Green Cyprus

Ingredients:

175g organic muscovado sugar

175ml organic sunflower oil

3 large organic eggs , lightly beaten

140g grated organic carrots (about 3 medium)

100g  organic raisins

grated zest of 1 large orange

175g organic self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

For the Frosting:

175g icing sugar

1½-2 tbsp orange juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with eco-friendly baking parchment.

Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients – when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.

Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.

I hope many readers are now aware of Green Cyprus from the new website and Facebook page. For those who are not, Green Cyprus is a site for everything green, organic and eco-friendly in Cyprus. From green activities, clean beaches, green blogs, chat, recipes and news to a green directory especially for businesses and organisations that offer a green, organic or eco-friendly product or service, the site aims to offer a one-stop-shop for living the green life in Cyprus. The Green Cyprus Facebook page runs in conjunction with the site offering an on-going daily flow of information

Moving on, and with the subject area of change in mind, let’s take a look at an important issue; helping to bring about economic recovery with a green perspective.

Unless you’ve been hiding for the last few weeks, you’ll be all too aware that Troika (ECB, European Commission and IMF) has been in Cyprus unearthing and analysing details about the financial state of the country. Now they’ve left the island and gone off to discuss the amount needed for the bailout, it’s perhaps a good idea to give some thought to the current state of affairs, not just from the point of view of our own finances, but those of the country as a whole. A leading question is “where do we go from here especially when the feeling is that it’s going to get worse?”

It goes without saying that Cyprus will sooner rather than later, need to focus on starting to re-build its economy. We should look at the things we were, and in many ways still are good at, as this will ultimately help us ensure a brighter future. In fact, this is one of the reasons that inspired me to set up Green Cyprus!

I believe embracing the principles of a green economy is a smart way forward in getting ourselves out of these difficult times. I am not suggesting that a blanket application of green policies will solve our economic problems, but adherence to them could help towards safeguarding the future of the island and have long-term positive repercussions on the country.

So, what is a green economy? A green economy, according to the UN Environment Program, is “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, whilst significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”. For more information about a green economy visit

I believe this is a hot topic and with the current worldwide economic situation it is an important tactic for helping to get the world economy ‘back on track’. Investment into a Green Economy is captured in several reports as an agent for creating millions of new jobs. Doesn’t it make good sense? You only have to look at what the Germans are doing and they happen to have the strongest economy in Europe. As an example, I recommend reading the following article from a recent edition of The Guardian about how German green investment bank KfW works . No argument about the fact that they are simply smart, switched-on and ahead of their European counterparts.

There are many areas for green investment in Cyprus and it’s an obvious way to go as far as I’m concerned!

On a more personal level, we can all make even the smallest of changes to our lifestyle to save on resources and money. Whereas back in more abundant times we may have paid less attention to cost-cutting exercises on the home-front, nowadays, it’s more of a necessity. I think being more cost-conscious indirectly makes us more conscious of green issues too, ‘green’ being a kind of by-product. This is one of Green Cyprus’s focal points; providing visitors to the site with useful green tips. Check out the site and you can find, for example. ways to cut back on electricity usage at home. Did you know, for example, that cleaning the coils at the back of your refrigerator can significantly reduce your electricity bill or that 97.5% of water on the Earth is salt water leaving only 2.5% as fresh water?   Makes you realise how precious a resource it is and that we should take care not to waste it!

It’s never been a better time for a change, and change we must. Whilst it’s not so easy to individually influence the way in which a country is governed and how much is devoted to green policies, we can all do our own little bit so that collectively, the impact becomes more pronounced. I would like to borrow Tesco’s tagline; “Every Little Helps” because in our strive to change for the better, it’s oh so true!

Green Tip: Keep your tyres properly inflated. This will reduce wear and tear on them and increase their longevity, thereby saving money. It also saves precious raw material: it takes 27 litres of crude oil to produce a new tyre. Under-inflated tyres also increase fuel consumption by up to 10%. Check your tyres at least once a month. It only takes a few minutes.