26 NOTES ON AGRICULTURE IN CYPRUS 



and salted every day for a week ; and this continues 

 for two or three weeks, until the cheeses cannot absorb 

 more salt. 



Fetta. The process for making this cheese is much the 

 same as for Paphos cheeses, but differs in regard to tem- 

 perature. It is placed in bags and hung up, or left in 

 cheese cloths on the table to drain. It is made up in 100 

 or 200 dram pieces, and turned and lightly salted for 

 three days ; then placed in barrels rilled with brine. This 

 cheese ripens in a few days. It is soft, and has a sharp, 

 pungent flavour. It is the first to come on the market. 

 It is not consumed in Cyprus, but made entirely for the 

 Egyptian market, where it is much liked. Being soft, it 

 does not keep well, and should always be kept covered in 

 brine. For these reasons it is exported in small barrels 

 of a gross weight of 40 to 50 okes. If care is taken in this 

 respect, if all leaky barrels are kept refilled and cool 

 storage provided, it may be preserved for a year ; but 

 these conditions are rarely fulfilled in Cyprus. 



Telemes. This is another soft cheese, prepared in a 

 similar manner to " fetta," but it is cut into square blocks 

 and placed not in barrels or vats, but in tins which, when 

 completely filled with cheese and brine, are soldered down. 

 This cheese is also made entirely for the Egyptian market. 



Kaskaval or Kaskavalli. This is mostly made by 

 cheese-makers who come over from Greece or Turkey 

 during the cheese-making season. 



The curd, after the whey is drained off, is called 

 " phlongos," and it is almost always bought from the 

 shepherds, each shepherd preparing it in his own way. 

 It is transported in baskets, sometimes a good distance, 

 to the cheese factory, or " kassaria," and these drawbacks, 

 added to lack of cleanliness, are the cause of much cheese 

 of inferior quality being produced which has no keeping 

 properties and must be quickly consumed. 



Having reached a pasty condition, the cheese is placed 

 in reed or willow baskets and immersed in either boiling 

 whey or clean water and stirred until the whole mass is 

 transformed into " kossimari " ; it is then cut into pieces 

 weighing one or two okes, and moulded by hand into a 

 globular form, leaving one slight depression called the 



