To say it is “off the beaten track” is an understatement, just as it is an understatement to say it is “sparsely populated.” According to the local Municipality of Crete, only three families live on this plateau in the Lefka Ori region of southwest Crete. The village is named after Manousos Kallikratis, who with five ships and 1,500 men, led a campaign to defend the area from the Ottomans in 1453. Kostas Mountakis. a famous Cretan musician, was born here.
Don’t let my description of the drive discourage you from visiting The Wild Herbs of Crete, because once you relax, you will see absolutely stunning views of the Frangokastello plain before you and the Libyan Sea in the distance. You will arrive at a very special sanctuary created by a woman from Denmark and a man from Crete who gave up the life they knew to live peacefully in this remote area and devote their lives to wild herbs.
Babis Psaroudakis and Janina Sorensen produce a variety of essential oils from the wild growing herbs surrounding their land. They wild craft them by hand, and create very small vials of the most exquisite essential oils to be found anywhere on the island. Their home is on a landscape surrounded by walnut and fruit trees, confer trees, purple thyme, wild carrot, and a huge variety of herbs, surrounded by mountains covered with oaks.
The shop, where they distill and sell the essential oils, is behind a small café; guest rooms rented by hikers are in an attached building or lodge. I had the pleasure of visiting their shop and sampling their exquisite essential oils. Also, I was a guest at a delicious dinner cooked by my hosts. Babis and Janina, who have been working with wild plants since 1994 and moved to Kallikratis in 2007; their shop opened in 1994.
Except for the sound of cicadas, the plateau was silent. The air was filled with the aroma of fresh herbs. My friends’ two teen-age girls, who came with us, were content to sit quietly and allow the plateau to enter them, just as their parents and I did. To experience the exquisiteness of such a place, one must release one’s senses.
You enter Wild Herbs through the small café on the front porch where you will sit at stone tables surrounded by plants. Behind the café is the shop itself with products for sale—all small in size—that include essential oils, homemade olive oil soap, candle diffusers, and dried flowers. “All our essential oils are exclusively from wild growing plant populations,” explains Janina,” adding, ”Babis and I cut all plant material by hand; no plant material is purchased from third parties.” They have no paid workers who might be indifferent to the spirit of the plants or the ethics of collection. However, friends sometimes join them for collection and distillation.
Explore what is available in the shop and before leaving, enjoy organic coffee or tea at the café and a fascinating talk with the owners who chose to give up the life they knew up for a peaceful sanctuary in the middle of well, Crete’s wilderness. During most of the year, Babis and Janina are indeed “one of the three families” living on the plateau.
That night, however, it turned out that there were three families and one American woman living on the vast plateau. During dinner, Babis and Janina mentioned that they were going to Askifou tomorrow afternoon, where Elizabeth and Yorgos have a home. I asked Janina if I could spend the night and go with them tomorrow morning instead of leaving tonight with my friends. To my relief, everyone agreed.
I am not sure exactly why I proposed this. On the one hand, I was almost paralyzed with apprehension about driving over that high, high plateau with its one-lane roads in the black darkness of night, even though I knew Yorgos was an excellent driver. On the other hand, I wanted to experience the solitude of being alone in the lodge.
I longed to fall asleep to the trills of the cicadas and be awakened by a choir of birds welcoming the dawn. It was a glorious night and joyous morning and somehow, on the drive back to Askifou over a plateau that rises to 980 meters, I barely noticed the height or the other vehicles squeezing past us. We were chatting so much, an observer could have mistaken us for a carload of cicadas;-)
(The products of Wild Herbs can be purchased online by visiting this website: www.wildherbsofcrete.com.)
TELOS
Published in The National Herald, June 2014