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!!

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