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mílo

μήλο

Raphael's Three Graces,  Musée Condé, Chantilly

Apple. The classic free dessert in a taverna back in the day was simplicity itself—a sliced apple with cinnamon sprinkled on top, and it was delicious. The orchards of the Pelion peninsula produce most of Greece's finest apples, including the rare firiki and the juicy red PDO-designated Μήλα Ζαγοράς Πηλίου (Mína Zagorás Pelíou)

A brewery in Athens, Μηλοκλέφτης or Milokleftis, has started making Greece's first apple cider.

Apples in Ancient Greece

Although the apple tree originated in Central Asia, there are fossil records of apples in Anatolia going back to 6500 BC. Greeks have known about apples at least since the 7th century BC, but they were relatively rare and expensive, and adored as the fruit of all fruits (in fact, in several ancient languages, 'apple' was synonymous with 'fruit', leading to modern disagreements over exactly what kind of fruit grew in the Garden of Eden or in Gaia's Garden of the Hesperides).

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Fruit, nuts & seeds

Text © Dana Facaros

Image by PD art