I think it was time to get out of the city! I have been in Athens for a month straight, so it was nice to get out and see what else is out there. The other day I rented a car, and drove along the coastline of Greece. I met this really interesting young chef in Athens. He had the day off so he came along with me. His name is Tyler Florence, and he is quite famous actually. He has a show on Food Network called, “Tyler’s Ultimate”. He is in Greece for the same reason as I am, food. He came with me on my adventure and we both learned a lot.

When we drove along the coastline we saw a huge array of olive groves. We discovered at a tasting center that the production of olives is around 2.3 metric tons (Kaltsas, A.M., et al.). This results in 450,000 metric tones of olive oil and roughly 200,000 tons of table olives (Kaltsas, A.M., et al.). This is a lot of olives! Tyler and I found this very interesting. In “Europe A Thematic Atlas”, 24 percent of Greece’s imports are food and beverages. I’m positive olives and olive oil is a huge contributor.

In Greece there is a big issue on whether pesticides should be used in Greece. According to the article, “ Sustainability of Three Apple Production Systems” using organic practices of farming does not ensure the sustainability of the land.

Also along our drive along the coastline we saw a ton of fishing boats. According to “ Farming In Greece” a lot of people fish for a living. They don’t just catch fish. Fishermen also fish for squid, shrimp and octopus.

This trip wasn’t just educational, but very beautiful. The coastline was amazing. I learned about the culture of food in Greece. I’m sure I will incorporate a lot of the Greek characteristics into my restaurant to make it more authentic, but also original with my creativity.

Works Cited

"Greece Hellenic Republic." Europe A Thematic Atlas. 1st ed. 1. Great Britain: The Economist Books, 1992. Print.

Kaltsas, A.M., et al. "Energy budget in organic and conventional olive groves [electronic resource]." Agriculture, ecosystems & environment 122. (2007): 243-251. Agricola. EBSCO. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

Reganold et al., 2001 J.P. Reganold, J.D. Glover, P.K. Andrews and H.R. Hinman, “Sustainability of Three Apple Production Systems”. Nature 410 (2001), pp. 926–930. Cited 121 times.

Thomas, Ron. & Sydenham, Shirley. Greece [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au. (2009)