Lemnos’s fertile land and centuries’ tradition have contributed to the creation of products of exceptional quality, high nutritional value and exquisite taste.

In the Lemnian cuisine, but also in parts of mainland Greece and even abroad, one will find kalathaki (PDO), melipasto/melichloro and kaskavali cheese, tsipouro, a wide variety of wines, salted pork or kavourma, a special wheat flour from mavragani grain, aspromytika beans, flomaria, herbs and many other Lemnian products – the treasures of a place that freely hands its riches to residents and visitors alike.

Today, increasing competition from an international system of mass production and consumption undermines the productive prospects of remote areas characterized by small, but quality, production, such as Lemnos.

Recognizing the problems and twists created by this exogenous condition, the Terra Lemnia project seeks to find ways to valorise and promote several quality products of Lemnos – both by mobilizing a wide network of local stakeholders and by carrying out as series of supportive activities:

• An expert team has undertaken a market analysis for selected local products, carrying out interviews with key local stakeholders. The results of this preliminary work have been presented in an open stakeholder workshop in September 2019. Further work is planned to take place in the following months, aiming to translate the results of the market analysis into a set of coherent proposals for certification and valorisation of selected products produced with biodiversity and landscape friendly ways.

• Agricultural University of Athens and University of Aegean are jointly researching the nutritional value of selected products, carrying out dedicated lab analyses of samples (crop landraces and milk) provided by collaborating practitioners across the island. Melipasto cheese sampling has also begun recently, in a process which combines laboratory analysis with organoleptic (tasting) control.
• The Agricultural University of Athens has been providing technical assistance to local stakeholders to inscribe Lemnian crop landraces in the National Register of the Ministry of Agriculture. Further work is underway, in collaboration with Anemoessa, and collaboration is being sought with the National Reserve of Plant Genetic Resources.
• Anemoessa, AUA and MedINA, supported by local stakeholders, are working to inscribe ‘melichloro/melipasto’ cheese at the National Inventory of Intangible Heritage of the Ministry of Culture. The team is currently waiting for the final approval of the application by the Ministry.