Spyros Panagiotiakis is standing in front of a box filled with plant seeds, and he's thrilled. Black tomatoes, yellow watermelons, yellow beans and slender eggplants are filed in countless paper bags. It's like the Garden of Eden for the man from Crete.

"Nature is generous enough to offer us these plants," he said. "We must do everything we can to preserve this wealth."

Annual bazaar

To this end, the "Pelitis" association - a group aiming to preserve biodiversity - organizes a major swap meet each year in central Greece, where people can exchange indigenous plant seeds.

The association has its work cut out. Greece is home to some of the greatest biodiversity in Europe, but animal and plant species there are still continually dying out.

One of the most damaging effects to flora and fauna occurred in the 1960s. That's when farmers began using "high-powered" seeds and started neglecting regional species, agricultural scientist Giorgos Daoutopoulos said. "But now, we're fighting to preserve local diversity."

Such determination also reflects foresight: if large areas are always cultivated with the same type of crops and the plants became diseased, then entire harvests would be in danger.

Visitors are a diverse bunch

Many of the people who visit the "seed bazaars" are actually families - parents who want to teach their children about eating healthy foods.

"When I was little, we chopped tomatoes, we could smell them through the whole house," said one man from Thessaloniki. "Nowadays, even if we find tomatoes with a lot of flavor, they still don't smell like anything."

Panagiotiakis, meanwhile, is searching for a particular variety of peas. He has already collected a bunch of little seed-filled bags and is pleased with his finds. The plants that will grow from these seeds will reproduce unlike the annual hybrids you buy in stores, he said.

Hybrid seeds often make consumers dependent on major companies since the seeds have to bought again and again, Panagiotiakis added.

Surprises from nature

Stelios Mihelakis, another visitor to the bazaar, said he is taking home a bag full of hope. At the flea market, he's discovered fava beans, tomato seeds and disease-resistant chick peas from the Cyclades island of Amorgos.

They are just some of the many types of plant seeds at the swap meet, said Panagiotiakis, adding that nature is so diverse even bazaar regulars still discover new things.

"A 90-year-old woman who farms in a Cretan village gave me these beans," he said. "No one is familiar with this kind."

To rectify that, Panagiotiakis gave the beans to as many people as possible.

"If something were to happen to my plants, then this species will still survive," he said.

Author: Alkyone Karamanolis (als)

Editor: Sean Sinico