Monthly Archives: June 2021

Amusing, Belize

On A Roll!

Oh yes…another Blog post! I am on a roll…actually, it’s wet and windy outside and I am stuck indoors! We are still in the middle of the transition from dry to wet season. It is getting wetter with night rains. And, oh yes, you have guessed it…we still haven’t finishing the round of mowing yet and the massive downpours of the wet season are imminent.

Anyway, let’s keep on going…where, I am not sure…trying to be funny but I think that fell flat. Here is something funny…I stumbled upon this soda at the Chiney (Supermarkets in Punta Gorda are mostly owned by Chinese people so the locals shorten the name to Chiney). I was very intrigued that there was a fizzy drink touting the flavour of ‘Champagne Cola.’ What a wonderful name…the combination sounded truly divine (methinks I have been in Belize for too long). Here is a picture…sorry, I bashed up the can a bit and then had to re-shape it when I realised that I wanted to take a photo.

Champagne Cola!

It was also really cheap at BZD 1.00 (USD 0.50)!!! This is even cheaper than a bottle of coke…how and why can something be so cheap…the mind boggles. Anyway, here are my tasting notes:

Colour: Super bright sunset orangey, like the colour of rust.

Clarity: Clear bright orange.

Nose: Metallic, familiar smell of a well known brand of carbonated soft drink from Scotland.

Taste: Tastes like (a cheap version) of Irn Bru!!

Irn Bru.

For all of you out there who are wondering what I am raving about, Irn Bru is a fizzy drink that is very popular in Scotland; in fact, it is the top-selling carbonated drink in Scotland. It has this awful artificial taste that every Scottish person identifies with. In Glasgow, people like mixing it with whisky! The Champagne Cola lacks some qualities of the genuine article but there is still enough of a similarity. This one is for all the Irn Bru drinkers in Belize…try Champagne Cola!

Belize

Another Blog Post!

Hello Every-one, I am actually writing another blog post without procrastinating for another 3 weeks! Look…I even have a picture of the ‘Peini’ sign which is what the Garifuna named Punta Gorda when they first settled in this area as a fishing community around 1823. As you drive into Punta Gorda, you will see this sign. Any-one who is a tourist, will want to stop and get their photo (or selfie) taken next to this sign to show that they have been here. Punta Gorda is the main town in the Toledo district and this is where every-one comes to do shopping for groceries and stuff. It is becoming more developed with lots of fancy brand new cars around town. When we first came here about 16 years ago, there was hardly any traffic and most people got around in bicycles. This is a picture of the sea view next to the sign:

Sea View.

I have noticed that a lot of locals like to sit at the pier at lunch time. It is a prime spot! We usually park our truck by the side of the Peini sign and make a cup of tea (or something)…open the car doors to catch the sea breeze.

By The Sea.

Here is a close up picture of the pier:

Sea View.

For those of you who follow our blog posts, they might know that we have been drawing a bit. So far, we have been copying pictures out of a ‘pen and ink’ art book in order to practice the technique. We are going to try drawing the Peini Sign and the pier picture!! This will be our first attempt at drawing our own pictures. I will post up the pictures once they look decent!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants, Uncategorized

Big Rain!

Hello Again! We had a right old downpour last night and the frogs are calling for more rains this morning…wasn’t last night enough? Anyway, we have had a run of hot, muggy weather until this latest rain. Ha-Ha…are the flood flies coming out tonight?!

The days go back so quickly and it was only today that I realised that I hadn’t updated my blog posts for nearly 3 weeks! I do have some new pictures from the farm so let us start without further ado:

Godiva Pumpkin.

This year we planted a patch of Godiva pumpkins…these have seeds without hulls. The pumpkins are quite small at about 15 to 20 cm in length, the flesh is thin-walled but sweet. In each pumpkin, there is a hand-full of pumpkin seeds without hulls…these are very tasty and creamy. We planted a small patch as an experiment as we are interested the seed for cooking oil. We now have enough seed to start a larger growing area but we do realise that we probably need at least 50 plants to supply some cooking oil for our kitchen. Gosh…it is all such hard work…it really makes you realise how convenient it is to walk into a supermarket and buy a bottle of oil! Anyway, this is what we do for the sake of taste that money can’t buy!

Gnome has been preparing melon growing areas with shade…it has been very hot lately so he had to protect the seedlings:

Sunshade for Melons.

We like to plant unusual varieties of melons…this year we found two Italian varieties. One of them has is dark green with ribs and the other has a knobbly orangey-green appearance. I was going to include the names but I have thrown out the packets! I will take pictures once they have formed. Melons grow well in Belize as long as you watch out for the pesky caterpillars that burrow holes into them!

This is a new interesting harvest this year from our farm. We planted guanacaste seeds about 15 years ago which have grown into huge canopy trees. This year, they finally started flowering and we have seed. This seeds are very unusual looking…they are also called ‘elephant ear’ pods…

Guanacaste Pod.

Apparently, in Mexico, they eat they eat the seeds while they are green. When they are mature, you are supposed to be able to ‘pop’ them like popcorn. We haven’t tried experimenting with the seeds yet to test out the edibility. We will…of course…Munchkin likes to eat and will try anything!

Okay, that is for today. More pictures soon!

Belize, Farming, Food

Catch Up!

Hello, I finally downloaded some pictures to write about what we have been doing. Oh, and before I forget, the flood flies didn’t come as predicted. So, we are watching and waiting…we think it will most likely be around the full moon this month. One thing for certain is that they will come…those dastardly things have never ever missed a year!

Flood Flies.

Okay, so I am catching you up with some pictures. We are always doing stuff…I just get too tired or lazy to write about it! I don’t think that I ever mentioned the price of market tomatoes in dry season. Well, they go dirt cheap and drop down to BZD 0.50 (USD 0.25) per pound. They actually come all the way from Mexico. Just in case you don’t know: generally speaking, onions and tomatoes are imported. They don’t grow much of it here…they are notoriously difficult to grow in Belize…believe me, I have tried…too wet, too wet, too wet! Anyway, this year, I couldn’t pass up the bargain tomatoes and decided to dry a whole bunch of them.

Dried Tomatoes.

Each gallon jar contains 20lbs (10kg) of fresh tomatoes. They are very nice in soups, stews and stir fry; the concentrated flavour is very tasty. We have a new Gnome-Drying method; Gnome has attached trays up against the roof…during the hot midday sun, the temperature can get to about 60oC (140F):

Roof Drying with Munchkin and Gnome.

We have found that this a great way to sun dry vegetables and fruit. It has also been sapodilla season so I dried a whole bunch of them for making fruit cake. When dried, they taste just like dates.

Dried Sapodiila Fruit.

This year, I managed to get 4 gallons of dried sapodilla. I have made a ‘date’ cake already…sorry, no picture because we ate it before I could get the camera out. Needless to say, it was very good!

I have a whole bunch of pictures so hopefully you will get more blog posts soon. I’ll leave you with a picture of our own home-made tofu…will elaborate more on this next time.

Our Tofu!

Have a good evening!