Farming in Ancient Greece

It's hard work being a farmer's wife, especially here in Attica where the land is rugged and steep. My husband and sons have had to carve land out of the hillsides by hand to make it flat. We call this terracing. We grow mainly grapes on the terraces, which we turn into wine and grow olives that we make into olive oil for cooking and lamp oil. Do you know, some of the richer ladies in Athens use olive oil in their beauty products. I haven't got time for that. I'm up before dawn to get breakfast ready for my husband and boys. Normally we have cheese, olives and barley bread. I would prefer bread made with wheat, but we can't grow it up here, so we grow barley instead. Then, just as the sun is coming up, we see to the animals we keep. Our goats have to be kept happy, so we feed them first, then milk them. They give us a nice creamy milk, which is just right for making cheese. Then we let the chickens out, feed them and collect the eggs. And that's all before breakfast.