When it’s spring in Zakros, you can hear the water flowing through the gorge, down from the mountains to the sea.

The village is awakening after a long and wet winter.

The gorge is filled with wildflowers, an abundance of oregano and other aromatics. The smells of Crete.

 

 

There’s something amazing about the power of smell. It’s ability to transport you. The fragrant smell of wild oregano in the warm spring air transports us back to childhood holidays in Greece. But with village life, it’s come to mean something else. Foraging.

 

 

It’s incredible to think we’re walking the same path as the ancient Minoans who used the caves in the steep cliffs to bury their dead.

As it the village way, every spring, we head down to the gorge, hand collect the wild oregano and carefully try & air dry the beautiful buds.

We’ve never smelt anything like it.

And even if you’ve never been, it’ll take you straight the Dead Gorge, with the water running in the background, the bee’s buzzing round and the smells of Crete surrounding you.

 

 

It’s important to say, we’ve been taught how to responsibly forage and hold a greek foraging license to do so.