Laden lemon and fig trees and silver-grey olive trees frame the steps leading up to the home of George and Dimitra Giannakakis in Wanniassa. The couple came to Canberra in the1960s from the beautiful Greek island of Samos in the northeast Aegean Sea and close to Turkey. They return every year to a white-washed, red-roofed house in their village of Ambelos on the side of a mountain like a deck overlooking the sea which is just five minutes away.
I was introduced to the Giannakakises by Steve Kalenderidis, president of the Greek community in Canberra, following the lively Greek luncheon in Nimmitabel on February 23, where their son Stavros was the DJ for the Hellenic dancers and all the locals and visitors who, of course, joined in for Zorba.
Dozens of colourful heirloom tomatoes from the garden of the president of the Geldmacher House Museum, Sue Jardine, were served in a salad as well as a zucchini dip. The recipe, which follows, came from a Greek woman called Maria who sells produce at local farmers’ markets in Campbellfield outside Melbourne. Sue and her country friend Laine Lawson stopped there to get jars for the honey collected from Jim Jardine’s bees in Nimmitabel.
