Monthly Archives: March 2017

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Plants

Munchkin & Gnome Update.

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Phew…it is sooooo hot!!  When the dry season comes, it comes with a vengeance.  Well what’s been happening?  Gnome’s tomatoes are getting to about 200 to 300g (1/2 lb) and they are slowly turning purple red.  The only problem is that the birdies have discovered these delicious choice fruit and they’ve been feasting on them.  Poor Gnome…he was devastated!

Green Tomatoes.

“No…not my lovely tomatoes!!  Why don’t they eat something else…there are plenty of other things!!”

We did an Internet search on “how to scare birds away” and the easiest thing was hanging up silver foil in a line.  So I cut out about 50 old pie containers and hung a whole lot, on string, like Christmas decorations.  That didn’t work at all!  The birds still came and bit chunks out of our tomatoes;  we were getting so frustrated since we hadn’t eaten a single intact tomato!

I said to Gnome with a wry smile,

“you can buy decoy owls from Amazon but I’m afraid we can’t  get 24 hour shipping to Belize…”

Anyway, I left Gnome to his own devices for a while and later he called me out to look at what he did.  He placed a cotton work glove on each and every tomato so that the plants looked like they were displaying a show of hands.

So far, it has worked.  Great…very simple and cheap way to fool the birdies away.  Those dastardly birds  are also getting my suriname cherry which is really quite upsetting.  These fruit don’t taste like “cherries” but have a very sweet and resinous taste.  They usually get to about an inch (2cm) in size.

Suriname Cherries.

The other day, I spotted an enormous one that was about 2 inches in size.  It was still green so I decided to leave it on the bush.  I thought that it would a really nice treat for Gnome and he would really appreciate it.  A while later, I went back to pick it and the whole thing was gone!  Those cheeky blighters!!  Those Montezuma oropendola…you know, those ones with yellow tails…the ones that bird watchers go on about all the time.  Well, they’re eating up all our fine epicurean delights…Wahhhh!!!

Yes birdie…I know you are looking at our lovely tomatoes…

Montezuma oropendola

On a happier note, we have four more kids on the block.  Say Hello to our lovely new baby cavies!  The sandy looking one is very nice…oooh and look at the third one with the black patch on its nose.  What cuties!!

New Baby Piggies.
Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Goosie Wars!

You really can’t believe everything you hear from people…we were told that geese laying season was winter time and that they layed up until Valentine’s Day (14th of February).  This is the first year that we have had geese and we waited and waited for eggs until Valentine’s Day.  On this very day, when we were just about to give up all hope, the first egg was found plop in the middle of the coop.  Oh, we were so excited and happy that we immediately put it in the incubator.

After the first egg, Goosie Wars started and we have been caught in the scourge of testosterone driven goosie madness every day since then…

The ganders are super aggressive; unprovoked, they chase us around the farm, pecking brutally at our legs.  Every morning, I am armed with a broom as I enter the war zone, anticipating the daily ambush by the bunch of crazy, blood-thirsty geese.

After a while, we noticed that while the ganders were creating interference and causing bodily harm, the female geese were dashing into bushy areas of the farm.  It took us some time to figure out the females were laying in secret spots.  For some time, it became a “watching game” where I would act as decoy to the violent exploits of the geese ( I am a brave kinda Munchkin or a sucker for punishment!) and Gnome would surreptitiously follow the female geese into the bushy areas.

This was the first nest that we found:

Secret Goose Nest.

We found a few more after this.  There was however one savvy female goose that made a nest in the coop; this scary looking one:

Sitting Goose.

She was originally sitting on six eggs and now she only has one!  I still do not understand fully the psychology of geese but there is a gander who keeps pushing her off her eggs and sits on them himself.  She comes back round and they have a big fight and she regains her nest.  During this squabble, an egg or two is usually lost.  We don’t hold much hope for anything happening with this one but we have certainly learned that we need to have protected brooding boxes next year.

We found another girl sitting out in the middle of the bush, all zazen and tranquil, on her nest.  That was all fine but she was about 200 yards from the house and we were afraid for her safety.

Sitting Goose.

We decided to make a bunch of brooding nests in the coop and attempted a midnight “kidnap” of this goose to re-locate her to protected surroundings.  Gnome made a special effort as usual with spacious cabana-style nests:

Cabana Style Nests.

Operation: Kidnap and Re-locate Broody Goose proved to be a failure and the goose was let out of the nest in the morning.  She was all flustered and cross at us!  Okay, you live and learn…re-locate a goose at your peril!  These eggs had to go into the incubator.

Although we are black and blue and weary from Goosie Wars, one good thing has happened.  We had our first gosling hatching (the Valentine’s Day egg) the other day.  This little one is bouncy, lively and friendly.  There is perhaps hope that we can breed a goose out of these wars that we can train to be peace-loving, kind and gentle.  Our idealism is coming out once again…we will overturn our anarchist geese one day and replace them with Zazen geese that will make the world a better place to live in.

The Beginnings Are Delicate Times…the future is with the young ones…

Hello Goosie!!!

It’s time for a game change goosies!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Philosophy

Turkish Delight and All Things Nice…

A while back I had a conversation with Panda (he is originally from London) about British food that we missed.  It was mostly a nostalgic reminiscence of biscuits and sweets because I used to have an awfully sweet tooth.  We talked about McVities Chocolate Digestives, chocolate eclairs, Turkish delight, Jaffa Cakes, After Eight Mints and a whole host of sweet treats.  It just so happened that his Mum was visiting soon and so he asked her to bring some of these sweets.  When she did come, I was given a lovely gift of Turkish Delight and After Eight Mints.

One of the main reasons why I am talking about this is because I have noticed that this farm lifestyle in Belize has changed my eating habits and palate.  With the After Eight Mints, I didn’t scoff them all down in one go…I am sure most people would never admit to this behaviour in their own blog!  I found the sugar content overwhelming so I ate one or two with a cup of tea now and then.  If I ate too much, I would feel thirsty and even nauseated.

I have reduced my sugar intake drastically over the last decade so my body is no longer used to large quantities of sugar.

Just to give you an idea of my sugar intake now: it is usually a teaspoon with each cup of tea and I usually have 2 cups per day.  As a general rule, I don’t often buy products, unless as a treat, and so I hardly eat any hidden sugars.  I don’t bake cakes and I don’t bake biscuits.  In fact, most of the sugars that we consume are in the natural form of fruit.  I am a not “health conscious freak” by any stretch of the imagination.  I like food and I like eating!!  Rather, my change in lifestyle has changed my eating habits.

As an interesting aside, we do get the feeling that sugar content of products are based on cultural wants and tastes.  For instance, we have had the ubiquitous Kit-Kat from many areas of the world.  The Asian Kit-Kats have considerably less sugar than the ones bought here in Central America.  Similarly, if we do buy biscuits (cookies), we will opt to buy British imported ones instead of the Guatemalan/ Mexican (Central America) stuff as, in our opinion, these biscuits are just loaded with sugar and have no flavour; we do not feel that ingesting this biscuit to get high on the sugar, whizz around for ten minutes followed by a major “down” is worth it at all!

As Doctors, we are skilled in the observation of other people doing this and we see it time and time again.  It’s amazing how many people don’t seem to recognise the physiological impact of eating such foods.  Instead, they just keep on doing it…if it goes on for too long…this is when you get diabetes.

Gnome always says, “…beware of the white  powder…”

He means sugar.

Anyway having said all of this, I am not actually trying to get anyone to stop eating what they enjoy.  Rather, food should be enjoyed…as life is enjoyed…but balance is required to achieve this.

Okay…now to the Turkish Delight which is what this post is about.  As soon as I bit into my first piece of Turkish Delight, I felt the sugar run into my blood and knew that my pancreas had kicked in to squirt insulin out quick smart.  It was a real sugar high; I felt my head spinning and my whole body going wobbly like jelly.  It was like doing some “extreme velocity sport” but my body wasn’t going anywhere!  These were my thoughts during ingestion,

“Arrrghhh!!!  Way too much sugar!  I used to eat this by the box??!!  Arrrghhh!!!”

Anyway, I did however appreciate the aromatic rose and lemon flavours and also felt that it was a waste not to eat a gift.  I thought that the intense flavour was lovely but surely there was a way to eat with fewer side effects?.  This is when I thought of cutting up the Turkish Delight into small pieces and baking a bread with it.  And I did:

Turkish Delight Bread.

The rose and lemon permeated through the dough to make a uniquely flavour-some bread.  In other words, it was good to eat!

Turkish Delight Bread.

If you want to make this at home, just add about two cups of Turkish Delight, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes (1cm), to your favourite bread recipe.

In conclusion, I think that this farming lifestyle allows a natural progression to healthier eating.  You become more sensitive to the things that you eat and in turn, you naturally stop eating crap!

Belize, Farming

Out and About.

Hello Everyone!!  It’s amazing how time goes so quickly that I haven’t written a post in over a week!  We have had an  extraordinarily “wet” dry season this year.  The last couple of days, it started feeling a bit more like dry season with the sun and the over-bearing heat.  I think everyone felt it and since dry season is the time for burning, people started burning their wood piles.  We actually stepped out of our house into a thick smog of smoke…and, we are not burning here on our farm!

We hardly ever leave Toledo but we did yesterday because we felt our lungs thick and heavy with smoke.  Thank goodness this is the only time of the year that we get this air pollution.  It is worse this year because everyone is feeling the time pressure of a late start to the dry season.

We took a road trip to Cayo ( a Western region of Belize which is about 3 and 1/2 hours drive from Toledo) and picked up some city goodies on the way.  We met up with our friends, Graham and Joyce and had lunch with them.  I feel really silly but I didn’t bring my camera with me so this post is mostly a description of ideas and experiences.

Anyway, they showed us their new British Foods Belize Shop which is really lovely.  It looks like a “real shop” which has carefully displayed British souvenirs and good old British food (can’t give you the whole list but it’s stuff like Bird’s Eye Custard, Marmalade, Scottish shortbread, Cumberland sausages and more).  I stocked up on my “must-have” Yorkshire Tea and crumpets.  We are going to have tea and crumpets at the pond this weekend in a romantic sort of way and throw crumbs at the geese.  Oh, and I also bought chocolate Easter eggs as a treat…this  is funny but we have not had these for about 15 years!  I remember that I used to take these for granted and I would get a whole load of them at Easter time and stuff myself silly on them.  Our ascetic life-style in Belize now makes us appreciate things a lot more and we are really going to savour the taste of Cadbury’s milk chocolate!

After lunch, our friends took us to their sheep operation…these guys are always on the go with projects!  They showed a 2 acre plot fenced with barbed wire and sheep wire, divided into quarters. There was a shelter in the middle of the rotational pasture and the size of acreage held 20 sheep in total.  It was a neat set up and it did inspire us a lot.  Gnome whispered in my ear,

“After we sort out the geese, we could consider a sheep or two!  I wouldn’t mind some lamb for Easter!”

After this, Gnome had an intense conversation with Graham about…wait for it…it wasn’t politics or anything like that…it was about worms!  I wasn’t privy to this conversation because they went round the back to look at worms, tubes and stuff so I have to directly quote to you what Gnome relayed back to me.  At first he wasn’t entirely coherent because he was a bit over-excited and so he started in mid conversation with me by saying,

“…we need to get 2 pounds of worms!”

Come again?  And so he launched into a description of “worm towers.”  This is a method of composting in which you a bury a pipe (eg PVC pipe about 4 inches in diameter or more) halfway into the ground and you drill holes in it to allow worms to move in and out of the tube.  You then put food scraps directly into the tube to be eaten and processed by the worms. You just need a handful of worms to start each tower.  This idea has truly captured Gnome’s heart (he likes worms…I know, he’s a funny sort of Gnome!) and as I write this, he is under the house looking for tubes.  I also saw him scrutinising the giant bamboo this morning so I know his mind is whirring and swirling with worm tower possibilities.

We had a lovely afternoon and would like to thank Graham and Joyce for spending a little time with us and for inspiring us with new projects for the farm!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

The Great Egg Hunt!!

All our poultry are rather autonomous creatures on the farm.  They basically just forage for yummies on our farm, swim in our pond and expect to be fed at the end of the day.  They do whatever pleases them and they will occasionally give as an egg or two.  Of course, there are no expectations for the ducks, geese or turkey to lay  in areas designated by Munchkin and Gnome…God forbid…they would actually try  to make our lives easier.  Eggs can plop out at any time of the day…anywhere.  Also, there are secret hiding spots…not in the coup of course!

Everyday is a Great Egg Hunt  and we are forced to surreptitiously creep around our own farm pretending not to look for eggs.  That’s because the fowl have a sixth sense for knowing that you are looking and will run off, hide or create interference to foil our search.  We have to spend extra care and attention walking around trees and looking under logs and wading through bushy areas.

It is really quite a challenge because they refuse to co-operate with us; our running joke is that they read the Spanish manual while we read the English one and that’s why we have communication problems.

¿estás buscando algo?
Looking For Something?
Looking For Something?
Looking For Something?

Yes, we are looking for those roundish whitish things that you plop out and hide in the bush:

Secret Nest.

We have actually found quite a few; the smallest ones are the duck eggs and the medium sized ones are from the turkey (you can’t see them very well but they are white with brown speckles).  The largest ones are the goose eggs…they are a real bonus when we find one of these!

Eggs Galore!!

Well, the next thing to do is to find a broody duck, turkey or goose.  Any takers?  Otherwise, Gnome will set them in the incubator (though, we are not happy with the level of success so far with this method).  Gnome has even offered to “incubate” them himself on those brief occasions when there has been a power cut.  If push comes to shove, I think he would seriously consider strapping some eggs to himself…especially to get a gosling or two!  The Dedication of a Gnome is boundless when it comes to geese!

Amusing, Belize, Our Products, Soap

Chocolate Mint Soap.

With so many funny animal stories coming from our blog, I have neglected to talk about other stuff that we do.  We have a new Chocolate-Mint soap.  It’s chocolatey and has the zing of mint!!  (As I am writing this, Gnome is murmuring under his breath…Munchkin, is this your idea of marketing??).

Ha-Ha…

We just dropped some off at the Chocolate Factory (Cotton Tree Chocolate) in Punta Gorda today:

Cotton Tree Chocolate.

Lovely soap made by Munchkin and Gnome; made from coconut oil and chocolate.  Picture Munchkin and Gnome stirring a metal cauldron in the middle of the bush…

Chocolate Soap Making.

We make this stuff on the farm:

Chocolate Artisan Soaps.

If you are not in Punta Gorda, Belize…check out our Chocolate Artisan Soaps in The Apothecary. 

We have a range of Chocolate Artisan Soaps and four scented chocolate soaps: chocolate-vanilla, chocolate-mango, chocolate-orange and chocolate-mint.

As an interesting aside, we have noticed that having a website does not actually decrease the administrative work involved in running a business.  There are still a gazillion back and forth emails to write.  What we have come to realise is that even although everything can be ordered on a website with the minimum of communication, everyone still wants the personal touch.  So, we are happy to receive email orders and have a personal relationship with you, if you prefer.

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

ZTOP Extension!

Cor Blimey…that Duckie-zilla is getting monstrously huge!!  Mayor Gnome had no choice but to calm down the general snorts of displeasure, whining and squealing coming from Zazen Temple of Piggies (ZTOP).

If you don’t know the story already, we have a 12 week duck living with our guinea pigs.  It was a single hatchling from our first incubator experiment.  It started off small and well, got bigger and bigger.  So, the running joke is that she is Duckie-zilla is invading the poor inhabitants of the guinea pig cage.  The problem is that she really does prefer the company of the guinea pigs and every-time we try to put her in with the other ducks, she gets all stressed out.

Mayor Gnome always has to come to the rescue and everything on the farm has to come to a standstill to sort out the animals.

Duckie-zilla!!

Mayor Gnome:

“Well, she’s actually really happy being with you lot…she refuses to quack and go off with her own lot.  My only choice at this point is a ZTOP extension…”

Well here it is; it’s kinda like a semi-d or extension of council flats (you know what we mean if you live in the UK).  Otherwise, it’s really just like little houses bunched together sharing the same walls.  Not luxurious but the piggies are exempt from council tax because they are a religious group.  All funded by Mayor Gnome…donations accepted of course… 🙂

“Oi What’s Happening?”

We also have the new duckies on the block with big duckie; our plan is that these two will latch on and eventually they will all go out foraging together.

New Duckies in ZTOP.

Mayor Gnome has extended the guinea pig cage so that there are now four “houses.”  The first two houses have guinea pigs (one male with a harem of 4 or 5 females).  Gnome has removed the wall from the last two houses to give the duckies more room; they are sharing with the baby guinea pigs.  The ceiling is a bit higher in this last house so big duckie doesn’t have to stoop so much.

Long View.

The Zazen Temple has pleasant surroundings with its  own swimming pool (sorry, a rock pool…not infinity pool…need more funding for something that special…ha-ha).

ZTOP Extension.

Mayor Gnome:

“Ok Piggies…that should keep you quiet for a while!”

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Double Duckie!!

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We managed to hatch two duckies out of eight eggs.  These two were no trouble at all and were very independent from the start.  Apart from the feeding for the first few days, they paid scant attention to us and were out with the guinea pigs in three days.  It’s getting easier being a duckie parent!!

We didn’t consider this a successful hatch since we were hoping for at least a 50% hatch rate.  Gnome reckons that he sprayed the eggs with water, once, early on in development and thinking back, he feels that the cold temperature of the water may have destroyed the delicate embryos.  This is what Gnome said:

“I read about this recommendation to spray eggs with cold water  on the Internet.  The moral of this story is never believe everything you read on the Internet…it could cost you a duckie or more!”

These two splashed about in water together and splatted food  all around the aquarium.  By three days, they were so independent (and messy) that we decided that they were ready for the guinea pig crèche.

Ducklings.

Duckie 1: this one is a lighter coloured duckie with hardly any dark markings. Birth weight 49g.

New Duckie 1.

Duckie 2: the birth weight for this one was also 49g but nevertheless looks bigger.  Gnome says it is because he fluffed up a bit more so he gives the appearance of being larger.

New Duckie 2.

Duckies:

“Oi Munchkin and Gnome!  Just feed us.  Apart from that we can entertain ourselves by splashing about in food and water and making a mess.  Thanks a bunch!!”

Duckies.

“…you just need to clean up after us…”

So the plan for these duckies is to feed them up in the comfortable environment of the Guinea pig cage.  Once they get to about 4 to 6 weeks (ie. too big for the cat to mistake as food) we hope to get them out foraging with the older one which is now about 12 weeks old.

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Gnome’s Tomatoes.

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I am posting up pictures of Gnome’s tomatoes because he has nursed them through odd “dry season” rain and wind, blossom-end rot, assassin bug attacks, munching caterpillars and of course, the cat stepping on them.  Despite all this, the plants are doing wonderfully and the fruit are getting bigger by the day.  These are Black Krim (and some Cherokee) so should get to about 300 to 450g (about a 1lb) in weight.  Gnome is judiciously trimming and removing buds as he has decided on 25 fruit per plant only.  This is to optimise nutrient intake and maximise size.

I think he probably looks at his tomatoes nearly every hour and I hear him muttering,

“I love my tomatoes!!”

Anyone who has tried to grow tomatoes down here (problems with wetness, rot and disease-prone) will understand why I have dedicated one post to our tomatoes!

Growing Tomatoes.
Big Tomato.

 

Tomatoes!
Green Tomatoes.

I would also like to dedicate this post to our friend Erin (in Montana…where it is still snowing)  to further inspire her to keep planting seeds in preparation for spring.  I am sure it will warm up soon!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Gnome Says That I Should Write Something…

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Hello Everyone.  Just is to give you an update on what’s happening.  First of all, it has been raining for about two weeks now so our “let’s get crepuscular” thing fell flat on its face.  There are heavy clouds looming over our farm so it looks like it is going to rain this weekend.  Having said that, we are glad for the rains because everything was getting quite dry.  And, Panda is very, very glad because his 660 gallon tank is nearly full so he is all set for the dry season.

We’ve been starting up seedlings for our nursery:

Tobacco: these are actually a lot bigger now than these teeny-weeny pictures.

Tobacco Seedlings.

All sorts of peppers including habaneros, jalapeños and cayenne peppers.

Pepper Seedlings.

Oh, the tomatoes are looking very good.  These are Gnome’s pride and joy.  Growing tomatoes is a very difficult endeavour down here in Toledo because the plants are susceptible to all manner of diseases including mildews and molds.  Plus the heavy rains cause stems to rot easily.  We tried growing tomatoes years ago but gave up after a long struggle with disease and water-logging.  We have decided to re-visit the tomato growing because we actually do like to eat them and the tomatoes that you buy here are truly tasteless.

Tomato Flower.

We are growing them in buckets this time.  And, Gnome is observing them every hour…he really loves his plants!!

Tomatoes.
Growing Tomatoes.

Right now, our tray of parsley is quite a treat.  Great with mashed potatoes:

Parsley.

You can grow herbs down here but they have to be in trays and buckets.  In the rainy season, they can get damaged so you need some sort of cover.  We’ve started rosemary and sage seeds too…these grow down here but also need a bit of care and attention.