COVER STORY
THE SECRET TO LIVING TO 100
You’ll find a new spring in your step when you land in Ikaria, Greece, the promised land of living well and longevity. Image credit: DROPPED MAGAZINE on Unsplash.
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
People from five countries walked into a taverna... No, this is not one of those “three men walked into a bar” jokes.
This is what actually transpired when friends and family from five countries assembled for a wedding in Greece recently.
So there we were, in Ikaria in Greece, and a member of the group asked the friendly owner of the taverna for “Greek yoghurt”.
“Mom, I am pretty sure they know it as just yoghurt, you don’t have to say ‘Greek’ yoghurt,” hissed a younger member of the group.
The lady said she was interested in seeing if what was served in Greece held any resemblance to the Greek yoghurt that is available in Canada.
“You never know, right? I mean, on our first visit to Italy, I was shocked at what came to our table dressed up as a ‘pizza’!”
Point taken. And I am happy to report she was happy with the huge serving of thick and creamy yoghurt sprinkled with chopped nuts and a drizzle of honey that came to the table.
Ikaria derives its name from the legend of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and is believed to mark the spot where he fell back into the sea. It is a little and little-known island known for being in the Blue Zones. It has been featured in books and the Netflix documentary Live to 100 – Secrets of the Blue Zones, but thankfully, people are not tripping over themselves to get there.
As George Karimalis, the owner of the winery where the wedding was held assured the couple, this is not the first time Ikaria has been in the news. But it draws a certain kind of people. Those who want to party go to other islands.
So what, exactly, are the Blue Zones?
Dan Buettner explains in his book, The Blue Zones Kitchen. The concept surfaced some years ago when he set out with National Geographic to “reverse-engineer a formula for longevity”.
Working with doctors and experts, he identified places around the world where people live the longest, drawing a line around each area in blue – creating the Blue Zones.
George and Eleni and their 500-year-old Karimalis winery offer a welcoming space for the wellness seeker.
An excerpt from the book, which also just happens to feature the Karimalis’ winery:
“In Ikaria, Greece, we found the ‘island where people forget to die’ – 10,000 or so residents who live long lives but also suffer the world’s lowest rates of dementia.
“We found that those who live in the Blue Zones move naturally every 20 minutes or so. Their streets are built for humans, not cars; going to a friend’s house, out to eat, or to work is an opportunity for a walk.
“Their houses aren’t full of mechanical conveniences. They still do work by hand, grinding corn or kneading bread. They grow a garden.
“People aren’t lonely, because it simply isn’t an option. If after a few days people don’t show up to the town festival, church, or even the village café, someone will generally check in on them.”
We discovered an island that lived up to the promise in every possible way.
Driving to the winery from the tiny airport, it took us a little over two hours to cover around 60 kilometres, but no one grumbled as the road winds and loops back through some of the most stunning natural beauty. The Aegean Sea on one side and a profusion of blooms on the other. Oleanders, scarlet poppies, wild roses, honeysuckle and jasmine spilling over the mountains’ rocky ramparts. Mountain goats stood on the crest, looking down at people who were making such a fuss over passing through olive groves.
Buettner writes that most of the food eaten in Ikaria is harvested from seasonal gardens which provide the purest form of the Mediterranean diet in the world.
For breakfast at the farmstay at the winery, we enjoyed a spread of oats, yoghurt, fresh butter, sour-dough bread which Eleni, George’s wife and the indefatigable chef at the restaurant’s kitchen makes from a starter that’s been in the family for decades, lemon, fig and apricot preserves, honey, a variety of herbal teas, salad with goat cheese, and a variety of fresh fruit. Much of it harvested that morning. George would stroll in with bunches of fresh lettuce to add to the spread, or a bowl of walnuts from the trees that grow on the property.
As do olives, lemons, herbs, and of course, grapes.
Information on their site reveals that the winery was set up by George and Eleni when, in 1999, after giving up their jobs and life in the city of Athens, they returned to the island, determined to work their ancestral land and enjoy the Ikarian way of life. They restored and revived the 500-year-old vineyard that had been passed down to them and have engaged, ever since, in the propagation of the Ikarian way of life to their children and grandchildren, as well as to their guests and visitors.
George, a successful economist, relinquished his managerial career in a chain of stores in Athens, with a view to living a healthier life in nature. Starting his new life in Ikaria from scratch, he committed himself to salvaging the vineyards and the ancestral homes. He now focuses on organic viticulture and agriculture by implementing the principles of sustainability, and through devising and constructing systems for recycling waste and producing energy. Subsequent to his participation in numerous worldwide conferences, George has adopted the role of a mentor on healthy living and proper nutrition.
He chatted amiably with us, sharing insights on the Ikarian way and his unique take on life.
When a guest commented on the unhurried pace – no one was zipping around even though they had tons to do – even the ants seemed to meander slowly, he said: “Creatures move at the pace they need to when time slows – there’s no fighting for resources.”
And this, while discouraging a guest from petting the cats that roam the premises – and much of the island: “There is controlled violence in nature.”
The winery is an agrotourism establishment, in which small groups of guests lodge in the two restored traditional stone houses situated amidst an organically farmed vineyard opposite the winery. The estate is supported by a number of environmentally friendly applications. Nothing is wasted. Almost everything is ploughed back into the land – often literally.
Guests can participate in cookery courses, wine tasting, in farming activities, as well as in various sports and physical activities like jogging, trekking, archery, martial arts and traditional dances.
In addition to the stone houses, the farm boasts two stone mills; a small one for grain and a big one for the production of olive oil. They have also preserved the ‘petalo’ (horseshoe), which is the old press made of five massive granite plates, where their ancestors made wine for hundreds of years. One of the rooms available for the accommodation of guests is what was traditionally called ‘Pythostasi’ or ‘Katogi’, a semi-basement cellar. It is where massive clay pots were ‘planted’ into the ground for the purpose of keeping the inside temperatures low and which were used for the fermentation and preservation of wine.
A musician with a passion for gardening and cooking, Theodosia lays out a breakfast spread. “This is normal!”
Eleni has been engaged in Ikarian gastronomy and cooking since 1989, focusing mainly on a plant-based Mediterranean cuisine. She has had the chance to present her recipes and cooking skills on Greek television, as well as in various documentaries shown around the world.
She presented a massive array of dishes for the wedding with so many choices for vegetarians that as I reported to a friend on our return, we weren’t tempted to go on the hunt for an Indian restaurant on that remote island like on some other holidays when we found that there’s only that much salad and fries one can consume! A Greek vegetarian meal is very, very satisfying.
Growing up in the freedom of a vineyard and close to nature, their four children had a unique upbringing and education in healthy living. Although they left home for studies and employment in big cities, the unparalleled worth and the unique opportunities encompassed in the enterprise their parents had created eventually brought them back home, ready to engage in the running and development of the family business.
We had the opportunity to meet their daughters Liana and Theodosia. Involved in the wine making procedure from vineyard to winery from the age of five, Liana was always by her father’s side. Inevitably, she studied chemical engineering at the National Metsovio Technical University followed by postgraduate studies in Oenology at the Athens Agricultural University, and now runs the winery, maintaining centuries-old traditions while introducing new techniques to take their wines to the world.
Theodosia is a musician with a passion for gardening and cooking. She was always busy, with the preparation of meals, looking after the plants and the gardens on the farm.
Cutting ripe melons and kiwi for breakfast one morning, she spoke of the reaction of guests to the spread. “They all say, ‘This is amazing!’ I think this is normal – if you think this is amazing, what do you have for breakfast every day?”
Busy but unhurried, happy, engaged and super fit, each member of the family is a poster child for the Ikarian way. At the wedding, they got into the swing of things and joined in the dancing to an Ikarian folk band.
The tattoo “Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu” in Sanskrit lettering encapsulated the feel and the philosophy of the place: May everyone in the world be happy.
One of the staff had an interesting tattoo, Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu, in Sanskrit lettering. It encapsulated the feel and the philosophy of the place: May everyone in the world be happy.
The genuine warmth, the friendly welcome, extends beyond the winery into the “town” which consists of a few cobbled streets with boutique hotels, cafés, tavernas and pottery and souvenir stores. Streams that run from one side of the street and below a bridge into the sea are home to a large colony of turtles. It was fascinating to watch some sunning on the rocks, with others scrambling up to join them whenever we passed the spot. Which was often, because hotels are but a few feet from one another and guests from one would hail those from the other. “Are you here for the wedding? So are we!”
When one of the guests suffered an allergic reaction to an insect bite, a doctor was summoned to the restaurant they were at. “It will take me 15 minutes,” he said, sounding very apologetic.
I was bitten a few days later and suffered a similar reaction, and so the doctor was called again. Since we were in his neighbourhood, we said we could spare him a drive.
He met us outside a pottery studio. A sign on a wall pointed to steps leading to his clinic, but he pointed to a patio umbrella and a single chair.
“Welcome to my outdoor clinic!” he said with a grin.
He checked the swelling on my foot, gave me a tube of antihistamine ointment, and said I’d be fine in a day or two.
He entertained us with stories of how life in Ikaria suits him after years in Detroit for medical school.
“I leave my car parked right here,” he said, pointing to one parked by the curb. “Keys in, door unlocked. It doesn’t move unless I want it to!”
And then said he couldn’t charge us as we’d taken a cab to go see him.
“You’ve kept the cab waiting, so even more money!”
Upon our insisting that we couldn’t just walk away without paying, he shrugged and came up with a very desi response. “Give me whatever you think fit.”
This exchange went on for a while before he relented and charged us the princely sum of 10 euros.
There’s lots to explore on the tiny island. A museum on its history with clay amphora dating back to 300-400 BC, hot springs and beautiful beaches. On a sightseeing tour, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant on a beach. The menu listed the items on a grilled vegetables platter. Factoring in personal likes and dislikes of everyone present, we asked the young man who had set the table for us after shooing off the omnipresent cats if we could have a platter with some of the vegetables, leaving out one or two.
He returned with our order, among which was a full-sized platter of one of the vegetables. Oh, well, we thought, that’s fine. He was back in quick succession with more platters, each full-size, each with one vegetable. In essence, we’d ended up with five platters of one vegetable each instead of one platter with five vegetables. Putting it down to a case of being lost in translation, we dug in. But then he was back once again, this time with the platter we thought we’d ordered, with the mixed vegetables!
A collective laugh went up, as we threw up our hands and conceded defeat. There was no way we could consume any of that. We apologized for the amount of food we were wasting.
He looked very upset and said he could pack it for us. But with dinners and lunches planned in advance during the wedding, that was not an option. We apologized again, assuring him that it wasn’t his fault, we probably hadn’t been too clear, and that we were happy to pay for the order. He mumbled something about talking to someone and disappeared, returning in a couple of minutes with a young woman who greeted us with a wide smile and a big apology.
She was his girlfriend, fluent in English, and more importantly, the owner’s daughter.
“Our mistake, we will take it back if you don’t want it,” she said. “No charge!”
While we were commenting on how sweet they were not to make a fuss over a whole platter of food that they couldn’t possibly palm off on anyone else – we were the only ones there – the young man was back.
This time with his smile back in place and another large platter!
“Fresh fruits, free, to say sorry!”
Driving back, there was an animated discussion on Ikaria, its lovely people, and their way of life.
All very desi, if you think about it, as the desi contingent concurred. “This is the lifestyle my nani followed and she lived to be almost 100,” said one.
THEY WILL BE HERE!
Image credit: The Blue Zones Kitchen by Dan Buettner.
George and Eleni Karimalis organize international cooking and longevity workshops once or twice a year. Such workshops have taken place in the US, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Israel and Australia.
In these workshops they focus on teaching healthy living and ways to a longer life, just like the people of the Blue Zones. They share the secrets of ancient Ikarian cooking wisdom, which directly links food to healthy living and longevity. It’s interesting to note that they purchase ingredients for the workshops from the markets in the host city. So, they will also be able to offer advice on how anyone can acquire organic ingredients on their doorstep.
They will be in Toronto on November 23 and 24 for lectures, cooking classes and demos and dinner.
Check out details here or www.ikarianwine.gr.
A WAY OF LIFE
Music and dancing are a way of Ikarian life.
Incorporate Blue Zones tips from The Blue Zones Kitchen which has a chapter on Ikaria and the Karimalis family:
• Use fewer ingredients.
• Add cruciferous vegetables.
• Make beans tasty.
• Finish dishes with olive oil.
• Supplement with fresh herbs and spices.
• Fibre is more important than we thought.
• Enjoy your meals with red wine.
• Ensure that your diet is 90 to 100 per cent plant-based.
• Retreat from meat.
• Go easy on fish.
• Reduce dairy.
• Cut down on eggs.
• Eat a daily dose of beans.
• Slash sugar.
• Snack on nuts.
• If you can, eat only sourdough or 100 per cent whole wheat bread.
• Drink mostly water.
The Blue Zones Kitchen by Dan Buettner is published by National Geographic, $39.