The Strakas family is the only family out of the dozens of sausage makers that existed in the past in Stagiates, Volos, and that has been carrying on the tradition of Pelion sausage since 1850.
According to traditions and the writings of historian Yannis Kordatos, from 1750 to 1850 in Stagiates there was a significant domestic sausage production activity with a significant turnover.
The sausage makers of Stagiakion at the time knew the secrets of sausage production well and passed them down from father to son in a guild, so that the knowledge of the work never left the village. To buy the best animals, they traveled to the livestock markets of Macedonia and Thessaly to choose buffaloes. At that time, plowing in the plains was done with buffaloes, calves, pigs and sheep and goats, which were transported by rail to Volos and from there through the paths to the village.
The Strakas family had enviable export activities since 1850 and sent Pelion sausages in wooden crates to be sold in Alexandria and European countries.
Nikos Strakas, today – the fifth generation of Strakas – dedicated to the art of sausage making, produces various types of sausages that are most suitable for spetzofai, the signature dish of Pelion.
More specifically, his sausages come in the following types: mixed pork and beef, mixed beef and pork with sheep intestine, spicy beef sausages with beef intestine, pork with leek and orange, and finally the strakakia, 5 small sausages on a straw for the kids.
Nikos, a man of great heart, is at his gas station-workshop at 12A Agiou Dimitriou Street, in Agia Dimitriada, all day long, making sausages, developing ideas – the last one that came to fruition was his collaboration with AB Vassilopoulos – and welcoming his customers by treating them to tsipouro and his new experiments – I was treated to a delicious pastroumas.
Next door, his wife serves the customers of the gas station with their own products, but she also promotes local products such as cheeses, honey, tsipoura, trachanades, pasta, halva and of course my favorite tsitsiravla (local pickled vegetables). I promise you that a walk in Strakas will be good for you, because among other things, you will also get a small manual with recipes for delicious Pelion dishes, such as spenzofai, giants, baked potatoes and trachanades, all with Straka sausages!
