Making tsipouro at Portakalia, 1960's

My grandfather was born on Elafonissos, and married Kanella DIAKOPOULOU from Karavas. My father and his siblings were born in Karavas, and grew up in KYTHIRA. My mother is a KANELLI.

I left the village when I was 12 years.

These photo's were taken in the 1960's.

From Helen Tzortzopoulos - Karavas.

Theorthori (Riri) Tzortzopoulos, [far left], and Mami (the midwife) Tzortzopoulos, [seated front], are in the photo, which was taken at Portokalia where Uncle Riri ran the distillery for producing tsipouro every year with a special licence from the local police. The big pots were made of copper and the tsipouro production was an annual ritual - I happened to be there a couple of times - a lot of fun - waiting for those first few drops of pure moonshine to come through.

When Uncle Riri got too old to do the job the "kazania" (the copper pots) were passed on to George Faros from Baggianika who continued the tradition at his place down in Baggianika. Today at Portokalia you can see what is left of the structure - the fire place where the the distillery was set up each time.

I cannot name any of the other people in the photos except perhaps Kyriaka Tzortzopoulos far right in this photo.