Paraskevi Viglis is from Samaria in Chania. I ‘met’ her through the web, watching her making the traditional pies from Sfakia. Pies with greens, fresh cut from the mountains, and pies with the traditional cheese mizithra and honey.

“I am from Samaria. My father was born inside the gorge of Samaria. I learned all kind of pies from his sisters. We all grew up with these pies. So, I started making them in my free time. Then, friends and family started ordering them from me.

Our daily diet here in Sfakia includes all these traditional pies. It’s easy and fast to make them and we can freeze them. It’s the best breakfast. We have free range goats and sheeps. We don’t feed them with corn but with greens. The Sfakian pies are the best meal for children, young people, and athletes.”

Sfakian pies also called ‘mizithropites’. Mizithra in Sfakia is like creamy milk, and it’s called ‘pihtogalo’. As Mrs. Vigli says “it is creamy and kind of sour. You can find it in the mountains of Chania (Madares). It’s an original product of Chania. If you want to make them you have to use oil and salt and twice as much mizithra as flour, then put them in the frying pan without oil.

In the past, when people didn’t have refrigerators they used to put honey on top to balance the taste because the cheese would getsour. So, today they still do this and it is delicious.

Paraskevi Vigli is also a tour guide in the mountains of Lefka Ori. “A lot of tourists want to hike to the mountains. We have a lot of trails, with and without paths – some of them lead to the beach. Lefka Ori has a lot of land with growth potential” she says.