POTD – Mount Athos hermit cooking

Looking for photos to use for my new blog header, I came across a series I had dismissed as “uninteresting” when I first looked at them a few years ago. The beauty of digital files (I shoot film generally, but digitize the images for selection and emailing purposes) is that you inevitably run across them again and again, giving you an opportunity to see them in a different light. In the old days with film alone, I tended to print the photos I liked and then the filmstrips disappeared into my archives never to be seen again.

This is a picture of one of our close friends whom we have visited dozens of times over the last 20 years. He is a hermit, i.e. he and his companions (a brother and a cousin) live on their own, outside the confines of a monastery. Their cooking consists of vegetables and beans that they pick from their garden just minutes before being cooked. The taste of truly fresh food is indescribable and so satisfying.

And here’s the full-frame shot of the picture I used for the blog header.

And the finished product….fried potatoes, fried eggplant, boiled greens (horta), tomato-cucumber salad, olives, beans in tomato sauce, and fresh bread…and of course, homemade wine! The biggest problem coming back from Athos into the secular world is that it takes a few days to get used to eating tasteless food again!