We were poised to work this morning since the rains have been stopping us from getting outside…and there is so much work to catch up with. We heard the distant sound of thunder as we awoke…hmmm rather ominous but pretended to ignore it! At 7am we ran out and Gnome got the mower out quick smart…at the same time there was a huge clap of thunder. More signs!! We both ran around and tried to get as much done as possible and sure enough at 8am, the rain came pouring down.

We came into the house both drenched. This happens all the time…the weather just doing its thing and we have to go with it. We have been doing this for about twenty years now…this is the story of our lives! Anyway, the grass keeps growing, the bush is encroaching and the weeds need weeding. Jolly good…we are right into the swing of rainy season in Belize!

Let’s talk about what we are harvesting right now. We have (at long, long last) started getting mangoes. Mango season in Belize is July but our season seems to be later and extending through to September. In fact, all our crops always seem to be behind a couple of months!! Since Gnome is the more technical one, I asked him why all our crops were late and out of sync with the rest of the country. This is what he said:

Oh, okay, thank you Gnome for your valued input!! Let’s just talk about the mangoes then…these are the best and our favourite. They are giant slipper mangoes that can weigh anything from 2 to 5lbs. The flesh is a chunky, smooth with no fibres and the taste is absolutely mango. We were given the seed by a Taiwanese horticulturist about 4 years ago and now it has started bearing very generously. This one is a keeper.

About 4 years ago, we also bought a whole lot of ‘grafted mangoes’ from a nursery. The variety is Tommy Atkins and we were told at the time that the grafted mangoes would bear at about 1 year. Nothing happened until now and all the trees make variations of the Tommy Atkins fruit so we think that these were not grafted after all and they were just grown from seed. Tommy Atkins Mangoes are a beautiful blue-purple and then ripen to a dark red colour. Our fruits are varied…some are large, round and very fibrous and others are slimmer looking and there are ones that taste like sour pineapple! I was disappointed at first but there is no way of knowing what you end up with until it starts bearing…by that time, the merchant has legged it with your hard earned cash!

Our breadfruit trees are bearing and not only are they ‘out of season’, they are also consistently small. Most breadfruit are the size of soccer balls…ours are more like baseballs. We have tried all sorts of things like mulching and fertilising…they are still teeny weeny tiny!! That’s okay, they are still tasty and edible…

In my twenty years in Belize, the only way that I have seen this cooked is fried like french fries. They are peeled (or not), the central core is removed (sometimes not) and they are cut into about 1/2 inch slices and fried in oil. It’s very nice and tasty but if you have a bearing tree, you can’t keep up with eating fried breadfruit all the time…you will end up feeling like a greasy lump! This is what I do: I gather the harvest and prepare them in batches. The fruit is peeled, cored and cut into cubes. Then par-boiled for 6 minutes, drained in a collard and once cooled, stored in quart bags in the freezer.

So, when you want to eat breadfruit, take out a bag of frozen breadfruit and thaw it. You can put them in stews, soups, stir fries…anything you like. It is also very nice cooked in coconut milk with garlic and chili pepper. Just be imaginative…they basically taste like potato so just use them in any recipe that you would otherwise use potato. It is very versatile and yes indeed, you can even fry it in oil from the frozen form!

Okay, that is it for now. It’s sunny again and Gnome has just ran out with the mower. It is amazing what magic he can do in one hour!! Go For It, Gnome!!