Last week, I wrote about making coconut milk cheese – feta style…this is the update. After the three days of dry brining, I took out the cheese and cut it into pieces like so:

The cheese had dried to a firm consistency and so it was easy enough to cut without too much crumbling.  I then placed them in 7% brine; one jar with bay leaves and the second flavoured with whole black peppers.

I am going to leave the jars out at room temperature so that they can ferment further for two weeks.  After that, I will I will let them continue to ferment for several months in a cooler area (probably the refrigerator).  Hope they taste good after all the waiting!!

Gnome Update:

Gnome has started on a project where he is digging out a small pond next to the house:

He has also started up some lotus seeds in a basin which have germinated and come up nicely:

The plan is to have a lotus pond next to the house.  Apart from the beautiful flowers, we also want to grow them for food.  We would eventually like to make our own lotus paste to make Chinese sweets:

This was sent to us as a gift all the way from Singapore; I am saving it to make moon cake this year.  Also, lotus seeds are really tasty in Chinese soups…yes, you can actually buy these in Belize!

Lotus root is also quite a treat and I would love to grow some of our own because I haven’t eaten it for over a decade since I came to Belize.  It will probably take over a year before we can harvest any to eat.

Aaaaargh…more waiting!!