ANDREW EAMES ventures into the fertile interior of Cyprus where age-old farming methods still prove fruitful

WE'RE in north-west Cyprus, cycling through orange groves on our way back from the Baths of Aphrodite freshwater pools, when our own mighty Aphrodite, 14-year-old Rhena, spots the "Pick your own" sign.

We turn up the bumpy track, planning to pick a kilo or two of oranges to squeeze into delicious juice. As we reach the top of the track, we spot Dionysis Fontana, former headmaster and self-confessed fruit nut, standing under a giant carob tree.

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He takes us on an impromptu tour of his orchards, picking, peeling and tasting the fruits as we go. After trying carob, whose pods tasted disarmingly like chocolate, we sample a variety of lemon that is surprisingly sweet, followed by figs, dates, grapes, limes, pomelo, red grapefruit, guavas and pomegranates, all direct from the vine, bush or tree.

The football-sized pomelo, which looks and tastes a little like a grapefruit, turns out to be reassuringly familiar among the zingy limes, the guavas and the pomegranates.

At the end of the hour-long tour, Dionysis produces two bulging bags of produce and asks us what we would like to take home.
We leave it to Rhena and her 16-year-old brother Thomas to decide, on the basis that getting them to eat fruit will always be easier if they choose it themselves.

In the end we depart with pomegranates, guavas, red grapefruit and pomelo, as much as we can dangle from the handlebars.
And the cost? Dionysis grins, "How about ¤4?" You'd pay that for one guava back home, let alone enough exotica to fulfil the recommended five-a-day for the rest of the week.

Later as we lazed about in Stella Maris, our sea-facing villa in the hamlet of Pomos, I was able to utter those immortal lines: "Can someone peel me a pomegranate? I'm in the pool."

The topography of Cyprus makes ideal growing conditions for fruit. At the centre are the Troodos Mountains, while the island's lower skirts bask in sunshine and are watered by rain from higher ground.

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In the past, the arid coastline was prey to piracy so locals lived inland and today many of the oldest villages are up in the hills. You have to drive into the mountains, away from the low-lying scrub, to discover the traditional, village-based Cyprus of stone-walled fields, orchards and vines.

This is the Cyprus that was once an important provider of fruit and vegetables to the eastern Mediterranean (and even to the UK during its colonial days). However, the island's partition and its membership of the EU has knocked the stuffing out of large-scale farming. In its stead, traditional agriculture has had a resurgence.

Now there are little cheese-making dairies, boutique wineries and select olive groves, where oil is extracted and turned into luxury products such as cosmetics.

Tourism initiatives have created wine trails and motoring routes through villages where tavernas serve rustic meals.

Producers are very tourist friendly. You can often barge in with a smile and somebody will show you round, before you leave laden with produce.

We do this at the public olive press at Goudi village in the Chrysochous valley near Polis, close to the Baths of Aphrodite.

Here, locals bring their crop and take away its "liquid gold" in plastic containers. We do it at the Keses Dairy at Avdimou, near Limassol, where the speciality is halloumi, goat's milk cheese that's delicious grilled on a barbecue.

At the Oleastro olive farm near the village of Anogyra, between Paphos and Limassol, we join in the harvest alongside two labourers who are using what looks like a giant nit comb.

It strips the trees' lower branches so we are able to retire early, feeling very smug at the amount we have gathered.

Oleastro makes a clumsy attempt at a family-friendly olive park, with donkey rides and gift shop but it is also a genuine ecological producer of organic oil, using proper millstones for pressing.

Its rustic terrace restaurant serves excellent local food, including a meltingly delicious olive and herb lamb Kleftiko (lamb cooked in a clay pot).

Eating here turns out to be good for our health. Olive oil is said to ease high blood pressure and reduce the risk of cancer. It also counts as an aphrodisiac, very appropriate on Aphrodite's island, although our Aphrodite doesn't think so.

Her ageing parents eating aphrodisiacs? Yuck.

THE KNOWLEDGE:
Sunvil Holidays (0208 758 4759/ www.sunvil.co.uk) offers seven nights in Villa Stella Maris from £615pp (sleeps six), self-catering. Price includes return BA flights from Gatwick to Paphos and eight days car hire.

Cyprus Tourism Organisation: 0207 569 8800/ www.visitcyprus.com