Moring Gail, from a sunny Cyprus..but cold!

Chickens free range...mostly no they are not!!! but they taste a lot better than the UK battery farmed hens, most chickens here to have a half decent life,I do get free range eggs though, locally that is in our village, pigs are mostly free rage here and the meat is just about the best we have ever had, we have a small pig almost next door being fed up for Easter, we all give him all our veg waste, he looks well on it, even if his life will be a short one, he is as happy as a pig in muck!! honestly.

Beef here we feel is poor generally, so steaks are only fair and need the sources they nearly always give you, you can buy Irish beef here but it is very expensive, most of us stick to the fantastic pork here, most of this is free range and you can tell, it is also VERY cheap!!..

My mouth is watering now for Pork Souvlaki. Roll on June 8th.

Hi it's me again,

can someone please confirm that there is no battery production in Cyprus?

Gail

I think I have answered this Gail...not to my knowledge, but if there are they are never advertised.

There are butchers shops mostly in villages that sell only free rage chickens and eggs, I have used them in the past but I find the chickens in supermarkets are good, I always buy eggs from my ex-pat neighbour, still warm when we get them..

Eggs in Cyprus are the best you will ever taste - beautiful bright yellow yokes with a lovely taste - I can't comment whether there is any battery farming, certainly haven't seen any but I always manage to buy free range when I visit and carefully sneak half a dozen back home with me together with some of their beautiful tomatoes. I don't know if you have ever tasted Cyprus pototoes but if not you are in for a real treat. I am lucky enough to have a local greengrocer in the UK who is able to supply these virtually all year round - there isn't a spud like them!

And you can't get better than Cyprus spuds in Cyprus when they have only come from up the road !.. one of biggest food surprises we had on our first visit. We had an idea about the beautiful stews, souvlaki etc but hadn't even thought about the humble potato- I spent the 2 weeks asking for my meals with a jacket spud rather than chips etc...

mouth watering now...

better start saving my pennies again.....

can someone please confirm that there is no battery production in Cyprus?

But even if there is no battery production in Cyprus you would also need to know whether any imported chicken is ever served. Supermarket chickens are so cheap because a lot of them are imported from countries where the welfare regulations are much more 'relaxed' ie less onerous and making production cheaper. The situation can be even worse with prepared chicken products - look closely at the packaging of many ready meals in supermarkets in the UK and there's a good chance that it will say that it was prepared in the UK from meat imported from the Far East. The real issue is not whether there is any battery production in Cyprus but whether or not any imported chickens are sold. Unless it comes with a guarantee that it is free range and/or locally produced then you shouldn't rely on any chicken served up being free range even if all the local production is.

SM