Our friends, Erin and Jim came to visit our farm today and did an impromptu maize beer tasting. It is interesting to see other people’s perspectives and they thought that it was a pleasant tasting sour beer, much akin to “Lambic” with the taste of fermented apples. We were very pleased to hear that it was compared to a well-known traditional beer! We now wish that we didn’t gave away so many bottles of the beer earlier on when we thought that it was a failure. We live and learn…we will hoard every single drop next time…that is the Scottish coming out in me!
Pumpkins Galore!
On another note, we are harvesting pumpkins so, we will mostly be eating pumpkins. Aaaahhhh, what a gloriously uncomplicated life we live!
Gnome brewed a New Year’s Eve Maize Beer and tonight we have decided to do a formal tasting:
Maize Beer.
Colour is dark amber and very effervescent; small sized bubbles with excessive fizz. Clear with good head.
Smells like the first whiff when you open up a can of sweetcorn. Also, reminiscent of fermenting apples and it definitely smells sour.
With the first sip, there is an immediate sweetness then a sourness; it is foamy like champagne. It tastes like a sour beer; unusual tasting and not your typical beer-like taste.
We squeezed the juice of a fresh lemon into it to see if this would improve the taste; we found that it gave it an overall smoother and well-rounded taste. It helped to balance the sweet and sour components. More drinkable with lemon juice.
It feels like it needs a fruity taste to round off the sourness..like pineapple, peach or strawberry. Next time, Gnome will add fruit to the maize beer.
This beer was in fact tasted unofficially at Day 7 and it was a disappointment at this stage as it tasted sour and “vomit-like.” With age, it seems to have mellowed out and even although it has a sharp sourness, it has become palatable and drinkable. We can see that it would benefit from waiting a full 12 months before consuming.
Overall, we are very pleased with this tasting because we did not feel that it was up to our drinking standards at an early stage but there has been considerable improvement over time.
About 3 weeks ago, Gnome bottled some mead. We have had a few sneak tastes since then as part of our ongoing “studies” but here is our official tasting:
Glass of Mead. Look at the bubbles!
Colour is golden yellow and effervescent; medium sized bubbles with good fizz. Clear.
Smells like a lager.
The first sip is thirst-quenching when served at a cold temperature: it gives that “Aaaahhh” quality. It is mild tasting with floral and fruity under-tones. It still tastes young and would be at its optimum in 3 to 6 months time. It foams in the mouth and tastes like lager; however, the fizz tastes like champagne. The bubbles hit your belly at the same time as the alcohol-feeling rushes to your head, giving you a satisfying tingling feeling all-over. The bubbles warm up the belly very well. In short, this beer behaves like a champagne.
Bravo to Gnome!! I really, really love it!! So much so, I want them all to my self.
Just as an aside, we would like to welcome our friends Erin and Jim who have come to re-visit Toledo for a few days. It was lovely to get in touch again and catch up!
We are posting up our first lot of seeds for sale in The Apothecary. This is the season for Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) and so we are offering these fresh seeds as a once off for the year. until they run out.
Just out of interest, when we first moved to Belize 10 years ago, one of the first things that we did was to buy fence posts to delineate a border around our farm. In Belize, the best wooden posts, which are supposed to last a lifetime are ones cut from the sapodilla tree. We ordered quite a fair amount and we felt that, out of respect for the tree, we would plant an orchard of them on our farm.
Sapodilla Fruit.
We bought a wide variation of this fruit from Punta Gorda market; some were round-shaped, others heart-shaped and some very large like grapefruit. We planted all the seeds from the different morphological varieties and the trees started bearing within 7 years. It was a long time to wait but definitely worth it.
Sapodilla Fruit, Ready To Eat.
As you can see from our projects, it is a very good tasting fruit which is ideal for wine-making and culinary delights like curries and pasta sauces. It can also be used for sweets like fruit tarts, jams and preserves. Sapodilla has a unique sweet flavour of cinnamon and caramel; the texture is that of a grainy peach. It is also a very good timber for fence posts and carpentry. The seeds have medicinal value and can be used crushed up for insomnia and as a natural sedative. The tree is famous for chicle which can be tapped from the trunk.
Sapodilla Seeds.
To germinate, they can be placed 2 inch deep in moist soil; this will take up to 6 weeks. The other option is to carefully remove the shell from the seed (this can be a bit tricky) and then placing it in 2 inch deep soil. The second option allows faster germination …usually within 2 weeks. Keep the plant growing in a pot for a full year and once you are ready to plant, allow 10 metres (30 feet) between each sapodilla tree. They get really big!!
For our international readers, you can grow this plant in a green house or indoors and kept like a bonsai. Check out The Apothecary if you want some seeds.
A couple of months ago, Gnome made Lime Sulphur as a Bored-in-Belize project. One of the many uses of it is a dip for dogs and cats. It can be applied for mange, fleas and ringworm. We tested our formula on the two dogs and the cat today (not the guinea pigs!!). We poured out a quantity of the concentrated lime sulphur and diluted it with water in a bucket:
Measuring Lime Sulphur.2 Gallons of Diluted Lime Sulphur.
A rag was dipped into the bucket of solution and the dogs and cat were soaked with it. Prior to this, they all got a wash with our sulphur soap. There were no complaints from any any animals concerned as we sponged them copiuosly with this bright yellow fluid. They seemed to like the smell of rotten eggs!!
Sulfuring Doggie.
Sorry, no picture of the other doggie because we both had to hold her down because she is the mad one that likes to lick toads.
Sulfuring The Cat.
The cat actually stayed still and did not seem to mind the extremely pungent smell. After all that, we were both smelling of sulphur; Gnome said that he felt spiritually cleansed…I think he was referring to fire and brimstone and all that stuff!!
Just catching up on some recipes that I created over the last few weeks: It is sapodilla season!! This is a sweet tasting fruit with the flavour of caramel and cinnamon. Gnome has got first dibs for making a Melomel (honey and fruit wine) but I have been sneaking some past him to create some tasty dishes..they don’t call me Ninja Munchkin for nothing!
Wheel Barrow of Sapodilla.
Sapodilla fruit makes a great base for a curry especially with its aromatic cinnamon tones. I have complimented this “earthiness” with dried orange peel which I have coarsely ground with a blender:
Dried Orange Peel.
Other spices in the curry include: cumin, mustard seeds, fresh curry leaf and fennel. Venison was cooked in the curry and then the dish was served with basmati rice.
Sapodilla Curry with Venison.
Gnome decided to overlook the fact that I had taken some sapodillas, without his permission…since the curry was so good!!
