Cipporo

I wanted to pay BarbaYannis for his work taking out the old lemon tree in our garden and planting a new mandarin tree. He took some money to pay for Niko’s digging and for the tree but he didn’t want anything himself.   Yannis is 80 years old and one of the island's few experts on trees, he helps us every year. But I will buy you a beer next time at Taverna Kristina, I said. He shook his head. No beer. Only Cipporo, he said. When he passed the taverna later that week we offered him a glass of the clear white spirit. It was stronger than Ouzo and too foul for me to drink. Yannis told us how it made his leg better, how it helped him get rid of his kidney stones. In the winter he had it with honey and never caught a cold. Barba Yannis seems like a young boy, his eyes are full of energy and mischief and he moves around like he was 50 years younger. He climbs our trees like a squirrel and from the ladder he easily jumps up on the roof. I may have to give the Cipporo another try.

 

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