Hello there! Long time no see but I went away for a few days on holidays. I visited Nantes in NW France and I have so many things to write about this town and so many pictures to upload... so all will happen in time. 
But firstly I wanted to write a few things about raisins or currants and my little story that I have with them. 

So, as it all starts with people this story started 30 years ago when I enrolled in the Agricultural University of Athens. There I met Aphrodite, a lovely girl with a lovely sister and a lovely family altogether. She came from the city of Patras in the west of Greece. A big port town even now where you can take a boat and go to Italy within a day. 

Anyway... Through Aphrodite I met two Helens (the big one and the little one). The little Helen is still my best girlfriend and that is a story on its own and even though it does not have to do with food I have to share it with you one day. 
Through the big Helen I met her aunt Kitty. Kitty is from the UK and a force of nature. One of the best people I have ever met! I did not meet her late husband but I think that she was enough for both of them. Anyway... Helen's uncle had a lot of money and all that money came from the currants. 

You see, for Greece of the 19th and 20th centuries the cultivation and export of currants was the most proliferous business of my small country. 70% of the money Greece got from its exports was from currants. And even the country going down the drain in 1893 was from the fall of that commerce. 
Currants for Greece was what coffee was for Brazil in many ways. Especially the north of the Peloponnese became one of the wealthiest parts of the country so much so that there were hardly any weddings between September and October as no-one had any time to waste. Also the court houses were not in session during the months between July and October. 

After many years and as I was visiting the area of Aegialia and tasting their wonderful raisins and talking with the local producers I got to understand a bit more of the hard work it requires.. And that whole area was since antiquity connected with Dionysus and the cultivation of the grapes. 

So the last time I was up there a few weeks ago I bought some of the fresh grapes and decided to make my own raisins. 
I will share this simple recipe with you. And also thank my dad for helping me with it... I love the pictures I took with him and his hands... As he suffers from a form of dementia these moments that we shared over some dried grapes I will carry them for ever in my heart...