#doinginterviews

The last week has been pretty intense and focused on harvesting grapes and picking figs. We have been able to collect over 2 tons of grape and carried the 110 crates to Pathmos, a bigger island only 1 hour away from Lipsi. For the first time, Kostas decided to make his wine made by a French man, Dorian that is an expert in natural wine production. The reason of this is, that Kostas’ wine is considered peculiar, due to the rare quality of grape used for it. In fact, his vineyard is over 200 years old and because of that, the grapevine itself produces less fruits, but with higher content of nutrients, able to offer a special product, that on the market is 30% more expensive than “younger” natural wines. Funny and curious, Kostas’ next step will be to export his product to Denmark, thanks also to the positive promotion in several restaurants, made by a famous Danish actress, of which I will not mention the name for ethical reasons. The fact that a 100% organic wine (including growing, harvesting and production) can be popular in Denmark does’t surprise me, at all. As a matter of fact (and as many of us might know and remember from what studied in sociology of food), Denmark has long traditions in organic production. In 1987, Denmark was the first country in the world to pass a law on organic farming and to introduce government inspection of the organic production chain, ensuring organic food quality at farms, in companies and in supermarkets.

The day in Pathmos was pleasant and gave me the opportunity for the first time in life to assist step by step, how organic wine is produced and of this I would like to share a few pictures.

On a large scale it is necessary a bit of mechanization. On the left: the wine press separating the grape from the juice. On the right: the barometer to control the pressure and regulate the fermentation process, that happens between 20 and 30 degrees.

During this experience, though the most interesting thing to observe has been the grape harvesting. Due to the heat wave, that has touched Lipsi in the last days, we needed to harvest the grape in few hours to prevent the fruits to get rotten or spoiled under the sun. Only the interns could have never made it on time. We needed some volunteers and it has been mine and my supervisor’s job to recruit some tourists willing to help. I was positively surprised about the response: in only few hours we could motivate and involve 17 people into the harvesting process. You might wonder…”How did you do that?”. We only talked kindly with them, but can’t deny that using a free, delicious meal as a positive reinforcement helped consistently. The guests came from 9 different countries: Norway, Italy, Greece, Germany, France, England, USA, Canada and Australia. All of them were enthusiastic to give their contribution and worked with us in perfect harmony. The day concluded with a colorful and delicious buffet, in which was my responsibility to create 3 different pasta salad. I decided to keep them exclusively vegetarian, obviously using fresh ingredients from the farm. This gave me also the opportunity, while introducing the dishes to the guests, to spread some information about the benefits of a mainly vegetarian diet rich in fiber on our glucose metabolism. Contrary, how a diet rich in saturated fat and animal protein (overall from red meat) increases the risk of colon and stomach cancer.

I wondered, what could have motivated all those people to take part in such a hard work during their vacation time, generally associated with “pure relax”. My first impression was, that such an experience might be appealing because happens for some once in a life time and might represent a completely different reality compared to the one, in which many of them live in, such as a city like Milan, Toronto, Paris or New York. Moreover, being active and “do something” instead of lying all day on the beach might have been further motivation. Thus, my curiosity pushed me to have a conversation with few of the guest, with the aim of getting a better understanding of it. As Steinar Kvale explains in his book “Doing Interviews”, individuals tend to open up to the interviewer, when feeling comfortable and at ease. Therefore, I decided to “act” while eating and took advantage of the relaxed setting and friendly environment, situation to gain the information, I was looking for. I talked with 5 people and the findings were as follows:

1 on 5 participates to get a free meal 

2 on 5 felt compelled to help

3 on 5 were excited to experience and learn something new

4 on 5 identified the experience as funny and a great opportunity to get in touch with nature 

5 on 5 wanted to meet new people and did it to “be together” and feel part of a group

Those results emphasize the importance for individuals to satisfy the 3 basic psychological needs expressed also in the self-determination theory, that contribute to personal well-being:

competence

autonomy

psychological relatedness

Moreover, “being healthy” is not only related to physiological factors, our level of physical activity or our diet, but from a more holistic view, it concerns a state of mind and being happy itself. Happiness is hard to define scientifically, but it is proved to be a “chemical” internal reactions, in which hormones such as serotonin, dopamine and endorphin are directly involved. Reaching happiness is personal and everyone of us has his own way to reach it and discharge the daily stress, that is one of our worse enemy, in regard to cardiovascular disease overall. Though, some common patterns appear to be beneficial for human being and reconnecting with nature and with the self is one of them. I please you to have a look on one of my peers’ post, that will explain you in details what happiness is and how to reach it at best.