Another post about shopping in Cyprus

Friday used to be our regular supermarket shopping day.  However, when our sons left home, we didn't need to do a big shop so often. Combining our smaller food requirements with excellent local shops within five minutes' walk of our home means that, in general, we now only go to the Metro supermarket about once every two months.  We also visit the grain/nut warehouse about once a month, for nuts, seeds and coconut. 

The last time we went to the warehouse was right after we returned from the UK, mid-September. We went to Metro early in October. However... we had unexpectedly run out of coffee filters. And I could not find any at the local shops. So, as we needed to get to the nut warehouse last Friday, I suggested we call into Metro as well, but promised I would not do a 'big' shop. And we also called by the Achna open-air stall where crates of various fruit and vegetables are available at remarkably good prices:

There wasn't a whole lot that interested us, so I picked up a small box of bananas (about 1kg) and one of potatoes (about 1.6kg) for a euro each. Not that great value, but reasonable, and saved me carrying them home the following day.

Then I spotted two lone pineapples, a little battered but smelling just fine. I asked how much, and was told they were one euro. Since they were a euro each at the main Achna shop, I said we'd get them. I love fresh pineapple, and thought I might dehydrate some, or even experiment with freezing some pineapple.  The woman who serves at the stall speaks no English, and my Greek is extremely basic... but another man appeared, with the usual excellent English of Cypriots, and explained that the pineapples were part of a 'two for €1.50' deal, so that I could choose any of the other crates nearby for 50c. I opted for some peaches which, when I weighed them later, came to about 5kg.  The pineapples weighed around 1kg each.

So we paid a total of €3.50 for nearly 10kg fresh produce:

Next stop was Metro. Richard had to pop into a friend's office, so I went around the whole store, just in case there were any special offers, or other things we might need in addition to the coffee filters. I did remember dried milk (which helps home-made yogurt to thicken), and raspberry and green tea (which we can't get anywhere else, and which I like very much)... and I also spotted some special offer washing-up liquid, carob syrup and kitchen roll. 

And, following on from something my friend Sheila did recently, I weighed my purchases from Metro too. We paid approximately €15 for this lot, which weighed a measly 2kg: 

Last stop was the nut warehouse. We bought around 1kg almonds, 1kg walnuts, and 1.6kg cashews. We eat these for breakfast, and I cook with cashews from time to time. There are also quite a few pre-packaged bags of produce, mostly quite small but also rather inexpensive.

So I also picked up 1 bag of raisins, 2 bags of sunflower seeds, 2 bags of flaxseeds, 3 extra bags of walnuts, 4 bags of brazil nuts, and 6 bags of coconut.  Which makes me sound a bit like The Very Hungry Caterpillar...

The nut warehouse bill was much the highest, a little over €53 for a total of 6.5kg produce:

I had not used my dehydrator since the previous weekend, but with plenty of fruit to experiment with, I set it going again and enjoyed the fruit-drying aroma through the day:

I also cooked large quantities of peaches - each one just cut into wedges after removing the stone, and put in a pan with a little water, simmering until soft. I froze some, and we've been eating (and sharing with friends) the rest. They taste a little like canned peaches in juice... they look a bit browner, but (at least in our view) taste even better.