Farm Food…

September 19, 2018 Munchkin

Hello! We have had about 10 days straight of dry, sunny weather and we have been working our little butts off! Today, we are sooo tired that we have decided to take the day off. This is how we look at the end of the day: Oh, so knackered, just want to sleep…

Please note that the Cat has not been physically working and looks like this all the time!!

Anyway, I have managed to wrestle back control over the trees in the yard and the pond area. They have been cleaned up, mulched and fertilised and now on a maintenance schedule. The next battle is the orchard at the back which was overgrown for two years because of machinery failure. Now that Gnome has brought the grass/bush back down, I have been piling up all the debris and branches. A big thank-you to Panda for helping out with this bit! This was the orchard…very bushy. Now, it has really opened up. The orchard mostly consisted of sapodilla trees but from cleaning up, it looks like we may have lost about 6 out of 20 of the trees. We will probably replace with a variety of fruit trees including golden plum, mango and rambutan. This is a picture of “before”…don’t have “after” yet…

Meanwhile, Gnome has been preparing the veranda for electricity and plumbing. We are moving the sink out of the house (not enough space) with a view to moving the kitchen out too (not enough space!). To add to all these plans within plans, we have decided (work in process and will take a couple of years to establish) to have two cooking areas. We will have a cooking area on the veranda with dedicated charcoal stoves…mostly set up for Gnome for Italian slow-cooking, wine-making and whatever he feels like cooking up. At some stage, I will have an outside Munchkin kitchen with a fire/coal pit so I will do most of the cooking over coals. There will be a dedicated sheltered sitting area outside for this and a little kitchen-bunker made from used tyres. 🙂 That’s the plan…

Anyway, the farm keeps on producing and each season brings something different to the kitchen table. We have a blackberry bearing right now; very difficult to harvest because the tree is so tall so I have to wait for the berries to fall to the ground. I tried thrashing the branches about with a big stick but I got too tired. If I can collect enough, I will get Gnome to make some wine:

It is also the season for peach-palm. The geese love these and actually wait underneath the palms for the fruit to fall and when this happens, this sets off a rugby-type game that they play. It’s fun to watch amidst the goosie shrieks and carrying-on. Run Goosie Run!!

We are eating them too. I cut them in half, remove the centre seed and boil them for about 45 minutes. Since, I do this in large batches, the cooked fruit is stored in the freezer ready for stews and soups.

Oh and the malabar spinach looks very healthy and has taken over a whole bed:

Aubergines (eggplants) are starting to produce; Pantry Cat is also looking after the vegetables…he keeps the iguanas away during the day…good boy, remember to wake up if you hear any stealthy crunch-crunch noises!!

Belize, Farming

Hope.

September 18, 2018 Munchkin

Hope is a good thing. I had made the decision to leave my duckies alone this year and not bother them about laying and nesting. I opened the coop and told them that they were free to walk around and do whatever pleased them. I then quickly stuck a greenhouse in the coop…thinking: aha, since you are not going to be around, I will move my tiny plant nursery off the veranda into your big, spacious coop!!

Anyway, guess what happens next? A few days later, Gnome spotted a duck emerging surreptitiously from under a wood pile. He said,

“Quick Munchkin…check that space out…”

I quickly got down on my hands and knees to peer into a tiny, squashed-up space under a wood pile and this is what I found:

They are laying and starting a nest. Yes…there is hope. 😉

Belize, Farming

Duckie Exchange.

September 12, 2018 Munchkin

We have been a bit unlucky with duckies this year. We had about 6 girls initially and one by one we lost them through some pesky possums early in the year. I managed to incubate a few eggs and had a few duckies to mother…sadly, none of them survived either…some were too weak and I actually stood on one too. I know, I know, I was so devastated that I couldn’t even write that in a post! Ducklings have a very erratic way of walking ie. they don’t walk in a straight line AND Munchkins have an erratic way of walking…so, put the two together and it might be a recipe for disaster! Oh dear, no duckies this year:

Anyway, we have ended up with a lone surviving duck and three drakes. The last two months, we attempted to isolate the female with one drake in the coop. They had the whole infinity pond to themselves and access to all- they- can eat corn and protein buffet. Despite all this pampering, duckie was not laying any eggs (or was there a snake getting them, I am not sure?). We felt that she was lonely and unhappy and needed some female company to perk up. To add to all this stress, during this confinement period, the drake kept on escaping through invisible holes in the coop to chase after the other two drakes! Yes, oh what fun!! It just wasn’t working out at all…

So, we decided to seek out our Duckie Exchange guy in Punta Gorda. We have known this guy for as long as we have had duckies…so, probably about 14 years. He owns ducks and occasionally, he goes through difficult duckie times like ours; when this happens he usually seeks us out for a pair of duckies to start again. Over the years, we have sought each other out in duckie dearth times. This time it was our turn. He said that he was happy to spare a a few for us even although he had suffered quite a loss recently. That was really nice of him. Whilst talking, he told us that he had lost his only male goose to the dog. As he told us, his single female goose walked by…she was so tame and cute and she had a funny, limping gait. He explained to us that when she was a gosling, a crab nipped off all her toes so that was why she walked in a teeter-totter sort of way. Anyway, we thanked him for his help and said that we would return to pick up the ducks.

Afterwards, Gnome and I talked and agreed that since we had always helped each other out, we would give the guy a male goose in exchange for the duckies. It is coming up to goosie breeding season again and the fights will start with the September solstice. There is one particular male goosie that gets the brunt of it all and we end up throwing him into the duck coop for protection. I am not sure why the other males go for him because he is very fine-looking and he is a fighter too. Gnome and I agreed that he would probably be happier in a new home despite our reluctance to let go of our beloved goosie.

Anyway, that Duckie-Goosie exchange took place about two weeks ago. Every time, we are in town, we slow down in front of the house to catch a glimpse of our dear goosie. He looks a lot happier walking proudly about with his new lady and it looks like he is the new boss of the yard! Oh I know, we are suckers for happy endings…let us also hope for a happy ending for the duckies because we want more of these little cuties!!

Belize, Food

Munchkin’s Journey Ration.

September 8, 2018 Munchkin

Gnome has charged me with the task of making a journey ration (cake) in the old-fashioned sense of the word. He is looking for a staple that can be used for journeys or simply as a food ration. It must be balanced with carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. Also, it should be storable at room temperature and have a reasonably long shelf life. Taste is also an important criteria! Oh, and I have to try to use ingredients that I can find in Belize or better still, food that is harvested from our farm.

Since we have had a few rainy days, I have had time to experiment: I am using the Italian Panforte as a basis for my recipe. Nowadays, Panforte is eaten at Christmas time and can contain almonds, citrus peel, dried fruits and spices tightly packed and bound together with a mixture of flour (very little) and honey. Traditionally, panforte was used as a “journey cake” for soldiers during long marches.

Since I don’t have an oven any-more, I have had to start the recipe from scratch and find a way to cook it on a cast iron skillet over a charcoal stove. The first challenge is to get a basic recipe that actually works using this baking modality.

The first batch contained the following: Toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried jackfruit, lime peel with cassava starch, honey, jackfruit wine and brown sugar to bind. I flavoured it with clove and cinnamon. Here is a picture; they look very Christmasy!

So far, so good. The rations baked well and were very tasty. I calculated these basic rations to be about 350 kcals each so on an active day, we would need to consume 6 of these and on a sedentary day, 3 of them. Now that I have the basic recipe, I will be working on the following additions and modifications:

Extra protein possibly in the form of beef jerky/ ground ora pro nobis leaves.
Vitamins and minerals from dried, ground chaya leaves.
Addition of a variety of dried fruits from the farm (suriname cherry, mango, pineapple, sapodilla and whatever I can get my hands on!)
Addition of a variety of citrus peel from the farm including lemon, calamondin and grapefruit for taste.
More exotic nut or nut-like food that we grow eg. cashew nuts, malabar chestnut and even coconuts.
Cacao beans (nibs)!
Oooohhh, I am sure I will think of more things! It starts to get very fun and exciting to boldly go into the creative unknown!

This is still a work in progress and I am happy to keep on experimenting whenever the mood takes me. So far, Gnome has been pleased with my efforts…I know this because he has eaten all my ration bars!! In addition to this, I have made 100kcal truffle rations which can be eaten in between normal meals when we need a little bit of extra energy for physical work on the farm. This lot has been polished off too…also a winner!!

Okay, I will keep you posted on my Munchkin Journey Rations!!

Amusing, Farming

A Job For The Cat!

September 7, 2018 Munchkin

I feel a tad stupid writing this post because it seems like a very obvious solution to a very obvious problem. However, it has taken me eight years to come to this realisation.

From my knowledge of The New World, cats were introduced from the Old World by Post Columbian Contact (1490’s). Back in the good old days, cats existed to do a job ie. keep rat populations down and that is why you had a ship’s cat or a larder cat. As far as I know, cats did not exist at that time, exclusively for cuteness and cuddling.

Well, nowadays, cats do exist for cuteness and cuddling and we (and they) have forgotten their ancestral days of work, struggle and rat chasing! Indeed, we have a Millennial Cat!

Okay, so I have a cat on the farm for eight years and he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Sometimes, I feel that he has trained us to exist only to feed and cuddle him…I scratch my head and wonder… at what point did the tables turn on us…

(There is a rat running amok in my kitchen eating teabags…why is the cat not doing his job??)

Since it has been raining non-stop, the cat has taken to sleeping in the same spot, at the back of the house, for 23.5 hours of the day. For the 30 minutes of awake time, he is performing cat toilet duties or persuading me to feed him. He sleeps on a black executive chair with an extra layer of cloth for comfort:

Okay, so what do I do? I can’t shout at him and I can’t talk to him…Catch the rat, you stupid lazy good-for-nothing cat!! And besides, he looks too cute to reprimand!

This is what we have done. We have surrounded his executive chair with food that needs protecting. The sack of corn and the dog food is beside him. Any vegetables or fruit, of significance, are placed in his sleeping space. Look, we have our vegetables protected by the cat!

It’s working. No rat dares to come near any of the sacks with a fat cat guarding them. Gnome says that if we need extra security in the kitchen, we can always wheel the executive chair in to that area. So there you go, we now have a pantry cat!

Amusing, Belize

Super Rat!

September 5, 2018 Munchkin

Since I have been stuck indoors with the rains, I decided to take some time to tidy up the kitchen/pantry. The kitchen always looks like a bomb has hit it…well, that is because I am always in the middle of cooking! Gnome however, would (beg to differ) and say that I was just plain messy and then I would shout back at him and demand a bigger kitchen. He would argue back and say,

“…oh, so you want a bigger mess!!”

Cheeky Bugger!! All of this is said in jest of course and this is Munchkin and Gnome friendly banter whilst cooped inside a house on rainy days!

Anyway, the other day, while cleaning my kitchen shelves, I come across a whole trail of gnawed teabags and I followed the tea leaf trail to this…

I was flabbergasted when I saw this…a rat (I think) had systematically gnawed around the plastic container, like a can-opener, and stopped half-way. It didn’t even get to the food inside! I showed this to Gnome and he said,

“…the rat must have stopped mid-way when it ran out of caffeine!”

I pictured a caffeine-high rat running amok in the kitchen. What a funny picture! Anyway, after seeing the razor-sharp capabilities of an intrepid rat, I promptly put all food away in glass or metal containers. No plastic. I also put away the teabags. In the evening, I had an after-thought and said to Gnome,

“…maybe I should leave one teabag out for the poor rat…he might go into withdrawal…”

Gnome’s reply,
“…you are kidding, right?”

Belize, Farming, Plants

Some More Farm Pictures.

September 3, 2018 Munchkin

I have been starting to look a bit more into my Chinese heritage since my father passed away recently. To be honest, I never really thought that much about it and usually, if anyone asked, I would say I was Cantonese for easiness sake. Actually, I am not Cantonese and I don’t even speak Cantonese. I am Hakka….well, you are probably thinking that you are none the wiser being told this information…anyway, it is significant because Hakka people were traditionally farmers and within their social structure, it was the women that worked the fields (subsistence farming) whilst the men worked in the urban areas (for money). Interesting that the Hakka were the only Chinese that did not practice foot binding…probably because the women had to work outside.

Anyway…my convoluted introduction was just to add another layer of interest…maybe Munchkin is going full circle and getting in touch with her ancestral roots?!! 😉

Okay, more pictures:

Gnome has been pruning trees (probably about 3 to 4 times a week) and gathering the wood to make charcoal. The previous charcoal container was over-flowing so he had to make it larger and sloping to allow better access.

The tyre garden is working out well especially when the ground is so boggy right now. We are stashing taro in between the tyres in the hope that the geese overlook them…so far, so good. The geese have a very healthy appetite when it comes to roots like taro and we are careful to hide them from their plain sight.

We are also developing a grove of pitahaya (dragon fruit) on tyres. The cactus is trained to grow up the posts and once they reach the top and start dangling…which usually takes about 9 months…will produce fruit. So far, we have about twelve of these and I am aiming for about 20 or more plants.

The tyres are filled with seaweed (courtesy of Panda…thanks!). Right now, with full on rainy season, it takes about a week for the salt to wash out of the seaweed…once washed out, the cactus is planted and attached to the post with bindweed vine.

Belize, Farming, Plants

Progress on the Farm.

September 1, 2018 Munchkin

Yeah! We have managed to keep the grass down this year which is definitely progress for us! This helps because we can actually look around to make plans for the farm. Despite the weather being on/off or sunny/rainy ie. can’t make up its mind, we are in good spirits because everything is proceeding at a reasonable pace. We have had a whole week cooped up inside the teeny house because of wet, boggy ground and coalescing ponds and I finally managed to get out today to take a few pictures.

Here is a giant toad that resides in the duck coop; seems to be quite happy to jump around with the ducks and sit in the dinner bowl.

We had a good harvest of Malabar Chestnut…the cultivated Chinese variety which tastes like chestnuts. Don’t get this one confused with the wild variety here in Belize, also known as provision fruit, that gives “edible” seeds; yes, edible in that it isn’t poisonous but inedible because it tastes like cardboard. Believe me, I’ve tried and I would definitely categorise the wild chestnuts as survival food! Anyway, I digress…I wanted to show you pictures of our harvest:

I think that you may only recognise these if you are Asian and you are used to buying packets of Chinese soup ingredients that only have Chinese writing on them. I am used to seeing these seeds in the dried form; the fresh form is very nutty and succulent. We like them so much that we have decided to plant another forty trees; they are especially good for growing in wet, swampy areas so they are perfect for many areas of our farm.

Oh and look! The peanuts are still going. This is Day 93; another 27 days to go. We have had a few occasions when we thought that the whole field would get flooded or washed away with the rains but it has managed to battle through. We are very pleased with the peanuts; the straw like stuff in between the rows are cut vetivir.

Last but not least, it is bamboo shoot time. I did not harvest last year because we were too busy. I said to Gnome this year that I was happy to harvest about five of them; that will make about 5 gallons which will last the whole year. For the first time, we are proceeding at a pace that allows us to catch the cycles on the farm. Usually, we are behind schedule and trying to catch up. Phew, it has taken 14 years to get to this stage…Ha-Ha!!

Another picture:

Looks like more rains are coming!!

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Monthly Archives: September 2018