As you know, the Greeks sure loved their food! But they really had to work hard to produce it! Greece was not a great place for farming. Most of Greece was extremely mountainous and hilly, and even the flat plains and valleys were rocky. In fact, only about 20% of Greece could be farmed. And much of that 20% was hillside, which required terrace farming. The Greeks had to make what looked like stairs into their mountainous land to create a flat area. The soil was poor and water was scarce. There were no major rivers flowing through Greece and it only rained in the winter. But the Greeks made the best of it! Because of the small amount of land that they had, they had to produce food that did not take up so much space. They grew fruit and nut trees, olives and grapes. They grew some wheat and barely too, but in order to get enough for their population they had to import it from other places. Greek farming had a lot of animals. Greeks could not have cattle because cows require large, flat places to graze. However, they had chickens, goats, sheep, oxen, mules, donkeys and pigs. The chickens and pigs were used for food, while the oxen, mules and donkeys were used for transportation. Sheep and goats were the most important because they provided clothing and dairy, which were very important for the Greeks. Next time you are having an amazing Greek meal, imagine how hard it would be to get that food in ancient times! But I am sure glad they made the effort! If you want to learn more about the geography of Greek food click here: History Alive! The Ancient World Chapter 25.3 http://historylink101.com/2/greece3/climate-geography.htm Comments are closed.
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Photo used under Creative Commons from Michael Stern