Hi Everyone…Gnome here…I’ve updated the About Us page.
Laterz.
Monthly Archives: January 2016
What’s Up Piggies?
What’s up Piggies?
The Piggies came out today to view the Zen Garden for the Zazen Duckies.
This is a public statement from the Paradise Piggies in the gated community of Paradise Pastures:
“Can we come too? The jungle resort isn’t working out for us…a meditation retreat might be the answer. Weeeeeee Weeeeee Weeeeee!!”
Mayor Gnome was asked to comment on this request:
“The piggies have to have serious intent to practice meditation. This is not a weekend retreat, workshop or seminar….”
Piggies what do you say to this?
“Oh, just looking for a weekend reboot.”
Fruits in Season.
There is always something new to harvest on the farm. Right now, the mulberries have just started.
I will be collecting this fruit to make our very popular Mulberry Elixir. The final product is a beautiful dark purple colour and it has a lovely, rich berry taste.
This one is a local fruit called monkey cap. It has the consistency of peanut butter and is much-loved by the birds. For all bird-lovers out there, this is one to plant if want to attract all the birdies with pretty colours. The toucans like this one.
The monkey cap tree also makes a nice ornamental for those into landscaping.
Oh, and last but not least…we got our first soursop of the year. Everyone in Belize loves this fruit. I can’t give it justice by describing it but it has a kind of wet cotton-like consistency with a unique tropical fruit taste. I asked Gnome to help me describe the flavour and this is what he said:
“Well…it tastes like a soursop!”
Well, Thank-you Gnome…that was extremely helpful!!
The farm keeps on producing!!
Doggie Update.
This post is especially for two special ladies who were the previous owners of the doggies that we have on our farm…yes, you know who you are!!
We will start off with our Fat Doggie who can’t stop stuffing her face.. she likes to forage around the farm and eat copious amounts of fallen fruit and coconuts. She is a whopping 88lbs in weight now!! In an attempt to get her weight down, I have been feeding her a low calorie diet of rice, beans and green vegetables once daily only. I have also been restricting the meal to half the usual amount. She has been coping well with the new diet although, I do have to confess that she does whine and complain a fair bit. No doggie treats allowed right now!
Oh, and this is Mad Doggie…
She is the one that used to eat walls and so her owner was forced to find a new home (our farm) for her. After a whole string of mad and frenzied farm animal killings, she has calmed down considerably over the years. We attribute some of these changes to self-therapeutic toad-licking and the judicious use of a training collar. Now, she can run around on the farm without attacking a single animal and she responds to commands. Phew…we nearly gave up on her at one point but fortunately we have managed to train here. Sit…good doggie!!
A Zen Garden For The Duckies.
The Duckies have set up camp outside Mayor Gnome’s dwelling and are demanding MGNews coverage. So what’s up?
The peaceful duckies have been chanting incessantly:
“Waaa Waaa Waaaa….Waaa Waaa Waaaa…Waaa Waaa Waaaa…”
Everyday from dawn to dusk, they have bee protesting over their terrible living standards…the coup is getting old and bashed up and fails all duckie coup guidelines.
Plus they are upset over the Paradise Piggies getting all the attention. The spokes-duckie for the group stated:
“It’s not just about the Paradise Piggies! We duckies want freedom too. We ask Mayor Gnome to please grant us enough space to meditate, posture and stare into space to our heart’s content.”
But, the plot thickens…Evil Goosie is hatching a dastardly plan to convert the peace-loving group into Anarchists. He’s spoiling for a riot or anything that involves violent pecking and general disorder.
Mayor Gnome has been forced to work round the clock to restore order to the farm.
This is a public statement from Mayor Gnome addressing the duckie situation:
“Dear Duckies, I have meditated over your complaints and I will make things right! Right Thought, Right Action. We shall act speedily and build you a Zen Garden!”
In a later interview, Mayor Gnome confessed that he had to take control of the situation quickly. He explained,
“I know what that Goosie is up to. I don’t want this situation getting out of hand…it would be a major catastrophe if the duckies turned to anarchy..”
Yes indeed. Mayor Gnome is true to his word and is building a Zen Garden for the Duckies.
The Zen Garden is a whopping 30 feet by 30 feet. That should be plenty of space for the Zazen Duckies!!
Hooray for the Zazen Duckies!! We have a feeling that they might get some prime-time space on this Blog…the duckies’ endeavours on the contemplation of existence is indeed worth reading about.
Apothecary Pictures.
Hello Everyone. This is a late post for me but I decided I had to keep the Blog going to bring the traffic in!! I have noticed that if I don’t write for about three days, our viewing statistics go down. Anyway, we found a whole load of missing Apothecary pictures stuck in a nameless file in the computer. We have downloaded them and I will be sticking them in the appropriate places in our website very soon. Meanwhile, enjoy our picture gallery!
Chocolate Swirl Soap. Hand-made with Toledo cacao and coconut oil.
Our Chocolate Mint Body Wash is made from coconut oil castile soap (totally detergent free) which lathers up very nicely. A must for any chocolate lover out there!
The Lemongrass Foot Spa is great for tired, achy feet. It also acts as a natural deodorant and anti-fungal so it can be used for Athlete’s Foot.
If you feel like treating yourself, why not go for a 32oz (1 litre) Elixir?
Luxury Cacao Butter Soap is one of our new offerings for 2016. Very indulgent with a creamy lather…lovely!!
If you want to see all this stuff plus lots more, please have a look at The Apothecary.
Vernaccia Tasting.
This is our official Vernaccia tasting after polishing off a fair bit (won’t tell how much…Ha-Ha)…Hic!! It was soooo good that during the course of drinking it, the name evolved from Vernaccia to Foccacia (can’t believe I am telling you this!) but I guess it means that it is good stuff. We make it a point not to buy the imported wines in Belize because they don’t travel well and once they get here, they are not stored properly (usually) so it all ends up being rather disappointing. That’s why we make our own and it is a very fortunate thing that we have an Italian Gnome in our midst who grew up with family wine-making.
Anyway, Gnome has called this particular wine Vernaccia because he says it tastes very similar to Sardinian local (Vernacular) wine. This particular wine is slightly “darker” than a typical white wine and has full-bodied sherry-like qualities. We are not growing grapes here (partly because it is too wet and they are rather finicky requiring a lot maintenance). Gnome opted to use sapodillas for this wine. The interesting thing about this fruit is that the PH and Brix tests of this particular fruit fall within the range of grapes.
Here is the tasting after six months:
Colour is amber yellow and very, very clear.
Subtle sweet aroma with mildly floral undertones.
With the first sip, there is a mild honey sweetness, which is full-bodied and coats the tongue with a velvety unctuousness. Has sherry-like qualities without the heaviness.
Great stuff…so much better to make it yourself!! This will get even better with time.
Processing White Peppercorns.
This year we decided to process our pepper into white pepper. Usually, we just pick them green…
And as they dry out in the sun, they become black peppercorns.
Because I mostly cook Chinese food, white pepper is actually more useful for me from a culinary point of view. The preparation of white pepper requires a bit more work. This is what you do: Pick the peppercorns when they start turning red:
Then place these peppercorns in water to let them all ferment. After a while, the water will get bubbly and murky. Each day, dip your hands in the water and rub the peppercorns with the palms of your hand. This “retting” procedure loosens the outer shell to release the white peppercorn. Do this for 7 days…you can throw away the outer shells each day but leave the white peppercorns to ferment and do their magic. It all gets rather smelly but hey, I think it is really important to understand the value of doing things yourself. Now I know why ground white pepper costs $30 Belize Dollars per pound and I will no longer complain about the price!
On the 7th day, drain off all the water:
Separate the white peppercorns:
You will find that the peppercorns are at different stages. Remove the white peppercorns and let them dry out in the sun. The rest of the pepper (which still has the outer hard shell) can be placed back in a clean bowl of water. At this stage, you can add newly harvested pepper to repeat the 7 day process of fermentation again.
So there you go. You will find that when you consciously spend the time and energy in processing your own food, it becomes a matter of necessity. It isn’t about economics anymore…it’s about eating good food that money can’t buy.
Celebrating With Vernaccia!
We had our usual town day today and then stopped off at the hardware store to purchase one connector and a roll of teflon tape. These were two crucial pieces that were missing in the air-lift pump construction that stopped us from completing the full Gnome-Rig yesterday.
Gnome put the missing piece in and switched on the air-compressor. There was a moment of silence as we stared at the pipe coming out of the well. All of a sudden there was the glorious sound of water shooting out of the pipe…YAY!!! Hip Hip Hooray!! Respect To The Gnome. He Gnome-Rigged an air-lift pump all by himself!
And then at Gnome’s finest moment, the clouds gathered together above our house with the inevitable Sod’s Law rain. Ha-Ha!!
We celebrated with a glass of vernaccia; Gnome says that this particular wine that he has made tastes like local (vernacular) Sardinian wine which has a sherry like quality.
Mmmm…what a lovely way to celebrate. A little bit of sunshine in a glass.
Gnome Premonitions.
This morning Gnome woke up with a start. He had a furtive look about him like a squirrel and his eyes were kinda bulging as he said,
“I know it! We will find the air-compressor in PG!”
I processed his statement in with a pinch of salt as I tried to shake myself out of my sleepy state. I yawned and then cheekily replied with,
“Oh, Neo Gnome…has the oracle spoken?”
In the back of my mind I was thinking that he was just trying to find any excuse not to take the three hour drive to the city to procure this contraption for our well-pump.
He said it again,
“I know it! It’s at Mac’s!”
I yawned and patiently said slowly,
“How do you know that? Where? We’ve never set foot in that shop before…”
With conviction in his words, Gnome said,
“I can feel it…”
I rolled my eyes with my usual derisive Chinese woman look and thought to myself…oh to live with a sensitive Italian Gnome who can “feel” things…what next. I didn’t believe him but I thought it best to humour him.
And so off we went into town and enroute, I made him go into every hardware store to look for a portable air compressor. I wanted to delay the inevitable…the disappointment and then the long tedious journey to Belmopan. None to be found and the last place was Mac’s Shop which is a little run-down shop selling mostly second-hard hardware. The road was blocked so we had to make it on foot. Guess what we saw as soon as we entered…
Gnome rushed over the machine and said out loud,
“There it is! I told you!”
Well, there it was and there was no denying that he was right. Gnome’s premonition was correct. I laughed to myself and thought…all this solitary time in the bush must be activating secret Gnome powers…Ha-Ha. I’ve been watching too many crappy Super-hero movies!! If Hollywood ever make a film about Munchkin and Gnome, in the bush, developing special powers, I want Maggie Q to play me! Too Funny.
Anyway back to reality…
We now have a portable air-compressor and Gnome is putting together all the bits to make the Air-lift pump..
He has been messing around with PVC pipe, hoses, bits and pieces and stuff (oh, how technical of me) all afternoon:
Nearly accomplished but we are missing a connector. So, watch this space for the next thrilling installment! Will Munchkin and Gnome get their well-pump working again? Will they be able to do it before all the water runs out? Oh the thrills and spills of living on a farm!! Oh, and what if Gnome really has super-hero powers??