Thodoris’ apiary is located on a craggy hillside in the Samaria Gorge. Getting there involves a three-hour trek on foot, but the location gives his bees easy access to the rich vegetation of the National Park, where they “work” with herbs such as sage, summer savory, marjoram, ironwort and the white thyme that grows on the slopes of Crete’s White Mountains.

As for Thodoris, he cherishes the connection with the land where his father was born. The annual honey cycle begins in February with honeybee reproduction, and ends with the August harvest. 

The equipment used for harvesting is basic: three honey extractors, a generator that provides power and a pulley system to carry everything across the steep hillside. Anything that cannot be moved by the pulley is carried on the workmen’s backs.

Thodoris’ friends come to lend a hand during the harvest, and they spend the night in a cave in the wall of the gorge. Staring at the steep flanks on the other side of the ravine, they cook and eat and, if the fancy takes them, celebrate the harvest with music and song.

While the bees sleep in their boxes, this small “hive” of men is abuzz with activity, scraping the combs clear of wax and putting them through the honey extractors. As the extractors whizz round and round, they perfume the night air with the sweet aromas of herbs, and the honey flows thickly through the tap at the bottom of the machine.

The extraction stops at first light and the honey is sent off by mule on a long journey to the seaside village of Agia Roumeli. The animals are treated with care and respect, so getting all the honey to its destination can take as long as three days.

Thodoris thinks nothing of the time and effort involved; the only things that bring a furrow to his otherwise placid brow are a worry for the future of his craft and concern over the protracted droughts of recent years.