In the weekly market in Nafplio I lingered at the honey stall, inspecting the jars, and the old man with the Auden-creased face hesitated, before telling me that he has a special honey, “but it is more expensive”. He reached into a cardboard box and produced a hand-bottled kilogram jar. It is Vanilla Fir, he told me, and solemnly offered me a taste. Vanilla Fir is the most prized honey produced in Greece, harvested from the forests of black fir in the Arcadian mountains at high altitudes above 2000 metres, The bees make the honey directly from the sap of the tree rather than the nectar of the flowers, so it has a low sugar and moisture content and never crystallizes, and they don’t do it every year so it’s very rare and supply is very unpredictable. The vanilla in its name refers to the pearlescent shimmer of the honey, not the flavour, which is a sort of light, bright caramel. In Europe, a retail jar of Vanilla Fir can set you back 50 euros to 80 euros per kilogram. in the US, with its greater economies of scale, a kilogram will be around $35 to $40. The old man didn’t tell me any of that, he just said, apologetically, “It costs 18 euro.” And then, immediately, as if shamed of his rapaciousness, he blurted, “But I sell it to you for 15 euro!” We counted our coins, and told we only had 14 euro, and would go to draw some more money, but he shook his head and took the coins and pushed the jar across the table to us. His wife, sitting on a low stool behind him, shook her head in affectionate exasperation.
7 November 2026 (Saturday) – Vouno Melisson
