products from Apano Meria contains the essence of the place. The taste of its honey is packed with the fragrant scent of mountain thyme those bees foraged. Its grapes and late-summer figs are like living mementos of the feast of St John. A sip of its dessert wine transports one instantly to those little terraces with a view of Tinos, full of tomatoes drying in the sun. Taste the creamy richness of its chickpeas, freshly popped from their pods, and it is as if you can see grandad coming back from the field with the sack under his arm; coming back from the past.
Each product from Apano Meria is a herald of memories, images, sensations and wisdom. It is heritage. It is dowry. It is custom. It is culture. It is the counterargument to the age of genetic modification. It is the product of a total harmonisation of humanity with its environment.”
Melina and Anna Maria
Translated by Αlex Andreou
