Overuse of plastic in Cyprus

At the end of the catch-up post I wrote last week, I mentioned that Cyprus was supposed to be reducing the amount of plastic used. It's such a problem here that I think this topic is worthy of a post in its own right.  Plastic bottles and some cartons are recycled here; I just put out our last month's worth of paper and 'PMD' (plastic, metals, drinks) recycling, before starting this post, and was struck by the irony that we have to place our items in designated non-recyclable plastic bags....

Whatever people think of the problems of global warming and wherever they stand politically, I don't think there's any doubt that we humans use far too much unnecessary plastic. A lot of it ends up in the sea, and causes serious damage to marine life. If you haven't seen the stories (and some horrific images) then a quick online search for 'marine life plastic' (or similar) should set the scene.

One issue which recently hit the news is the over-use of plastic straws. When we were in the UK recently I looked for paper straws, which I remember from my childhood, but could not find them. There are some available at vast price online, but mostly intended for parties, with bright patterns and colours.  They did not appeal. I've seen re-usable straws made of metal or silicon, but am a tad dubious about the difficulties of washing them sufficiently between uses.

We don't use straws in the winter, but in the summer I make frappés rather than hot coffees after lunch, and we like to drink them through straws.  I was wondering if we could learn to drink them without straws at all, when I came across an article online about a restaurant which had started using straws made of pasta.  When we were in Metro I checked what was available - we don't cook pasta, other than wholegrain spaghetti and the occasional lasagne, so I had not previously looked - and found that long macaroni was available. It was even on special offer.  Sealed in plastic, of course... but still, we thought it worth trying.

The weather has been hot, so we've been drinking frappés for the past couple of weeks now, and have become quite accustomed to these longer-than-usual but very effective straws:

We can't decide if there's a slight taste to them or not. It's not a problem, anyway, and even though we have to throw them away after each use (we tried rinsing them out but they cracked and couldn't be used again) they are biodegradable.  If a family who eats this kind of pasta used them, they could probably rinse them out and store them in the freezer until there were sufficient to cook for a meal, and that would be even more efficient.

One of the biggest uses of plastic used to be the flimsy carrier bags given away by supermarkets. I say 'used to be...' because in most of Europe there are now charges for carrier bags; customers are encouraged to bring their own, either stronger re-usable plastic ones, or those made of cloth.  I recall a bit of negative muttering about it when this was first introduced in the UK, but most people are reasonable, and if nothing else could see that it costs something to produce each plastic bag.

In Cyprus, however, we tend to lag behind most of mainland Europe.  At the end of 2010 when Lidl supermarkets first came to the island, they were unusual in not giving away free carrier bags. We were not in the habit of taking our own at the time, and found this a bit irritating, but realised it was reasonable. We bought some of their heavy-duty carriers, and once or twice bought the inexpensive ones. We only went there rarely, at first, anyway.

Almost a year ago, Cyprus was warned that it should do something about the immense amount of plastic wastage. We read that a 5 cent charge on carriers would be imposed from 1st July 2018, and that in January supermarkets could introduce a 2 cent charge, to help customers become used to the idea. We decided to make more of an effort, so it's now become a habit to take cloth bags with us either to supermarkets or the local fruit shop.

I don't know what can be done about the small produce bags which are used in the fruitarias.  Here's a typical few euros' worth of fruit and veg:

I don't put everything in produce bags, but when buying - for instance - apples or oranges, it's important to use either the pink, green or blue bags because they're a code for the cashiers, to establish which aisle they're from. I use a lot of 'pink bag' produce, in the reduced section of the shop.  Even if that were not a problem, it would be impossible for them to weigh everything separately if I simply piled my selection into a trolley without bagging items separately.

However, even reducing the main carrier bags should make a difference.  We assumed that when the shops opened after the New Year break, they would have a two cent charge for carriers. But January came and went, and carrier bags were given away just as they had been before. Cashiers no longer started putting things in carriers automatically, or not so readily - but perhaps that's because they got used to us, and some of our friends, taking our own bags.

In the UK, prior to the introduction of the charge for plastic bags, a lot of the supermarkets ran promotions on 'bags for life', and cloth bags with logos. We haven't seen any of those here, until - as mentioned in the previous post - we saw an advert in Metro for trolley bags.  They seem to fit any large trolley and we think they're a great idea. So here's another photo of them in use:

Cutting down on plastic is a slow process. Each family who adopts a cloth bag or non-plastic straw may feel as if it makes no difference; but, as is oft-repeated, the ocean is made up of tiny drops of water.

If anyone has other recommendations for cutting down on unnecessary plastic, feel free to leave a comment.  

Another empty Cyprus shop

Last November, I wrote about the increasing number of empty shops that were appearing in our neighbourhood. This was long before the dramatic banking crisis that hit the international headlines in March - the economy of Cyprus has been going downhill for a long time.

I was, however, encouraged to note (back in November) that a recently-closed fruit shop close to where we live seemed to have re-opened as a mini-market:

I did visit it once or twice, although I can't say I was very impressed. There didn't seem to be much choice, and the prices weren't great. And then I didn't really think about it... until I noticed that it, too, had closed down:

I'm not surprised, although I didn't think the owners would discover quite so quickly that yet another mini-market simply wasn't viable. But perhaps they simply didn't attract any customers.

People still need to buy groceries, and our favourite supermarket (Metro) seems to be doing well, as is the excellent fruit shop (Achna) which I visit at least three times per week. I just hope they continue to do so... 

Sunrise on Thanksgiving... and bountiful vegetables

It was almost exactly at 7.00am this morning, on my regular walk with my friend Sheila, that I caught this sunrise: 

7.00am Cyprus time is, as far as we could tell, midnight in the furthest ahead (time-wise) States of the US. So, Thanksgiving was, technically, just starting at that moment. 

After the walk, I went to the fruitaria to pick up a few more fruits and veggies.  We celebrated Thanksgiving for the past two years with our American friends Mark and Joan, but suggested they come to us this year. Along with some other mutual (British) friends.  Joan told me that one of the highlights of Thanksgiving for her was doing at least some cooking, and she's certainly produced a feast in the past... so she asked me if I would please allow her to buy and cook at least one or two items. She then told me she was bringing meat, devilled eggs, and a pie. 

So... all that leaves is, basically, some veggies for me to cook.. right? 

I took a look at the previous years' photos, and saw that there were quite a few veggies. I queried butternut squash, not something I have ever cooked. I might have bought one to experiment, but there were only two pieces at the fruitaria, and they looked very tired and manky... so I didn't. I had bought a few things earlier in the week, but when I piled all the veggies for tonight on the counter, it seemed like a little too much for just six people:

Still, some of the salad veg will be for a salad for tomorrow night's cell group, so I won't use ALL those  items.  

Joan had mentioned that they sometimes have dinner rolls. I'm not entirely sure what those are, but it was easy enough to throw some ingredients into the breadmaker after lunch, and put it on dough setting. I then divided the dough into 24, put it on little muffin pans to shape and rise... and they should be ready to cook around the time I finish this post. 

I saw that Joan made stuffing one year. We usually put stuffing inside a roast bird, but with just six of us, it's turkey breast, and not being cooked here anyway. But I do like our son's mushroom-and-lemon stuffing, so I made a batch and will bake it in the oven later on: 

I couldn't find any fresh cranberries - I suppose they won't appear until about mid-December, but we did have some dried ones. So I found a recipe to make cranberry sauce from those. It won't be quite the same, but I hope it tastes reasonably good: 

In recognition of it being Cyprus,  also bought some halloumi to fry, and some feta to put on the salad: 

I've thawed some frozen stewed plums, and made some fresh yogurt, and put some dried fruit on a platter. 

So, as far as it goes, I'm well prepared. I've made a list, and figured out where everything will go while cooking, but it seems to me that everything's going to happen pretty much in the last hour before our guests arrive.  I did very little this morning, and only about half an hour of preparation in total after lunch. 

I suppose I should go and make the salad, and cut up at least some of the vegetables... 

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.  

Twelve kilograms of lemons..

We were running various errands (as they say in the US) on Monday, and I wanted to go to the fruitaria. Richard suggested we take the car, although I didn't think I wanted all that much. And, indeed, I could easily have walked home with the two carrier bags of produce I bought, even including some more walnuts and eggs.  I had hoped to buy a 3kg bag of lemons (in the one-euro bags) but although there were tomatoes, apples and more ready-bagged at this price, the only lemons were at the regular price of about 40c/kg, and did not look that great. I needed to make some more lemonade, but knew we had some frozen pith and juice in the freezer, so I wasn't going to pay full price for rather dreary looking lemons. 

Then, on the way out, we paused by the large crates of fruit and vegetables that were sitting outside the shop, piled high. There were some very good lemons, there, but the label '1.70' was attached to the crate. Surely they could not be charging 1.70 euro for a kilogram of lemons..?

As we pondered, I wondered if - at the other extreme - they could be charging 1.70 for the entire crate. Richard popped back into the shop to ask, and it turned out that this was the case. So we said we would have some. We didn't get to keep the crate - instead the lemons were poured into a large, dustbin-sized pink sack:

As soon as we got home, Richard weighed them on our bathroom scales. There were 12kg of lemons in the sack! 

I set to work to make a batch of lemonade using about 15 of the lemons, then decided to spread the rest out on a table, so that they would not get damp and go bad. Here are most of them: 

Yesterday, I chose about forty of the nicest looking ones, washed them well, and then used the potato peeler to remove the pith, freezing it in four little bags. Then I used the juicer attachment of our food processor to squeeze .. .and squeeze... and squeeze. So much juice. There were four more litres of juice which I froze in litre containers. This means that we now have plenty of frozen pith and juice for the summer, when lemons are out of season. 

I also froze two more ice-cube trays of 'lemon cubes', which we use in hot honey and lemon drinks, or when a recipe requires just a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. 

I still had four left over. 

A plethora of inexpensive tomatoes in Cyprus

Yesterday morning, I went to Achna Fruitaria. I wanted to buy some oranges, and a couple of sweet potatoes. I also thought I would get some bananas, since Tim has now gone back to the UK. Oh, and I wanted a few cherry tomatoes for lunch.

As always, I looked at the special offers. I noticed that amongst the pre-bagged produce for a euro, there were some cherry tomatoes. I shook my head inwardly.. we would never get through that many, even if they were a remarkably good deal. I did pick up a bag of regular tomatoes, also at a euro, however. I find them hard to resist.

However, when I looked at the ordinary cherry tomatoes, they were something like 3.79 per kilogram. I only wanted about 250g, if that... but it suddenly occurred to me that it would be far better value to buy the huge euro bag, even if we ended up throwing half of them away. And they looked to be fairly good quality.

So I staggered home with, in all, about 14kg produce (which cost me a grand total of just over 7 euros). I put all the tomatoes straight in the fridge.

Today, I thought I should sort through the cherry tomatoes, throwing out any that had gone bad, and selecting the best ones for eating. I was surprised at how many good ones there were, and chose quite a few - nearly a kilogram of them - which we can eat over the next few days:

Even more surprising, none of them were bad, or mouldy. Quite a few had split, some were a little squashy, and some had slightly brown skins, but they all smelled good. So I thought I might as well boil them quickly to produce juice, and then freeze them for future use. There were this many in the saucepan:

.. and after simmering for a few minutes and cooling, I froze five tubs, each with a little over 400g tomatoes - the equivalent of one medium sized can:

Then I looked at the large tomatoes I had also bought. I kept a few out to bake, then cleaned, chopped and simmered the rest of those too. Those eventually made NINE tubs, again at a little over 400g each:

And that would have been fine, except that when I opened the vegetable drawer of our large freezer, I realised that I already had six tubs of tomatoes, frozen from previous batches.

So now we have the equivalent of 20 cans of tomatoes in our freezer. They will be useful for making soup, and ketchup, and for general cooking use in the next few months...

But I really must try and resist buying more tomatoes when I see them on special offer!