Kyra Maria’s shelf

There is a shelf in the kitchen that nobody else is allowed to touch. On it are the jars of glyko tou koutaliou, spoon sweets: fruit cooked slowly in syrup until it is glossy and whole, served one spoonful at a time on a small plate with a glass of cold water.

Kyra Maria makes them the way she was taught, in the order the island gives her the fruit. Sour cherries in June, from a tree in her sister’s yard. Green figs in August, pricked and blanched three times so they stay firm. Quince in September, grated, with a geranium leaf. And at the very end of the season, bergamot peel, curled into little rolls and threaded on a string to boil.

We put one on the menu as a dessert, for five euros, and it is whatever jar is open. If you are lucky it is the bergamot. If you ask her nicely, and it is late, she might tell you which of her grandchildren eats them straight from the jar.