Christina Kotsilelou: “Let the food be thy medicine…”

Modern food production, the growing number of diet-related diseases, the damage we do to our bodies as well as the planet, are pushing us to return to natural remedies and therapies known for thousands of years.

Holistic healing practices, folk medicine traditions (‘yatrosophia’ in Greek) and local herbal knowledge are a natural way of healing and caring that allows us to connect with our place, tradition and the natural environment.

On the subject of care and care practices, I will be looking into the healing powers of food –food as medicine on a physical (somatic), mental and psychological level. After the famous quote by Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food”, I will be studying the restorative power of nutrition to not only heal the body, but also nurture life in all its dimensions.

My aim is to explore traditional recipes and food practices, home remedies and practical medicine from different parts of Greece, involving healing foods such as herbs, plants and spices. The research will require travelling to different parts of Greece and meeting with a variety of people such as cooks, herb experts, foragers and gatherers, farmers and land cultivators who are willing to share their knowledge and practices.

Eventually I am hoping to gather all this information –recipes, secret concoctions, stories and practical acts of care– into a publication.

My first impressions are greater than expected! I take in the immense beauty of the site: the colors, sounds, and smells of the lush nature, a place that is rumored to have the largest plant and herb biodiversity in Greece. I take out my phone and start using a plant identifying app: most specimens I scan have some kind of health value.

“Here we go”, I’m thinking as I get excited and impatient for the adventure that now begins.

Later on, when we moved back to the Onassis building, we had the opportunity to distill and produce an aromatherapy oil from a selection of plants from the National Garden under the guidance of artist and biochemist Labrilena Konstantelou, invited by fellow Bryony Dunne.

All the individuals mentioned above were crucial in my initiation to the world of herbs and I was very lucky to get a glimpse of their work and learn from their knowledge and experience.

Field research was always in the plans for this project and I finally chose the area of Epirus, and Zagori in particular, as both a place very rich in herbal population and the birthplace of some of the first practical doctors in Greece. Their stories and practice became the focus of my research for this second part of the residency.

“Vikogiatroi” or “kobogianites” (their various names had different meanings) were the practical doctors who gathered plants and herbs from the gorge of Vikos, a large area crossing the villages of Epirus that is rich in medicinal flora.

According to local history, as early as the end of the 16th century these doctors collected herbs from the Vikos gorge and saved them in large handkerchiefs tied with a knot. They went everywhere on horseback, wore black wool coats, and tied their long hair with a green ribbon. A whipping rod always hung from their arm. That is why they were also called “matsoukades” or “matsoukarides” (“matsouki” meaning whip).

They would administer the herbs to patients and treat minor injuries and illnesses, but also manage serious operations like spleen removals, which they would then hang on to their clothes as medals or proof of their serious medical abilities.

Self-taught and with knowledge passed down from generation to generation, these doctors had an extensive plant knowledge based on observing nature, both flora and fauna, but also based on ancient traditions in medicine.
They knew where to gather specific herbs, how to treat them (dry them or make tinctures out of the specimens), which parts of them to use, and which specific specimens were the right ones for each ailment.

Although their practices proved invaluable, especially during difficult times, their reputation was harmed and questioned at times, because there were some cases of fraud among them.

I thought the only way to get more information would be to actually visit the place myself, and try to meet as many people I can who can share their knowledge and stories. Hence the trip to Zagori and my week of full-on immersion to the beauty of the Vikos flora.

I began by getting in touch with a cultural center and library (Epekeina Hora) in the village of Ano Vitsa. The director, Mr. Nikos Yiannis, provided me with a list of contacts, people living in the area who could have some information for me.
I started contacting them and was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone was more than happy to help. I discovered a tight knit community of people who care about their environment, its history, and even visitors like me.

The time spent in Zagori consisted of daily walks in the Vikos gorge, the herbal trails, and the lavish paths between villages, but mostly of meeting and having conversations with the locals who would share any information they had on the area’s practical doctors and their relationship with herbs.

In the village of Koukouli, I visited the small herb museum of Lazarides, where Mrs. Eirini shared the story of the museum’s founder.

Lazarides was the school teacher of the village who embarked on identifying and studying all the medicinal herbs of the area.
The museum holds an impressive collection of local dry herb specimens collected by him, photographs from his foraging trips, some of the tools he used for the collection, as well as a selection of local press articles who proved to be most helpful.

At the village of Kapesovo, Mr. Thoukidides Papageorgiou, a relative of Lazarides and my host at the hotel I stayed for a few days, shared a lot of information on the practical doctors and, more importantly, his experience of cultivating the local land and living in the Zagori region. His book about growing up in the village proved a precious read for understanding life in the area and the locals’ relationship to the land.

I can continue with many more stories: times spent sharing food and drinks with locals, cooking rose preserve with Gianna, foraging wild mushrooms, walking the steep stone steps of Vradeto, visiting the Sarakatsani nomad houses, marveling at the purple irises along the gorge, and feeling lucky to discover a welcoming land and its people.

Having the chance to visit the area and begin this research on a practical basis, collecting data and information from firsthand sources, has proven most valuable.
In my quest for care practices and herbal therapy, the stories of the practical doctors in Vikos were a great discovery. In their few found manuscripts with recipes, I discovered simple remedies and other more complicated ones, with hard-to-find ingredients and a little bit of magic!

These doctors’ methods and the stories of how people perceived them back in history was another proof of how society discerns “alternative” medicine even in contemporary times.

This project for me has only just begun and hopefully will continue in the near future with plans for a publication and a short documentary.