Energy Saving, Fermentation, Saving Money

Downsizing Again!

July 29, 2017 Munchkin

Hello Everyone. It’s a lovely sunny day and we’ve decided to take it easy today. The freezer marathon is nearly over and I have learnt a lot about proper conservation from this experience. I am down-sizing from a 30 cubic feet freezer to a 10 cubic feet (partly because the big old freezer is not working well and is sucking up electricity like there is no tomorrow). It was a tremendous feat and quite an eye-opener. Firstly, I realised that I got into a really bad habit of throwing anything I could find into the freezer because I had the luxury of space. This led to chaos and dis-organisation reigning supreme and I could never remember where anything was located let alone know what I actually had.

I feel a tad embarrassed to tell you that about a quarter of the freezer was taken up by fruit (which I was saving to make wine or ice-cream…whenever…at some point in the dim and distant future). I had about 400 sapodilla fruit packed in the freezer amongst a medley of other tropical fruit purees. When we did our canning marathon, this fruit amounted to only 30 quart sized jars that take up very little space on my shelf (certainly not 7.5 cubic feet!).

Another quarter of the big freezer was taken up by about 50 packets of pre-cooked cassava. We managed to convert this into a 5 gallon bucket of cassava miso which is sitting in the corner of the kitchen (inconspicuously taking up a lot less space that 7.5 cubic feet!).

Converted to miso:

We also canned a 20lb bag of black beans:

I am amazed that I have freed up so much space by simply changing the preservation methods. Plus, I am saving on electricity.

We have 84 quart jars of preserved food including fruit purees, chicken feet(!) and beans. That’s it…it took up soooo much space in the freezer!!

The rest of my food (which I would prefer to keep frozen) fits very neatly into a 10 cubic feet freezer. Phew…small is indeed the way to go…makes my life a lot simpler. Yes, I can actually find food now without my usual crazy chaos! And, Gnome has urged me to to keep an inventory and has made up a simple program on the computer for me to use. Everything is neatly packed in the freezer with clear labelling. What a difference it makes to be able to find food quickly….Ha-Ha, I have to laugh at myself sometimes!

Belize, Food

A Waffly Sunday!

July 23, 2017 Munchkin

Oh, one day it’s sunny, the next day it’s raining the whole day. The weather can’t make up its mind and it’s driving us crazy! We have to make up contingency plans for rainy days now…mostly canning things in our freezer right now…chicken feet done…next we are going to make cassava miso and can black beans. We are actually almost done and will probably be retiring our old freezer this week.

Ha-Ha…now we need a bigger pantry. More jobs for Gnome to keep him busy.

Anyway, we’ve got these wonderful new cast iron waffle irons and going crazy with them. I make up the batter and then Gnome makes them on the stove.

We are having a waffly good time:

These are great; we love them because waffles can be so versatile and it’s great to chuck in all sorts of things into the batter. More about waffle mixes in a later post!!

Oh and a lovely breakfast for a Waffly Sunday (with our duckie eggs of course).

Have a lovely Sunday!!

Amusing, Belize, Construction, Farming

The Usual…

July 19, 2017 Munchkin

So, what’s the usual for us? Gnome put it quite succinctly today,

“I spend most of my time just fixing things and nothing gets done!”

So, the freezer is on its last legs and we are systematically going through all the food to preserve them. So far, we have canned the fruit and we have made miso out of the canistel (it’s bright orange, by the way). Next are the chicken feet (I know, you are probably wondering what I am doing with 50lbs of chicken feet…I’m not quite sure either). No, that was a joke…I know exactly what to use chicken feet for…they actually make the best soup.

Gnome is still working on his construction and yesterday it nearly all ground to a standstill again. The circular saw stopped working! Luckily it started working again once the brushes were cleaned out.

Oh, and the washing machine…that stopped too last week and I had to hand wash a whole load. I was really annoyed because I had chucked in a load of towels and sheets! Anyway, Gnome had a good look at it and it appears that the water sensor for medium wash is broken. Well that’s actually okay because I just need to set it to a small wash instead and it works. So, we managed to bypass that problem. Gnome says that washing machines should last forever…you just need all the replacement parts for the sensors and the capacitor. We are going to keep our washing machine going no matter what!!

Just as an aside, Gnome took the outer cover:

and gave it to a goose as cover around a nest (a while back). The goose actually snubbed the gift and moved all her eggs to a different area. Talk about being difficult!!

“No I don’t want the washing machine cover around my nest!!”

I want to end with something nice. So here it is: this is a huge 4 lb (2kg) mango given to us by the Taiwanese. The seed is really thin and tiny so most of the weight is the flesh. Oh, and the best thing about it is that it tastes so sweet and divine. We are definitely planting the seed!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Adventures in Eating…

July 12, 2017 Munchkin

Hello There!! It’s a bright and shiny day today so I feel a bit brighter and shinier. How interesting that the weather has a lot to with your mood. Anyway(s), we are doing okay although our never-ending construction has come to a temporary stand-still due to massive pond formations around the house. Nevertheless, we have braved the days with our usual creativity and Munchkin & Gnome interesting ideas. Since, we were both stuck inside the house together (with rains), we decided to have some adventures with food. So, here’s some of the stuff that we got up up to in the kitchen, messing around.

Lotsa aubergines from the farm:

These are very nice cooked on a cast iron grill and served with a little bit of olive oil drizzled on top. Yum!!

Ahhhh….this one is for the Chinese or the very adventurous; these are stinkhorn mushrooms (aka bamboo pith). These come out with the rains especially near bamboo patches but generally speaking, they do come up fairly commonly everywhere on our farm in Toledo.

This is a very pretty specimen with a lacy veil.

These mushrooms can also be picked at their young stage (aka known as Witches’ Eggs).

Clean them up, chop them up and put them in soups and stews. This mushroom imparts a slimey texture kinda like eating fish eyes (ooooh…that’s the Chinese coming out in me…I’m trying to tell it tastes really good….but, you probably think that sounds really awful). On the other hand, you could also describe them as “land oysters”…there, does that sound more enticing??

We are still going with the gelato; this one is made from canistel which is in season right now.

Canistel kinda tastes like cooked sweet potato. There is a lot of carbohydrate content in the fruit and this provides a firm texture to ice-cream. Oh, and we made this on with ground fresh jalapeño. By the way, I just noticed that the picture looks a bit like a pair of breasts(!). It wasn’t my intention but there you go!!

We still have more messing around in the kitchen. Our 27 cubic feet freezer is in its last death throes. It’s moaning and groaning and making awful gurgling noises all the time. Plus, it’s sucking up a whole lot of electricity. So, the plan is to to can (in ball jars) everything in the freezer until there is nothing left. Switch it off and let the old freezer rest in peace. That’s no mean feat if you can guess how much food a Munchkin is capable of hoarding!!

Belize, Farming, Food

Back To Cast Iron Baking.

July 10, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

We are going back full circle again. When we first came to Belize, I didn’t have an oven so I used to bake in a cast iron pot on the stove top. Anyway, the cooker (the oven and the knobs dropped off one by one until there were none) carked it a couple of months ago. So, I have gone back to cast iron baking again. It’s not actually difficult at all and it takes less gas (butane) and time. You don’t spend a whole 30 to 60 minutes (with a Mabe oven) waiting for it to heat up to the correct temperature. It just takes five minutes to heat up the cast iron pot and lid.

Just use your favourite bread recipe (of course Munchkin doesn’t have a recipe…she just chucks flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt and whatever exciting things she can find (miso, grains, anything really….oh…great tip…old condiments or end bits of jam in jars are great to chuck into bread). Mix it all up, knead into dough and that’s Munchkin’s Chaos Bread.

Please remember that my “chaos cooking” started off with following recipes and doing it over and over again. In order to get to improvising and creating, you need to put in the “10000 hours” of cooking. BTW, I may not have mentioned that I worked as a cook whilst I was in medical school so have been cooking for a very long time.

If you require a bit more structure to your cooking methods, here is a standard bread recipe courtesy of Fannie Farmer Cookbook:

Take a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of lukewarm water and 1 package of yeast.
Let stand 5 minutes then stir to dissolve the yeast.
Put in another bowl: 1 cup milk, 1 cup boiling water, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp salt. Stir until lukewarm and then combine with yeast mixture.
Add 3 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir and add more flour if needed to make the dough.
Knead, let rise, shape and bake (see below).
This recipe makes about 8 to 10 rolls.

Okay, so this is what you need to do:

Heat up cast iron (12 inch diameter will do) pot (grease bottom well) with lid for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
Take bread, shaped into rolls, and place in cast iron pot.
Turn heat down to lowest and bake for 8 to 10 minutes with lid on.
Take lid off and flip bread over with a metal spatula. Bake for another ten minutes.

Et viola:

Cool on wire racks as you do with any old sort of bread.

Enjoy:

Belize, Farming

Oh Dear!!

July 6, 2017 Munchkin 4 Comments

Oh dear, I think everyone has probably got a complaint or two about this horrible weather! Well, we’ve lost 4 animals. Two because of the cold, dampness and rain and two from a snake and all in one day. Well, the two casualties in the mini emergency unit didn’t make it: old grey goosie in Wheel-Barrow 1 died of pneumonia and The Overlord (aka male turkey) in Wheel-Barrow 2 also passed away. In the same morning, we found a dead duck in the coop; Gnome noticed some blood on its leg but did not think anything of it. Later in the day, we counted the number of ducks that we had in the coop…1-2-3-4-5…hey, wait a minute, there was another one missing. Gnome said suspiciously:

“There’s a predator about!!”

He then scanned his eyes around the coop and found a bloated boa hiding behind the guinea pig cages digesting something the size of a duck:

“There it is!!”

One of our rules on our farm: do no harm to any animal unless it takes the life of one of ours. So, we had to “take care” of this one with Gnome’s pellet gun.

The second rule is to eat what we kill: this one is going to be a curry…

Retrospectively, it looks like the the first dead duckie was probably killed by the snake and she was the next meal.

Rest in Peace our dear animals!! And we hope that everyone out there is having a better time!! Try to stay dry!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Still Going…

July 4, 2017 Munchkin 4 Comments

It’s the Wet Season and the puddles have coalesced into ponds and we are ankle-deep in water. I am not exaggerating!! Nevertheless, the work still needs to be done. It’s all day rains right now so you basically have to run out during the breaks to get things done. Yes, I wish right now that I could hole myself up in a cave (with a full pantry) and ignore the whole farm! But alas, the animals need to be tended to, the farm still needs maintenance and can’t be ignored (otherwise it will turn into one horrible mess) and I still need to harvest and preserve the fruits of the season.

Gnome, despite his hand injury, is trying to help me out and is doing “light work” right now. He’s helping me collect vegetables and fruit and generally trying to keep the level of the humour up by reading to me…he could pick something like a light novel…but this is Gnome humour…

Here are some pictures from the farm; we have been harvesting wax apple….have to get them before the birdies…

The craboo are flowering…really quite beautiful:

Oh and on Sunday we had a few casualties from the torrential rain. We have a very old grey goose (we reckon she is ancient…like about 30 years old… because she has cataracts) got caught in the rain. I found her all sodden in the mud and she was too weak to move. She’s now been placed in emergency wheel barrow 1 with water and food. The other casualty was the Overlord (aka male turkey) who had been sitting on turkey eggs for 7 whole days without taking any breaks. Alas, he was found with his face down in the grass…for a minute I thought he had carked it but he let out an enormous whimper. I quickly dried him up and carried him to emergency wheelbarrow 2; he seems okay now but is really crabbit (I think this is a Scottish word that means crabby) and feeling very sorry for himself.

Right now our mini medical unit is under the house. I hope that we don’t get any more sick animals because we have used up all the wheel-barrows!

Anyway, the Duchess (aka female turkey) is still sitting on the eggs…what a champion. Let’s hope that we get some hatchlings out of this one…about one more week to go.

Belize

Back On-Line…

July 3, 2017 Munchkin

Yesterday (Sunday) was quite a day!! It started off with very early morning rains with black, heavy grey skies and it poured down all day. There was a power cut in the wee hours of the morning (no idea what time it was but it was still very dark). In fact there was no electricity all day (and we were not expecting it to come back because the weather was so awful …I don’t blame the BEL guys for not wanting to come out in torrential rain…and it was a Sunday and nothing happens on a Sunday here).

Oh, and we also got flooded in at the Jacinto junction so there was no way of getting onto the Highway (unless you swam or procured a canoe).

We were stuck. We couldn’t do anything!! So we sat with lots of candles (it was very dark inside and the sun was completely blocked by black puffy clouds) and talked all day. It was actually quite refreshing not to have a computer (with noise, constant clicking of the mouse, silly stuff on FB and the constant Internet distractions).

It was lovely to have nothing. The silence was welcome and we really enjoyed each other’s company. I am thankful for these days that affirm that “we don’t need anything except for each other.” Sometimes, you just think it is it is sentimental stuff that is just things that you say without meaning it. Well I mean it…Munchkin and Gnome really do get on well with each other!!

The electricity (surprisingly) came back on about 6pm. We were just about to call it a day and go to bed!!

On a different note, Gnome has unfortunately hurt his hand (tried to lift a very heavy thing, lifted the heavy thing and ignored the pain in his hand whilst lifting the heavy thing). He is currently out-of-action with regards to physical, heavy work on the farm. Family (particularly Gnome’s Mother) and Friends, please do not be alarmed. This just means that he has sit around for the next few days until his hand gets better.

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Monthly Archives: July 2017