Preserving Memories of Bygone Days: The Arillas Heritage Walk

Early in the morning, the "donkey rush-hour" used to take place in Corfu's traditional villages. Saddled with a padded wooden frame slung with tools, baskets, sacks and provisions, the beasts would head out to the fields and olive groves, their owners sometimes sitting atop the implements, or walking behind. The donkeys knew the way. At dusk, the process was reversed, but the beasts now carried bountiful burdens - in winter a sack of olives, in spring maybe a bundle of artichokes. In June, you sometimes came across a mobile haystack, tripping along the road like a giant clockwork toy. Only a protruding nose told you the source of the locomotion, as the donkey took home its own food supply for the parching summer.

The new generation has left the land. Education, and cash to buy food instead of having to produce it, has changed Corfu from a self-sufficient economy based on agriculture to a modern commercialized society. The rush-hour is more of a trickle now, and the donkeys' day is closing towards twilight. Preserving memories of the way of life in Corfu's countryside is the aim of a new initiative just opened in Arillas in North West Corfu.

The Arillas Heritage Walk takes visitors on a one-kilometre-long stroll through Katikia, a farm where buildings and installations have been reantiquated to turn back the clock to the years before the tourism revolution. An olive press, a well, a barn, a watermill, and the original farmhouse are all exhibits on the Walk.

But the Heritage Walk is much more than a static folk museum. Katikia is a working farm, run by Papaspiros, a retired priest in his late 70s and his wife Eleni. A walk through the farm provides not just a glimpse of history but a look at the lifestyle of the countryside as it is still lived by some today. The couple cultivate olives, grow vegetables for the extended family, and keep sheep, rabbits and chickens. Having grown up in an era when the donkey rush-hour was a way of life, they run the farm using the same methods as generation before them. In many aspects Katikia is also a prototype for future farmers. Innovative measures include cultivation of the koronaïko variety of olive tree, small and highly productive. Rather than laying nets on the ground under the huge Corfiot olive trees, Papaspiros slings elastic nets from branch to branch, so that the olives are kept clean and dry until gathering time. Growing processes are ecological, with no chemicals in use. Crop rotation and interplanting are used to prevent soil depletion and keep pests at bay.

The Katikia Farm is not only run according to ecological principles, it is also a showplace for recycling of old and useless objects. Papaspiros performs all the regular recycling tricks, like using old feta cheese cans as flower pots, but he also reclaims rusty old nails, straightens them and uses them again. Old plastic bottles trap wasps. His wife Eleni has invented an amazing way of recycling plastic shopping bags: she cuts them into strips and knots them into colourful plastic mats. Using an identical method, she used to make rag rugs with old clothes, but the mats made of the colourful plastic bags are much better for outdoor and bathroom use, where cloth ones would get soaked and heavy. You can spot examples of their recycling measures during the course of the Walk.

The Walk starts with an eye-catching display of old vehicles, set out near the road just above the main farmhouse and near the main parking. They include a unique three-wheeled passenger vehicle. The two passengers sat in the rear compartment, while the driver steered with motorbike handles. Another is a Lambretta three-wheeled truck designed to carry heavy loads. The engine is located under the platform, and drives the rear wheels.

The first farm building that comes into view is a barn which was used for storage of hay. Its main columns are built from river clay and straw blocks, dried in the sun. Building stone is rare in this region of Corfu, and was used only in construction of houses, and in the case of this barn for foundations. Many of the poorer homes were constructed entirely of these home-made blocks. On display is a collection of fishing tackle, and old tools and wine storage vessels. The display centres on a storage vessel for olive oil (tina). This was set on a round flat stone (katolavri), which was raised from the floor. Any leaks would run into the curved channel and down into a container. Due to the labour-intensive production methods, every drop of oil was precious. A two-handled measure (xesta) for liquids such as wine, oil and milk was used in the days when liquids were sold from a bulk supply rather than in plastic bottles from the supermarket shelf, to guarantee the purchasers a standard measure. Close to the rim, a xesta has a small hole which overflows when the correct measure is reached. In the past, while the proprietor was pouring, the xesta had to sit on a level flagstone to ensure it was not tilted to give a short measure. These flagstones were checked regularly by government inspectors.

Just down the path and through a little garden, visitors enter the original farmhouse of Katikia, built using the local sandstone, and reantiquated to look as it did in the 1960s. The accommodation consisted of a single space, where the whole family would live, eat and sleep. Cooking was done on an open fire with no chimney to take away the smoke, and the roof beams are naturally blackened. The cook would adjust the heat of the fire by raising or lowering the casserole on a chain suspended over the fire. Tripods were also used to rest the pot over the flame. The loom came from the mountain village of Loutses, where sheep were plentiful, and weaving was an everyday industry. Beside the loom are tools for carding and hand-spinning. The looms were mainly used to make rugs. Around the house many everyday items like lamps, hand-made tools and cookery utensils are on display.

Near the farmhouse is one of Katikia's three wells. This one used to supply water for washing. Beside the well is a board and tub (mastello) for doing the laundry, using green olive oil soap. Tins which once contained cheese were recycled to serve as water carriers. In the vegetable garden and fields below the farmhouse vegetables grow and fruit trees crop according to season. Papaspiros has grafted one pear tree with ten varieties so that it produces from July until December. The path then runs alongside the olive groves, where sheep graze beneath the overhead nets, keeping the land clear without chemical weed-killers. Crossing a small creek by way of a bridge made of scrap wood, the way passes the remains of an old watermill which was used for grinding corn and other grains. In the large sloping field on the far side of the creek, crops of grains and other vegetables grow according to an annual rotation system.

The walk finishes at the olive press on the other side of the valley. The crushing bed, still in working order, has three stone wheels. It is an example of the last step in the development of hand-operated presses, before power-driven and automatic systems rendered them redundant in the 1970s. Early crushers functioned with a single large stone. The next stage came with the introduction of two stones turning in parallel, until the more efficient three-stone crusher was invented. The circular stone platform constitutes the crushing bed, where the raw olives were pulped. The upright millstones are supported by a giant beam, and turned by a lesser one harnessed to a horse or donkey. The pulp was transferred to the press itself, where the workers would sandwich it between woven mats, building up a pile. The workers would then lean their weight on the giant lever to turn the screw, which would put pressure on the press block resting on the pile of mats and pulp. Assisted by a dash of hot water, the oil would gush into gutters, bound for underground settling tanks. The oil, being lighter than water, would rise to the top and workers would skim it off for storage. In this press, the tank has a deep gravel bottom, so that the waste water drains away into the ground. The oil was stored in a square trough, hewn on site from a single piece of stone. Around the olive press equipment associated with the process is displayed, and visitors will also find a display of made-in-Corfu products such as olive oil soap, wine and handicrafts. Adjoining the olive press is the Anaplasis Recycling Centre, which has developed Papaspiros' principles to create an outlet for reused old building materials, old doors and windows, and furniture, all discarded but now brought back to life to enhance a local home.

The vehicle display which marks the entry point features again in the signs showing the way to the Arillas Heritage Walk. A driver passing through Kavadades, destination Arillas, will be intrigued by the sight of an old motorbike mounted on a roadside metal plinth, its front wheel directing visitors. Similarly, a three-wheeled truck indicates the way to the Anaplasis centre. The Arillas Heritage Walk is a non-profit-making venture and entry is free, but visitors may make a voluntary contribution to keep this innovative, privately funded, enterprise going.

If you require any further information about Katikia Farm and The Arillas Heritage Walk please contact us.

Hilary Whitton-Paipeti. 2004.