The Family Bandit

Published on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, by Marisa Churchill / Edit Post

Food did grow on trees, where my grandmother grew up, and it was free for the taking. Vasiliki Boukias—we called her Yaya—spent her childhood in a town on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula called Megalopolis, and even after she moved to suburban Phoenix in the 1980s, Yaya continued her foraging ways as if she were still in Greece. She scoured the neighbors’ yards, and every night my family would sit down to a dinner that included freshly cured olives from the Smiths’ tree, or steamed greens harvested from the Joneses’ flower bed.

The principles of property lines and rightful ownership were irrelevant to her. “Why I no take it?” she’d ask in her jumble of Greek and English when my mother tried to steer her toward lawfulness. “They no going to eat horta [dandelions], they think it’s a bad weed, and the olives are falling to the floor, a waste!” Even more valued items such as figs and lemons were justified. “No, no, they have too many!” she’d declare. “They’re not going to eat all of those tseeka [figs].” Eventually my mother gave up on her attempts to reform my grandmother. She’d just help Yaya stuff the grape leaves, tucking away a bit of guilt with each dolma she rolled.

As a child, my affinity for climbing trees made me the perfect accomplice to Yaya’s larcenous escapades. Several times I was caught dangling from an olive branch as the trees’ owners returned home, my fingers stained a reddish brown from the olive juice.

“Hello, dear,” my grandmother would say to them, smiling sweetly.

You don’t have to forage for grape leaves; you can buy them in stores. Try this recipe for Yaya’s dolmathes.

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  • As a Greek living in Greece i ve found this story really funny. Mainly for the cultural gap think. There is nothing violating perceptions about private property. Any plant or livestock that you may cultivate and you spend money and effort in order to yield fruits is private property. All the rest are not!!!! They are sort of wild life and public available to everyone. Dandellions are not...+READ

    As a Greek living in Greece i ve found this story really funny. Mainly for the cultural gap think. There is nothing violating perceptions about private property. Any plant or livestock that you may cultivate and you spend money and effort in order to yield fruits is private property. All the rest are not!!!! They are sort of wild life and public available to everyone. Dandellions are not cultivated, you just have to "hunt" them here and there. The same can be said for a number of fruits vegetables herbs or animals that are "eatable". Blackberries, for example, snails, oregano, thyme, or figs are perceived as sort of wildlife. Moreover I may kill a wild boar or a hare or a bird even if it takes place inside your farm but this is not a thieft. The dead animal was not yours in any way, it just happened to wander into your farm. On the contrary, if a take your chicken, their eggs or the milk of your cow, it is a thieft. I hope it makes sense. Go Yaya!!!!!-COLLAPSE

  • In East L.A. I have never seen some forage from another persons home... but public spaces (like parks & community centers) are a different story.

    I distinctly remember being a very embarrassed pre-teen as we went to cut Nopal cactus, and gather Quelites, Verdologas or Collards at Elysian Park (the area around Dodger Stadium).

    Ironically (for me) the school where I did my undergrad offered a...+READ

    In East L.A. I have never seen some forage from another persons home... but public spaces (like parks & community centers) are a different story.

    I distinctly remember being a very embarrassed pre-teen as we went to cut Nopal cactus, and gather Quelites, Verdologas or Collards at Elysian Park (the area around Dodger Stadium).

    Ironically (for me) the school where I did my undergrad offered a course in foraging & horticulture... and I returned to my "criminal ways" taking oranges from the research orchards, guavas from the square near the food court.... as well as taking to the hills around the campus for prickly pears and other good stuff.-COLLAPSE

  • I agree all around. I'm all for foraging, I do it myself. But yes, I would like to be asked before someone took something from my yard. I've already warned my husband that when I get my flower beds they will contain many edible and medicinal herbs. And No I wouldn't mind sharing if asked.....

  • "As for the private property issue, some cultures, and I speak knowing only a couple, have a shifting borderline between "mine" and "yours". Perhaps a sin in the "western" moral code, perhaps a leftover from times and places of scarcity, but thus is life in those cultures."

    All well and good, but I spent several years feeling kind of peeved with some neighbors who helped themselves to not one...+READ

    "As for the private property issue, some cultures, and I speak knowing only a couple, have a shifting borderline between "mine" and "yours". Perhaps a sin in the "western" moral code, perhaps a leftover from times and places of scarcity, but thus is life in those cultures."

    All well and good, but I spent several years feeling kind of peeved with some neighbors who helped themselves to not one but TWO sets of hard-to-find (and not inexpensive!) arched bamboo plant supports that they crafted into a trellis for their long beans - one brand new set pinched from my front yard before I'd even had a chance to put them into use, and the other plucked from a planter at season's end. Somehow I don't think they would have taken the same laissez-faire attitude if I'd gone to their house and helped myself to some long beans, either.-COLLAPSE

  • Chorta all the way!! Go Giagia! As for the private property issue, some cultures, and I speak knowing only a couple, have a shifting borderline between "mine" and "yours". Perhaps a sin in the "western" moral code, perhaps a leftover from times and places of scarcity, but thus is life in those cultures. You can see this in the bargainingfor a price in a Middle Eastern market or in the defiance of...+READ

    Chorta all the way!! Go Giagia! As for the private property issue, some cultures, and I speak knowing only a couple, have a shifting borderline between "mine" and "yours". Perhaps a sin in the "western" moral code, perhaps a leftover from times and places of scarcity, but thus is life in those cultures. You can see this in the bargainingfor a price in a Middle Eastern market or in the defiance of a Greek waiter or taxi driver who challenges one's supremacy as the customer. As for giagia , some people where never meant to change, even uprooted and transplanted into the most difficult of soils....-COLLAPSE

  • I'm with Eveh. I live near a Puglian family whom I adore, but I get pissed off when they occasionally take things from my yard. I am every much a forager as they are and I use what I grow, and what I find on my property. That said, I guilted her after she took one of my prize fennel bulbs and we now share pretty much everything - but we don't pick without asking...

  • Yasou!!

    I have recently experienced this for myself, with my husband and I buying a house in the middle of a Greek community in a little sea side town

    Nic says "In this street, 37 families all from same village in Samos... No from Greece, too many peoples in Greece.. No from all Samos, Just one village"

    I am LOVING it!!! So far I have been given olives and lemons and cucumbers and peppers and...+READ

    Yasou!!

    I have recently experienced this for myself, with my husband and I buying a house in the middle of a Greek community in a little sea side town

    Nic says "In this street, 37 families all from same village in Samos... No from Greece, too many peoples in Greece.. No from all Samos, Just one village"

    I am LOVING it!!! So far I have been given olives and lemons and cucumbers and peppers and bread and home made wine... We're even getting help building our own outdoor wood-fired oven.

    If any of our local Yaya's want to harvest my dandelions or help themselves to my figs, I am all for it.

    The sense of community it engenders is well worth it and the benefits of the gifts of local produce and tips with recipes FAR outweigh the "theft" of an occasional lemon or apricot!!!-COLLAPSE

  • I think most people would be willing to share if they are asked nicely. I would take offence if my next door neightbor came over and took my creole tomatoes without asking. I treasure every one of these little beauties and usually will use them all. None ever go to waste...I use them green and ripe. I would share, but don't take without asking, please. Good manners, make good neighbors.

  • I'm with Yaya on this one!

  • My giagia picks an insain amount of horta..and guess who has to clean them!!! we have our own lemon trees but unfortunatly no olive trees in Montreal.. was nice to read this story and i think it's so important to take time and cook with our giagiades..so we can pass down family traditions and learn all their secrets

  • Usufruct forever! No one will miss those dandelions, and those who are able and willing to cure the olives their neighbours cannot (or will not) should have them. As for less labour-intensive, more desireable items (like the tangelos in my Phoenix grandmother's backyard), another issue comes up for me: shouldn't there be a sense of community such that neighbours feel like they can share the...+READ

    Usufruct forever! No one will miss those dandelions, and those who are able and willing to cure the olives their neighbours cannot (or will not) should have them. As for less labour-intensive, more desireable items (like the tangelos in my Phoenix grandmother's backyard), another issue comes up for me: shouldn't there be a sense of community such that neighbours feel like they can share the things that grow on their property? My grandmother's neighbours take her tangelos and she feels welcome to their limes. Go Yaya, go!-COLLAPSE

  • Too bad Marisa was such a putz on Top Chef...

  • So sad to live in a world where Yaya's not right...