Vegan holiday in Greece, cooking and food

Planet

In every way we try to sustain our local environment. We re-use, recycle and compost everything possible, including the mountain of olive branches generated each harvest rather than burning them. By doing this, we've developed novel and durable solutions to problems such as soil erosion and summer drought. Our olive grove and vegetable gardens are completely organic.

Gialova lagoon is a Natura 2000 protected area. It is the only European habitat of the African Chameleon and a haven for migratory birds. Further up the coast is the biggest nesting site in Europe for sea turtles. We are involved with and support all efforts to protect the habitats of these endangered creatures. We are the local on-call number if a turtle gets into trouble in Navarino Bay. Sometimes the proximity of really wild life shocks our guests, such as the jackals who pass by noisily most evenings, sounding like a group of drunken revellers and the wild pigs who love to ransack vegetables - particularly tomatoes !

We encourage our guests to understand that plastic often finds its way to the sea and beaches, causing havoc for both turtles and chameleons, and to set an example to others by always using a reuseable cup for takeaway drinks. We provide cups, water bottles and filtered water.

People

Our aim is to facilitate local people in sharing the incredible wealth of knowledge they possess – in teaching, collaborating and giving our guests and students insight into a world they would never have access to as normal tourists – and to be paid a decent European wage for their time. ( Particularly when foraging, it's important to know what to pick, where to pick and how to prepare certain foods.) All of the produce we buy is sourced from small local, organic growers, many of whom you will meet.

We are very active in fundraising for refugees in Greece. Olive oil is the staple food here and every year we donate at least 10% of our oil ( organic,cold pressed, extra virgin ) to families in need . In past years recipients have included a refugee family in Eleonas camp in Athens who have now been granted asylum in Germany and have said they will be eternally grateful to us for enabling them to feed their kids the best oil every morning at breakfast. We supported Iannoula, a single mother with 5 boys with everything they needed to enable the children to stay in school. They lived in a tent on the perimeter of Kalamata airport and lost everything they owned in the floods of Sept 2016. They have now moved to Tripoli.

We are constantly fundraising for 2 local animal shelters ; Zoe, our local dentist and total hero cares for 87 stray cats on her own and provides for all their medical needs. ( Sterilisation is expensive in Greece. ) Katerina and Andreas, unbelievably, care for over 350 stray dogs. The current economic crisis in Greece has further exacerbated the problem of strays.

In the UK we donate both money and time to Crisis in London. We also donate to Greenpeace on a monthly basis.