Wild Women: My grandma’s memories of traditional village life in 1940s Cyprus

My grandma in her garden

Often we get so caught up in everyday life that we forget how varied our human experience on this earth can be.

One of my main motivations for this blog is to explore ways of living that are not driven by the consumerism that dominates our modern world, particularly in the West. Wild plants offer a perfect antidote: they grow abundantly, arrive uninvited, and are totally free yet have amazing health and nutritional benefits. While consumerism says we always need more, the plants that grow around us say we already have all the abundance we need.

With this in mind, I’m launching a new blog series, Wild Women, which records conversations with women who have lived in deep relationship with the land and plants around them.

I’m beginning with my grandmother, who was born in 1936 in the Cypriot mountain village of Pano Pyrgos, before moving to London at the age of 17.

She has always loved flowers - especially bold and colourful ones - so I was keen to learn more about where this love came from.

My grandma has always loved colourful flowers. This is in her garden in north London

It was a pleasure to sit down with her and ask her questions about traditional village life at this time.

Traditional village life in 1940s Cyprus

1) Where did you live?

We lived in a bustling little village in the mountains. My family and I lived in a small stone house with two rooms: one for living and one without windows that was used as a larder to store food.

We would all sleep in the same room. My parents had a bed and us kids would all sleep top to tail on a huge mattress stuffed with seaweed on the floor. I was one of 8, so there was always a large number of children in the house at one time. There would usually be a baby in a hammock above us all, and it was my job to pull at a string to keep them moving through the night. The youngest baby would be in bed with my mother.

We would eat in that same room, and had a table and chairs that we would pull out for mealtimes. We used a herb called 'gondila' to sweep the earthen floor as it would stop the insects from coming.*

2) How did you cook?

Most of the cooking would take place on a pot on top of a fire. We didn't have an oven. We ate delicious food: stew with black eyed beans, chicken or goat meat, with potato, tomatoes and onions. All cooked with delicious herbs, like oregano, and eaten with freshly made bread.

There was a bread oven outside where my mum would cook 23 loaves of bread every 3-4 days. It smelled amazing! We would share it with any neighbour walking past, and they'd eat it with butter.

My dad didn't like fresh bread though, only stale bread. He said the fresh bread made him feel bloated. He would often swap our fresh bread for the neighbour's stale bread as he preferred it!

For breakfast we would have toast with olives. My mum could make toast on top of the bread oven.

We usually only ate meat on Sundays. Even our goubebia (vine leaves filled with rice) were made without meat, but with lots of herbs - they were tasty!

We didn't have sweets so we would enjoy dried figs. We would dry these in the sun and then store them in a barrel. Under the pressure of the weight they'd get lovely and sticky.

We also enjoyed the syrup from carobs. It was so sweet. They were so delicious that they would be exported by ship to Egypt. Modern carobs don't seem to create so much syrup.

3) What did you do for water?

Accessing water was difficult in the village. There was no running water. We had a number of wells. Often the ones in the village itself were locked to prevent over use so we had to walk further.

We used to filter water for bathing using the ashes from my mum's cooking, which we put in a big aluminium container. When the ashes sank we could use the water. The ashes would then be used to make shampoo and detergent to wash clothes. We also had green soap.

We had a well for drinking water specifically, and we would forage woody thyme to filter the water. The well would dry up in the summer so we would go and camp out in valley - the whole family sleeping beneath the stars. My mum would make a clay bread oven while we were down there. She would also crush garlic to scatter around us when we were sleeping to keep the snakes away.

4) I just had a baby, so I'm interested to know what birth was like in the village?

Children were born at home. We had midwives, but they weren't educated in the modern sense, their knowledge was passed down from woman to woman. I remember my brother George being born but not my other siblings. Us kids weren't present for the birth so I'm not sure how that was done.

After the birth it was our job to collect eucalyptus and another herb called 'lefonia' which was used to make a steam that the women would stand over with a blanket draped round them to help with the healing.* We would get the eucalyptus from a huge bush in our school.

5) What else was done for mothers and babies?

Mothers would drink wine as it was believed that that would help with milk supply. It was of course made with no preservatives.

They would also rub salt on the baby and swaddle it, then give it a bath.

The babies would be carried on my mum's back in a sling made of cotton.

The babies were exclusively breastefed until they were 18 months to two years old, after which time they would be fed flour with water and honey.

Herbs that were used for the children included aniseed, which was boiled to help with colic. My mum would collect the tender shoots of myrtle, dry them into powder to use if the children had nappy rash.

When the baby was weaned then my mother would have another child which is why we were all born roughly 2 years apart.

6) What can you tell me about your parents?

My parents got married when they were 16. My dad was a forester so he was often away but he had a stable income which meant our family was able to open up a tab in the village shop. We had one pig and when its piglets were born we would sell them to pay off the tab.

When my dad came back from being away for work, he would often sing. There was a beautiful song he would sing, it went, “The fish cannot live on the land, nor a flower grow in the sand” - it was about everything belonging in its proper place (we have found it on youtube - click here)

There was a lot of singing in our house - it would be quite common for neighbours to come round and for the men to burst into song.

We had no telephone or radio, so my dad would read the newspaper every day and then summarise the news to my mum as she herself was unable to read.

However, she was the most amazing storyteller and was known for this. Neighbours would gather round to hear her stories. Once a man came to the village to ask who the best storyteller was, he was pointed to my mum. He then wrote down all the stories she had and we think he turned it into a book. She would tell us stories about the stars when we camped under the stars together in the summer.

My mum probably learnt the stories when she was a child as she had been taken in by a rich family in town for a number of years. She had been a very pretty girl and they couldn't have a daughter so they took her in, with the promise of a better life. But in the end she missed her siblings so came home. My brother Tony tracked down this family years later, they were very wealthy.

7) What were celebrations and festivities like in the village?

Christmas and Easter were big celebrations. We would have delicious stew with goats meat, onions, tomatoes and potatoes as well as macaronia. Neighbours would come round to sing and celebrate and of course we would go to church.

At Christmas we wouldn’t get a present though we were given new outfits. When I was a bit older we started putting out a big pine tree and I would decorate it with tangerines (whole, not sliced) and I made decorations out of the foil paper in cigarette packets.

St Basil would come on New Year’s Eve. We would leave a cake called a vasilobita out with a glass of wine for him and our purse so he could bless it. The next day we’d cut the cake and whoever found a coin in their slice would be guaranteed wealth for the next year.

We would get a small present at new year’s, from our parents or godparents.

At Easter we would make flauounes (Greek pastries) and also dye our eggs red either with foraged poppies (the dye wasn’t very strong) or with store bought rizari root (Rubia tinctorum) - this was a much deeper colour.

Name days were marked but birthdays weren’t really. We didn’t get presents for either.

8) How would you heal yourselves when unwell or hurt?

If we were unwell, my mum would warm up some olive oil and rub it on our neck then cover it with sheep's wool. This was really effective. We'd also have sage and mint tea, or tea made from dried oranges. If we got stung we would use marshmallow leaves to sooth ourselves.

We also used cupping in the village, to help draw the toxins out. We stopped doing all of this in the UK though as we got access to modern pharmaceuticals. I still continued this for a while when I moved to London.

9) What was life like for you as children?

I had a lot of fun, playing with my siblings and with my friends in the village.

I was at school from the age of 5 until 11 which was very common for a girl.

After that, us girls helped our mums look after younger children, collect firewood and also warm water with grain to give to the animals.

When I was a bit older I took a job where my auntie was working helping to break up stones - but as I was underage I was told not to come back!

I had lots of friends, mostly girls. Us girls weren't allowed in the sea though the boys were!

10) When you think back to your life in the village, what are your thoughts? Is there anything we can learn from traditional village life?

We had a lovely life in many ways. I was very close to my family and loved being together with my siblings and friends. I loved this and missed it terribly when I moved to the UK.

As children we mostly played, but I can see now that it was also a very hard life for the adults - very physical. We were grateful for the modern conveniences when we moved to London.

It was also tough emotionally at times, My mother sadly lost three children. I remember the youngest; his name was Xaralambos (Harry in English). He was five and died suddenly from a problem with his heart.

My siblings and I were very young at the time. We ran to beach where his footsteps were still in the sand so we put stones around to preserve them, but of course they were washed away. He has stayed in our heart.

11) What was it like coming to London?

I was 17 when I came to London. We had to get the train and the boat - it took a week! It was the first time I had really left the area around my village.

I remember when we stopped off at Geneva. A couple of girls from the village and I walked around the station and meanwhile the train moved to another platform. We had such a panic when we couldn’t find it- we had no idea what we would do! Luckily our guide found us.

I had one brother, Tony, who was already in London and when I first arrived I lived with my aunty. It was hard at first as I couldn’t speak the language. But after a week I had found a job and I enjoyed having my own money for the first time. I was so impressed by the shops in London! My niece and I used to get the train to Marble Arch and go to C&A. We would treat ourselves to biscuits.

My other siblings and parents eventually joined us out here and we all built lives here. My dad continued to miss the mountains and forest though. They were a long way from Islington.

11) Lastly, this blog is called Love Wild Plants - I know you’ve always loved colourful flowers and your garden always looks amazing. Did any of the native plants growing wild or cultivated in the village stimulate your love of flowers?

Yes, absolutely. My mum and I shared a love of flowers. I would pick marigolds at my aunty’s house and put them in a tin of water.

I would also go down to the river where the wildflowers grew and put them in food containers.

The main wildflowers I remember were poppies, gladiolis and mallow in particular. In the mountains there was a lot of broom, and cistus. Myrtle and oregano would grow everywhere. We also had wild anenomes.

I also loved stocks, basil, oregano and southernwood.

The teacher put me in charge of the flower garden at school which I loved! I would water the flowers.

My love of flowers continues to this day, and I love nothing more than sitting outside on a sunny day looking at my garden.

My grandma and I in her garden in London - surrounded by flowers

My concluding thoughts

It was fascinating to sit down with my grandmother and learn about traditional village life in the mountains in Cyprus during the 1940s.

We had a lot of laughs during our chat - particularly when I misheard her as she said that carobs were brought to Egypt by ship, and I heard, wrote down and accepted 'by sheep'. Luckily she proofread my draft!

Her stories show just how deeply rooted traditional village life was in seasonal rhythms and local plants. Everything, from bread to medicine, came from the land.

It was certainly a way of life that was wild in many ways: no running water, no electricity, or mod cons. A lot of love and closeness, especially between the siblings, but also a lot of hard graft and emotional traumas.

The story about her brother dying suddenly was one I had heard before, but I hadn't heard about the children running to the beach to try and preserve his footprints with the stones. That broke my heart and I think that image will stay with me.

It's interesting, because it's a lifestyle so far from that which we have today in the 2020s in the UK. And the lack of consumerism is in many ways refreshing, but equally I acknowledge that we can sometimes have rose tinted glasses about how hard life actually was in the past. That said, it is important to remember where we came from and that excess isn't needed for happiness.

What is clear is that my grandma's love her family has certainly remained through the years, as has her appreciation for beautiful flowers! She has always been an incredibly giving person and understanding where she comes from gives some context to this.

A big thank you to my Yiayia (grandma) for her time, and my Aunty Sally for helping with the translation for this article.

*I have kept the local Greek name of herbs we were unable to identify and translate

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If you’re interested to learn more about people who have lived interesting lives like this, you may be interested to follow my “Wild Women” series. Please do sign up to my newsletter and I will share future interviews of inspiring women who live in relation with the land!