Salt Lake, a pot-bellied pig and a continuing shopping challenge.

Yes, it's almost half-way through January. After quite a slow December, and a very leisurely week after Christmas, January seems to be racing by. 

The Salt Lake, rain and a few flamingoes

The Salt Lake, which was empty for many months, started filling up in December when there was more rain than usual. Sadly it made little difference to the reservoirs, but the Salt Lake, which isn't very deep, did eventually look like a lake again:

January started dry, but then we had quite a lot of rain a few days ago, leading to puddles in many of the streets (despite much better drainage than in the past, since the installation of sewers under the roads). 

The flamingoes returned, although not in the thousands as we had seen in previous years. Those pink dots are a row of flamingoes, which can be seen better if you click to enlarge the photo:

The Salt Lake pig

In May last year, when Sheila and I were returning from an early morning walk, we were astonished to see a pig that looked as if it was happily grazing on some very dry ground:

Sheila posted about it on Facebook, and learned that it had apparently been abandoned some time previously. The whole neighbourhood, she was told, was trying to take care of it. 

We saw it again, from time to time, usually when we weren't expecting it. Then in December, it started walking along the Salt Lake trail. It seemed very friendly, almost as if it were a dog:

It's clear that many people are feeding it, not just scraps but things like whole apples and carrots. Sometimes it looks rather bedraggled, after the rain, but it trots along, sniffing the ground, and stops to greet people when it can. I can't say I'm entirely happy about being snuffled by a somewhat grubby pig's snout, and it's fairly heavy. So when a large puddle stopped it from coming to say hello a few days ago, I wasn't too upset...

Pigs are supposedly highly intelligent, and this one (according to Google lens) is a variety of pot-bellied pig. I don't know if it would be happier living in someone's back garden, but it's not something we would be willing to take on, even if we had a suitable space. And it seems contented enough.

Shopping challenge, continued

In my previous post, I wrote about trying to buy only fresh produce during January. However I quickly realised that I would also need to buy dried products, such as nuts and seeds, and also fruit juice. We could, of course, have gone without all the above. But I'm not going to put a random challenge ahead of nutrition, and we think it's important to have a healthy breakfast. When we're in Cyprus, we both eat primarily nuts, fruits and seeds at breakfast, with most of mine in the form of home-made muesli. 

Last Friday I bought more fruit and veg at the froutaria, first thing: 

And later, we drove to the small store that we call the 'nut shop', though it's known by friends as the 'grain warehouse', and no doubt other people have other names for it. We had run out of almost all the kinds of nut that we eat, other than cashews. We go there every six or seven weeks, and buy pretty much the same thing every time:

The last time we went we paid a little over 60 euros; this time I was slightly startled to see that it came to 72 euros. I know prices are creeping up, and we did buy more walnuts than last time. I suppose 12 euros per week isn't too bad for significant protein sources for two people. 

And yes, everything other than the peanuts comes in single-use plastic bags. This started during Covid; before that we could scoop many more things into paper bags. It's not ideal, but it's very convenient, and much easier to store in the fridge. 

Then on Monday I bought another similar selection of fruit and veg:

I also bought some cartons of grape juice and some toilet rolls at the associated discount mini-market over the road from the fruitaria. 

In one sense it's a bit of a pointless 'challenge' only to buy fresh fruit and veg, although I realise the point of it is to use up what we have already. I'm making a note of things that I would normally be buying (I'm down to my last bag of wholewheat cake flour, for instance), and will buy extra in February, or before that if I decide it's necessary. 

But in another sense, it's made me more aware of the ultra-processed products that have made their way subtly into our household. On Monday I wanted to make a quick sweet and sour cheese. In the past, I have used commercial 'fasting' (dairy-free) cheese (or 'cheeze') from the fruitaria. It has quite a good texture and colour, but almost no useful nutrients. And, like many vegan products, sadly, it also has ultra-processed additives. 

I know that in the UK there are a wide variety of dairy-free cheese substitutes, some of which are very tasty, and probably have healthier ingredients, too. But there's not a lot of choice here in Cyprus. 

So this time I made some sliceable 'cheeze', based on a recipe I'd found in several other places, but without the nutritional yeast which gives me a migraine.  It tasted fine, it sliced and chopped well, and I was able to use more of it when I made dairy-free spanokopita yesterday. 

Then I had to think about dairy-free milks. I have been buying Koko brand coconut milk and Oatley brand oat milk, both at reasonable prices, since early last summer. I bought some initially for when I was away, and then because it was too hot to spend much time in the kitchen. And then out of habit and convenience...

We're down to our last two litres in the cupboard, so I decided I would make dairy-free milks again. I remembered to soak some cashews on Sunday, and then on Tuesday made both cashew milk and oat milk: 

I have to admit they're not quite as tasty as the commercial brands when we add them to coffee. But they're quite acceptable. And they're fine in my muesli, or for cooking. They are considerably cheaper to make than commercial equivalents, and free of any additives. 

This morning I happened to see an article about ultra-processed foods on the Which? site. I realise it's nearly a year old, but I tend to trust this site. It does thorough research, as unbiased as possible, and offers practical suggestions, taking into account finances as well as health. According to this, which makes a lot of sense, it's almost impossible to avoid ultra-processed ingredients entirely. Then they list a selection of products where the positive benefits of a food generally outweigh the small amounts of dubious ingredients. 

One of them, I'm glad to see, is Greek yogurt. I make my own bread, muesli, hummus and baked beans (which are four more of the 'okay' products), and it's rare for me to buy pasta sauce. When I do, I ensure all ingredients are natural.  They suggest that commercial plant milks are generally okay too, which is reassuring since I will probably go back to buying them again in the summer. And I'm pleasantly surprised to see that fish fingers are considered acceptable. Not that we eat those (other than when recovering from a stomach bug, when they're the only thing I want), but we do buy breadcrumb-coated fish which is similar, and not something I'm willing to make.