Making goat cheese, lunch and Kapetaniana village

Marcos demonstrated how they make strong flavored kefalotyri (or kefalotir) cheese. They choose not make cheese during the time when baby lambs are born and growing so that the milk can be used for the babies. 

After pasteurizing the sheep or goat's milk, you warm it and add rennet so that it will form a curd in less than an hour.  

Marcos stirs the cheese while it is heating.

                                               Then he cuts it with a knife.

               After lining the sieves with cheesecloth, he ladles the cheese onto the sieves. The liquid will run through the sieves into the metal trough.

I get a chance to be a cheesemaker. You can see the liquid is dripping into the large pot below. 

We get to sample some previously made cheese as an appetizer. The Cretan way is to dip it in honey. It was hard, sharp, a little salty and delicious. 

                         Time for some music from Marcos's lyre to celebrate. 

Lunch was a smorgasbord of Cretan delicacies: grilled vegetables, stuffed cabbage leaves, lamb, cauliflower salad, eggplant, potatoes, bread, and on and on...

Before leaving, we explored the village of Kapetaniana. Marcos and his wife, Popi, have renovated some of the homes as guest houses. 

                                  Some of the homes have the traditional stucco.