Karpathos, although mountainous and wild, has proved to be fertile and offers rich products such as grapes, citrus, olive oil and honey.
Many of the locals are engaged in fishing and so they supply the taverns with skaros, sardines, sarges and vlachs, which are quite popular on the island.
The rich vineyards in northern Karpathos produce excellent grapes, from which their famous wine is produced.
The wine of Karpathos is of excellent quality, delicious and quite different. The most popular is the semi-sweet red wine produced mainly in mountainous Karpathos, Othos and Volada. The most famous varieties of the island are Athiri, Fokiano, but also the Cretan thrapsathiri and the Cycladic donkey.
The Karpathian cheeses have a strong flavor and are an essential element of the diet of the inhabitants. The most popular are the very soft manouli, the armyrotiri cheese, which as its name indicates is a very slow hard cheese, with which the locals usually accompany their pasta and pork.
Honey is a product that housewives of Karpathos often use in their sweets, sesame, xerotigana and baklava. The summer honeys are dominated by thyme, the spring sage and winter ricky.
Salted greens are small herbs usually eaten as a salad. They grow on cliffs among thorns.
The specialty of Karpathian gastronomy is the pasta, pasta like tagliatelle accompanied by the famous sitaka, a dairy product that resembles yogurt.
Cakes are pies with a gender that resembles a kourou. It is filled with myzithra and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Samples of the detailed work of the artistic concern of the Carpathian and its commitment to traditional professions are wood carvings, temples, wise men, ice cubes, furniture, but also handmade shoes (stivans, slippers) which, fortunately, are still kept (mainly) in Olympus.
What still characterizes the island is the female costume (daily and commentary) of Olympus, the kavai and the sakkofoustano.
Remains of old women’s costume – cheberi, tehremi, lights – one finds in advanced women, in Mesochori and mainly, in Spoa.
From the shoes, the “stevania” as remains of the male costume are still preserved by farmers and breeders and are made in Olympus.
Many other types of folk art (dishes, mastrapades) and traditional professions are preserved in individual cases in villages such as Chalkiades (blacksmiths), weavers, baskets.
What is admirable and probably does not exist in such an area elsewhere, is the instrumentalization.
In all the villages, there are people of all ages who make lyres, tsambounas, lutes, violins and most of them are the same organists.
The traditional products of the island, dominated by honey and wine, are sold in the many shops of the island, mainly in the town of Pigadia.
