Ranch'S traditional educational village is already approved by the Ministry of Education. Guests of the Ranch -kids and adults- can visit a thematic park specially designed and dedicated to old professions that have been disappeared in our time. A retro nostalgic touch where elders remember and young must learn.
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Here our little friends have a chance to see old machinery used to produce a staple of their diet: flour from grain. Inside the mill are:
- the sieve that separates and isolates impurities from grains.
- the cutter through which the grain is passed and thus follows the final grinding
- the final grinding of the grain taking place in the millstones
In our traditional village there is also a traditional olive press. In it one can see all the individual machinery needed to produce oil. Similar olive presses were scattered across our country in small or large groves in order to serve local communities.
Students have the opportunity to see:
- Millstones grind the fruit of the olive tree and turn it into a gooey mass, called the 'trappings'.
- The mixture is then taken and put into the press in special cloth envelopes, called 'Moutafis'.
- 'Moutafis' are placed at the “screw” where manually the mixture is compressed and then hot water is added, resulting in oil mixed with water.
- Finally, the mixture is placed in the 'splitter' which separates the water from the oil.
In the past, besides of all obligations of the house women also had to weave household items for their every-day use such as bedding (rugs) and blankets to warm their families or the dowry (mainly material goods) for their children on hand looms
There was a ceremony where all women gathered together and sang. All of this needs to be seen by our little friends by recreating those years which were full of hardship but were also so unique.
Watch the procedure of the making of cheese step by step at the Prototype Cheese Factory with modern production facilities.
The above program has already been put up on the website of the Ministry of Education in the portal e-yliko so that teachers can arrange educational field trips to The Ranch.
Another profession that has all but disappeared is that of the cobbler, who people of former times visited regularly to repair soles or shoe-heels instead of buying new pairs.
In this area, we’ve re-created the traditional cobbler's shop with the machines and utilitarian objects from traditional shoe-makers.
One more shop is the barbershop, which contains those items that were essential for the barber of times not so long ago.
In a beautiful wooden house we have created a traditional grocery store with items like old scales, coffee roasting machine, posters, and old products that make it authentic. There, the children learn what the old neighborhood grocery store was like, the very place where the people that lived in difficult times bought only the essential daily commodities
Walk through the Farm & Stables. See from up close & tend to 25 horses and ponies of different breeds, cows, wild pigs, goats, sheep, deer, and roe deer.
Watch the process of shoeing and milking various animals such as cows, goats and sheep.
