Place · People · History
Everything the creamery makes comes off this slope. Here is the geography, the flock, the family and the calendar that governs all of it.
Grazing runs from 860 to 1,340 metres on dry limestone scrub above Ano Skotina. Thyme, sage and wild oregano dominate after the spring rain. The altitude keeps summer nights cool, which is why the cellar holds 10–12 °C with no machinery.
240 Karagouniko ewes and 60 Skopelos goats. No bought-in milk, ever. The flock walks out at first light and comes down for the evening milking; the day's yield sets the day's make.
Grandfather Anastasios set the first barrels here in 1961. Dimitris makes the cheese, Eleni runs the flock and the pasture, and two more hands come in for the spring make. Four people, one building.
Milking runs November to July. Cheese is made six days a week through that window; barrels seal from January onward and open six months later, which is why our year has two seasons, not four.
Since 1961
“We have never made more cheese than the flock allows. That is the only business plan anyone here has ever written down.”
