Last of the oranges from our orange tree at breakfast. Not that oranges are expensive or difficult to find, though many of the ones that grow along the roadside are, as in the South, really only decorative - sour and seedy. Best bought from the grocery store although, like zucchini in Canada, often given away by those with more than they can use. Friday there was a box of oranges at the door after the meeting inviting people to help themselves.
Local grocery store has mandarins at 22.99 Turkish lira a kilo ($1.05 CAD, €0.72, £0.63). Interestingly our instinctive mental conversion is not to dollars or sterling but to euros as we assess the value of an item. And equally interestingly, the local tendency is to quote a sterling price as an alternative to lira, presumably because Cyprus does have a history as a British colony but the euro came into being in 1999, well after the partition of Cyprus. And in fact the euro has only been in use in the South since January 1, 2008. We were there at the time and turned in our Cyprus pounds (not the same as pounds sterling) in exchange for brand new euros.
Lemons here even more abundant than oranges. Have occasionally made lemon curd in Canada, where the cost of lemons is a significant factor. Here the lemons are free, or nearly so, at this time of year. Only the butter is expensive. As always when making it am struck by the fact that the bright yellow « lemon » colour comes not from the lemon juice or the butter but from the egg yolks - here the free range ones deeply coloured. Nectar of the gods.
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