Kalamata Educational Center for the Environment (KEPEA) with 16 students along with their teachers from the 4st Vocational Upper Secondary School of Kalamata avisited Taygetos Mountain, and especially the villages Piges and Alagonia.
The landscape was in a forestry area, where the youngsters had the opportunity to walk in a path in wild nature that connects the two villages.
As a start, locals served us hot tea and chestnut, we built a small fire in order to cook the chestnuts and we started the long walk path. The participants tried to find local plants from a given list (that we have recorded in a previous visit to the other side of the Messenian landscape). We found a lot of them but not all as the present landscape was in a higher altitude.
We were joined by a young couple, Melanie and Evan, volunteers in the Natural Farming Center that explained us how they decided to move from their countries (USA and Ireland respectively) in order to live together in a mountainous village depending only on what the land has to offer. They talked us about cyclic economy and zero waste efforts in the village, they showed us their farm and the philosophy of natural farming. For the students that are specialized in Agricuclture, this was an opportunity to practice what they learn in books!
Last but no least, we would like to thank Melanie and Evan for their special contribution.