All posts by Munchkin

Belize, Farming, Plants

The Usual!!

Well, what’s the usual? Life, environment and the usual getting in the way of farm work. The first “usual thing” was that Gnome got ready to start on his big mow around the 20 cleared acres and he was gone only for half an hour before he had trundle back to the house. A cable broke on the mower and he tried to Belize-rig it without any success. So, the mower is down!

When it works, it’s Great!

We are back to this again…Ha-Ha!!

Manual Mower.

What else? Gnome changed tactic and decided that yesterday would be a good day for chain-sawing since the weather report stated “Nice Day.” At 6am there was a huge rain that continued all morning. Our plans had been thwarted by the Gods yet again! Did they mean “Nice Rainy Day?”

Anyway, that’s the Munchkin and Gnome usual. And here are the usual round of pictures:

This is a cutting from a voluntary tomato that just appeared in one of our tyres a couple of months ago. It is the local tomato variety but they seem to be a lot sweeter than the bought produce.

Growing Tomatoes.

The rue (it is called ruda in Belize) is thriving. They like a dry environment similar to rosemary and sage. I also bagged some curry plant seedlings in black bags seen to the front of the picture.

Growing Rue.

This is a wild passionflower with produces a strong resin. It is used medicinally rather than for culinary purposes:

Wild Passionflower

The black pepper plants are growing well in tyres…taking out new leaves:

Growing Pepper.

The jackass bitters are flowering everywhere at this time of the year. This is a very popular medicinal herb of Belize which is used to treat external ulcers and sores and internal parasites.

Jackass Bitters.

Okay, we will tentatively attempt some farm work today!!

Amusing, Farming

Hot and Dry!

Yes, this exactly how I feel. It has been hot and dry! So what has been happening. We have been stuck on the farm for the whole week because our truck is getting fixed up. The rear bumper is “rotten bad” and the side panels have been flapping out for a long time. We left our truck in Belmopan on Monday and took the chicken bus back to PG; it was a six hour journey which felt like it would never end! The music was on full blast for the entire time…luckily towards the end the music mellowed out into easy listening Spanish folk songs.

Anyway, we don’t mind being on the farm with no wheels. We like being here and there are lots of things to be done. I have taken a few pictures around the farm so you can see what is happening.

This patch is getting bigger:

Mother in Law’s Tongue.
Flowering Mother in Law’s Tongue.

Everything is flowering right now. This is the cinnamon:

Flowering Cinnamon.

The suriname cherries are looking very pretty with the white flowers:

Suriname Cherry

In my last post, I mentioned that we were starting our crepuscular routine which means being active during dawn and dusk so that we can work during the coolest parts of the day. I have noticed that the cat is following suit…as soon as it starts getting light in the morning at about 6.30am, he has found a cool spot to sleep until 5pm. However, I am not quite sure when he is actually active! At 5pm, he waits confidently by his dinner plate for food to be dished out to him and by 8pm he is looking for another sleep spot.

Gnome mentioned that the cat was getting fat.

This was my reply:

“…oh, he has big bones and most of it is fur!” (Ha-Ha!!)

Anyway, he does look very healthy:

Cat in a Box.

Oh to have the life of a cat…

Belize, Farming

Let’S Get Crepuscular!

Last weekend was cloudy and wet. It was quite funny because I had been wingeing about the weather reports being all wrong and they had predicted “precipitation” last weekend. Of course, it was Sod’s law that they were actually correct for once. We were forced to stay in; here is a picture of the grey clouds with a double rainbow. In the picture, you can only see one distinctly…I assure you that I saw two!! It was not because I had double vision!!

Double Rainbow.

Now, everything has abruptly dried up and it is dry, dry, dry. That means the hot, sunny Real Feel 45C (113F) days will be coming. Gnome says that we better get crepuscular soon. Crepuscular animals are those that are active only during the periods of dawn and dusk. That’s right…this means getting up at 4am and running out at 6am to get work down in the coolest part of the day. By 10am, the heat will be unbearable and we will have to run under the shade of a coconut tree to sleep and rest.

The weather was hot and sunny today so we went “off road” and drove to the back area. We collected some more wood to take to the charcoal area. Oh and we have sapodillas too…not so much this year because the sapodilla orchard was partially destroyed by an accidental fire. This will be a project for later in the year: replant sapodilla orchard. Anyway, we probably have enough to make a bucket of wine.

Sapodilla.

What else have we been doing? We have been thinning the coconut palms so we have a whole ton of water coconuts. Gnome emptied the water into a 5 gallon bucket…I think it ended up being about 50 coconuts. This is going to be wine…

Green Coconuts.

Oh and I have good news. My Goosie…you know the first goosie that I looked after as Mama Goosie last year? I am such a proud parent and I don’t care that I am bragging about her…she is the most beautiful, voluptuous goosie on the farm! She has chosen a fine looking boyfriend and is laying eggs for us. I would love to see their goosie babies!! My Goosie is the grey one and the white Chiney goosie is her handsome young chap.

My Goosie and Her Boyfriend.

Okay, have a nice Sunday!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

It’s Goosie Time!!

Hello Everyone!! Yes, it is indeed Goosie Time and they are pecking at our boots, beating our legs with their wings and generally causing mayhem and havoc on the farm. We found our first goosie egg on Chinese New Year and then our second one on Valentines’s Day. Luckily, we had saved up the first one so that we could eat one each. The eggs were huge and the yolks were a beautiful orange colour. Gnome cooked them as a Valentine’s treat Italian-style…slow-cooked in olive oil…this method involves spooning the oil over the egg to cook it. Ooooh…very tasty…each goose egg is equivalent to three chicken eggs.

Fried Goose Eggs.

This morning, we found one of our goosies in the grey water area which Gnome had caged off. He had feasted on all the forbidden peanuts!! He had systematically ripped up all the peanuts around the ditch looking for the nuts to eat. The dastardly goose!! I had to toss him out quite unceremoniously! Whilst I was doing this, other goosies crowded round trying to find the weak spot in the cage. I was soooo mad and I shook my fist at them shouting,

“…and to think that I was going to write a dedicated Blog post on how much I love my goosies!!”

These goosies are up to no good trying to find a way in…look at them..they are plotting. Will they figure it out? They have found the mound of earth…which one is clever enough to jump in!!

Goosies!!

Anyway, I have another goosie story which is a lot more heart-warming. A while ago, we swapped a male goosie (we had far too many and he was being bullied by other males) for some ducks. Well, today the guy who received the goosie hailed us down when we passed by his house. He was awfully excited and beckoned us to follow him,

“…come, come…I must show you something!”

He told us that his female goose had laid 2 eggs and set them successfully. Sure enough, we peered into his cage and there were two little-big goosies peeping up at us. Awwwwh!!!! The guy was so over-joyed and we were very pleased to see that our male goosie had done his job well. Apparently, he is guarding his female partner valiantly whilst she is setting again. He thanked us profusely for such a stud of a goose! When Gnome and I got back into the truck, we both said in unison:

“…we want more babies!!” (meaning of course, goosie babies!!)

Goosie Fever has started….

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Farm Harvests.

The weather guess (forecast?) for today was “good day for lawn-mowing.” When we got up, it started raining and it proceeded to rain on and off until 10am. Gnome muttered to himself:

“….hmmm…not good day for lawn-mowing.”

The weather reports are becoming a joke with us and they are starting to appear like wild guesses that are about 90% wrong most of the time. We were thinking of reading tea leaves or getting a crystal ball instead…

We finally managed to get out mid-morning. Gnome dug holes and planted out the rest of the seedlings. We now have peach palm and jackfruit in the orchard area. I went harvesting today; It seems to be berry season right now on the farm.

The huckleberry plants seem to like the worst soil conditions. Last time I planted them in a prime spot on a bed with lovely dark soil and they hardly did anything, This time, I stuck them in the ground in thick, hard clay and they are thriving and producing well. Here are some fruits:

Huckleberries.

We have one miracle fruit bush and it is bearing so much this year. I have described this plant before; it contains a molecule that binds to your taste buds making sour things taste sweet. I find that I can’t use it all the time…there is only a certain amount of sour things you can consume in one day! Anyway, they are a pretty fruit:

Miracle Fruit.

This is all that I collected today. The green leaves are malabar spinach; they grow all year round and are our main greens at the moment. The orange fruits are Barbados gooseberry; I have started putting them in savoury dishes with pork…the acidity helps to balance and compliment the fattiness of the meat…very tasty!

Berry Time.

Oh, lastly…we have a harvest of black peanut. We didn’t manage to get much this time round because there was a large tree shading the peanut area which stunted the growth and production. Nevertheless, we got enough to start a bigger patch and Gnome is very pleased with his black peanuts.

Black Peanuts.

That’s it for tonight. Wishing you all a lovely weekend…there is supposed to be 6 hours of rain tomorrow…let’s wait and see!

Belize, Food, Plants

Back To Work!

2 Comments

Gnome has had his seven days off to recover from his neck injury and we went back to working on the farm today. He is a lot better and he was hauling heavy stuff, digging holes in the earth and moving wheel-barrows around without any problems. This is what he said to me this morning:

“…hang on a minute…why did you end up taking a week off too??”

I sort of shifted uncomfortably from side to side and stared down at my feet and replied:

“…well…I was looking after you…and it was Chinese New Year…and I wanted a week off too!”

(I thought to myself… that was plenty of reasons to take seven days off !!)

He shook his head and laughed at me.

Anyway, it started off as a grey and rainy type of day so we decided to plant our last lot of plants outside. The malibar chestnut and jackfruit have been planted in the area behind the pond.


Planting Cleared Area.

Tomorrow we will be planting a row of peach palms in the coconut area:

Peach Palm

These palms produce fruit that the geese love. This is another tree that they camp around hoping for fruits to fall from the sky.

Peach Palm.

We have other plants that are not quite big enough to plant outside so they will have to be cared for over the dry season. Luckily, I had the foresight to remember not to fill up the nursery over dry season this year so we only have akee, pomegranate, giant molly apple and rambutan plants. This is the Sardinian pomegranate; we have 10 ready for planting in July; Gnome’s Mother will be pleased to see these!

Pomegranate Seedling.

We have been harvesting taro which means we are eating this everyday right now; we probably have a whole sack full. This year we managed to surreptitiously plant them in places where the geese did not notice…in-between tyres and underneath trees. Beware…they have a keen eye for every edible plant!

Harvesting Taro.

Cleaned up and peeled, they look like this:

Sliced Taro.

We had a lovely day working together and will continue to do so as it keep us fit and out of trouble!! 😉

Belize, Farming, Plants

Delightful Day!

The title of this Blog post is a bit tongue-in-cheek because Gnome looked up the weather forecast for today and it stated “Delightful Day.” What does that mean exactly? Anyway, as soon as the alarm clock went off at 6am this morning, the clouds were right on cue to let loose a down-pour. Ha-Ha!! Did they mean Delightful (Rainy) Day? We had a chuckle and promptly went back to sleep. We can’t do anything on a farm in rain and besides, we are giving Gnome the full week to recover from the neck injury. He is getting better by the way but this morning he over-stretched his neck muscles again in the nursery…he just moved a tiny plant pot! Anyway, Gnome is in charge of germinating nursery seeds so he’s got the aubergines, sage, rosemary, mint and other things started. Here is a picture of some basil seedlings that are ready for transplanting…

Sweet Basil Seedlings.

We are both resting and staying out of trouble so I am catching up with some recent photos from the farm. This is the view from the west side of the back veranda which used to be obscured by akee trees. Gnome has cut them all down so that we can spy on the geese looking for nesting sites: right now they look like they are exploring for possible places but there is still no sign of egg laying.

We are Watching You!

This is a picture taken about two weeks ago; we had another fun ride through coconut palms and orchard trees to move cut wood from the pond area to our charcoal making site. We even got right next to the charcoal bin…only squashed one porcupine plant on the way!! Backing out was a bit of a palaver but it was still manageable. It beats using the wheel-barrow!!

Unloading Firewood.

This is a the Peruvian Corn planted on Christmas Eve. They are getting taller and we have planted adzuki beans in-between the rows to add nitrogen to the soil. They are looking good:

Peruvian Corn.

I will keep on writing for as long as we are stuck indoors…

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Early Jackfruit.

2 Comments

Hello, I am writing a bit more since we are both stuck at home. Gnome’s neck injury is getting better but as soon as he tries to do any type of lifting, the pain comes back again. I am giving him a full week and will re-assess for light activity on Wednesday. He is keeping his humour up and is reading up on silly things like Groundhog Day (which was yesterday) and asking me if I would eat a groundhog; my answer was “Yes…I am Chinese…the Chinese will eat everything!” Oh yeah, he was also looking at the protein content of millipedes to see if we could supplement our diet with it! He’s not kidding by the way…he’s also asked me to re-start the wormery as a protein source and asked me: “…how would you cook them?” and I cheekily replied with,”…Kung-po Worm! Sweet and Sour Worm, name any Chinese-Style and I will make it into a worm dish. I am of course not kidding too and will in the future post up worm dishes once I get enough of them to eat.

Talking of food…this year we have early jackfruit from a newly bearing tree. The tree is about 30 yards from the house in an area away from our normal walkways. We didn’t notice until this week when the geese stopped going to the pond in the morning. We scratched our heads and wondered what was the matter and then we saw the main goosie group camping under a jackfruit tree. Any other goose (not from their group) that happened to cross their path would get pecked and screeched at.

Goosies Camping Under Jackfruit Tree.

On closer inspection, we saw that a ripe jackfruit had fallen to the ground and head goosie was pecking at the fruit as if he was trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the “Fastest Time a jackfruit can be eaten by a goose in one sitting.” Then we stared up at the tree and saw four humongous jackfruit just ripe for the picking. Aha, the dastardly geese were waiting for the next one to fall down and feast upon! We managed to harvest just in time…look at these beauties:

We normally harvest jackfruit on our farm in July and August. February is very early but it is actually a better time because with the dry weather at this time of the year, they are less likely to rot and get damaged by torrential rain. Plus, this is an unusual time for fruit trees to produce so it is a welcome harvest on the farm.

Yesterday, I prepared one of the jackfruits and attempted to process it in a different way; Gnome’s mother had sent me a link where there was a very skilled person peeling the fruit in a spiral-like manner in a matter of minutes.

utube.com/Nila’s Kitchen

It was one of those videos that made it look so easy peasy! Well, I tried it and found that the jackfruit was too heavy (20lbs/ 10kgs) to manipulate in this way. I did however modify the method by cutting it into 3 inch rings and peeling the rings from the central core… then the fruit could be readily popped out like on the video. This took me less time compared to my old method…30 minutes instead of one hour so I will continue with the new improved approach. Once I am more skilled, I might be able to spiralise it and make a 2 minute video!!

Jackfruit:

Jackfruit.

Okay, I will write more since we can’t get out right now to do farm work!!

Belize, Medical Related

Pain In The Neck!!

2 Comments

Gnome has been out of action since Wednesday morning with a neck sprain. He was chain-sawing a high branch of a tree (the chain-saw is heavy and he was on his tippy-toes); I saw his face contort and luckily he could steady himself to switch the chain-saw off safely. I ran to his aid as he complained of neck pain and shooting pains down both arms (well, he was going ARRRGH ARRRRGH a and there was a lot of body language). Oh, poor Gnome!! I helped him back into the house and put my Doctor hat on (luckily we are both doctors so can stay collected and calm under these stressful conditions). With a couple hours of rest, analgaesia and observation we decided that it was not a medical emergency.

We have had accidents on the farm in the past and have just suffered and got through it together in our stoic sort of way! This time, we took a different approach and decided to “share the anxiety and stress.” So, with Gnome loaded up to the eye-balls with pain-killers, off we went to the Social Security department in Punta Gorda to report the accident. They were soooo nice and helpful and I was relieved to have done it. They said to us that it was important to report any accident on the workplace immediately because even although it might start off looking like a minor problem, the fact that we have reported a case allows them to follow up with medical investigations, treatment and care should the problem become chronic and ongoing. What have a learned from this? We really should remember to ask for help when needed…because we are doctors and the buck usually stops at us we often think that we have to bear the pain ourselves!!

I am happy that we live in such a small community in which we are not just a (social security) number and because we have been living in this place for such a long length of time, we are recognised by our positive interactions within the town. Everyone involved was lovely.

Last but not least, I need to assure Gnome’s parents and family that everything is okay and that he is recovering. He is resting and I am treating him with medication and acupuncture daily. He is not allowed to do any work right now (says me and I am the law on the farm!!) so he has to stay put. He is getting a bit bored which is a good indication that he is doing better!