The other day, Gnome went into the yard and then came straight back into the house and said:
“The male turkey is sitting on the turkey eggs!”
We both went to look and sure enough he had phased out into a deep meditative state whilst sitting on 9 eggs. We made sure that the eggs were intact (which they were) but we wondered if this behaviour was a “good thing.” The Over-Lord (the male turkey) has been a bit of a scamp and has broken the eggs in the turkey nest in the past. Mama turkey (The Duchess) seemed unperturbed with it all (like it was normal for a huge 20lb turkey to sit on her eggs) and was nimbly dashing about outside looking for yummy morsels to eat.
Another Google search: Do Male Turkeys Sit On Eggs.
And sure enough there are reports that male and female turkeys “share the workload” and are known to take turns (like work shifts) to set eggs. Okay….so after reading this, we decided not to chuck the Over-Lord off the eggs!!
Awwhhh….it is actually quite nice to see the Over-Lord and the Duchess working together. She is coming out more to forage for food and I throw some corn near the nest so that she doesn’t need to go so far. He hasn’t come off for 72 hours now!! Most of the time they are sharing the nest and are sitting side by side.
How Lovely….
Male and Female Turkey Setting.
This is not a good picture because I did not want to disturb them too much. If you look very closely, they are both there. Another two weeks ago until estimated date of hatching…we’ll keep you posted.
Shoppin’ Again…but, this time it was at Spanish Lookout which is located in the Cayo District of Belize. This time it was to get hardware bits for construction….not very exciting!
It poured down all the way on the trip so we reckoned that it was a good day to leave the farm. We would have been stuck inside feeling sorry for ourselves! Anyway it’s about 3 hours drive to this Mennonite Community.
Spanish Lookout.
This is a “modern” community that specialises in selling hardware…this is where you usually go in Belize if you are looking for this kind of stuff.
Spanish Lookout.
When it comes to shopping, I am always quite happy to get what is needed on the farm, whatever the animals need and even things like a new bowl for the dog. However, when it comes to buying anything personal for myself, I am really awful and would rather “save the money for the farm…or even one of the animals” than buy something “nice.” We’ve often talked about how to overcome this problem so this is what we have come up with. Since Gnome knows my likes and dislikes very well, he has agreed to buy a surprise gift for me whenever he finds something that he thinks that I would like. This is Shopping Therapy…Munchkin and Gnome Style!!
This is what Gnome found for me. It’s absolutely perfect. It is a mini (one gallon) version of my clay pot; I am so pleased with it!!
Mini Clay Pot.
Anyway, back in Toledo now and it is sooooo wet. The wet season has started.
Just a quickie!! If you haven’t realised already, one of the reasons why we write these posts are to let our family and friends (from overseas) know that we are “right here.” I am sorry but I haven’t written in a week and I am usually better about keeping up. We’ve been really, really busy!! The rains have come mostly at night and the farm has started forming puddles already…the ducks and geese are happy with the multiple swimming holes! We are trying to get a move on with construction so Gnome is working in the mornings until it gets too hot. We’re also busy with doctor responsibilities (seems to come in cycles too) and have patients to see in the afternoon. In between all that, I’m trying to harvest food including soursops and jackfruit. They all still require preparation for storage…so, we are busy with everything!
Hello Every-one!! Hope y’all having a great Saturday. I ran out of photographs for the Blog posts yesterday and pondered upon what fun farm pictures to take. It then suddenly dawned on me that I haven’t taken any recent pictures of Punta Gorda. PG is the main town in Toledo District, Belize and we live about 16 miles outside this town. This is where we go for our shopping supplies. For all of our readers who haven’t been to PG before, you’ll be amazed at how “little” it is and the complete lack of shopping malls or centres (ie. there are none). The population of Punta Gorda is about 5021 (census 2010).
When I was walking through Punta Gorda yesterday thinking of what pictures to take, I realised that I was just “used to the place.” To many of you out there, you’ll just shudder at the “lack of facilities” and “lack of services” but these are some of the reasons why we are here. The place certainly does not over-burden you with a sense of consumerism! You can only buy necessities here. I think the place is conducive to adopting a healthier approach to living and there is a less of a feeling to “shop just because you want to buy something.”
It saves you a lot of money because there are no “nice things” to buy!! Gnome describes the items that you don’t need which end up gathering dust and occupying space in your house “kipple.”
Anyway, here is the centre of the town with the clock-tower.
Punta Gorda Town.
When we first came here about 13 years ago, there were hardly any cars about. You could actually park you car in the middle of the road, run into a shop for 5 minutes and be back in your car without any car needing to get pass you. Now the streets are totally filled up with parked cars. This is Punta Gorda on a busy Friday morning. I know…I know…all you guys out there probably think that it looks dead!
Main Street. PG.
This is the new Market Place. Not sure what to say…it’s just well, there. I’m a bit of a traditionalist and rather liked the previous market place which was just the road-side. But times are changing…and even Punta Gorda is changing:
PG Market.PG Market.
Inside PG Market:
PG Market Stall.
There are also stalls along the side:
PG Market Stalls.
If you don’t want to sell at the market, you can always just park on the side of the road and display your wares:
Pineapples For Sale.
Clothes shopping is a tad dicey here. There are second hand stalls with clothes from the States. At least here you can attempt to find something in cotton but finding the right size is difficult (especially when you are wee like me). Also, the clothes aren’t cheap; cotton t-shirts go for a premium at BZD10 (USD5) and men’s cotton pants can go for BZD30(USD15).
Clothes Mall!
I suppose you can always go to the Guatemalan stall to buy a dress instead…ooooh…I wonder which one of these would go best with my yellow wellies on the farm…
Dresses.
This is the Farm Supply Centre where we get our hard-ware and farm stuff:
Farm Store.
This is Punta Gorda Post Office.
PG Post Office.
That’s all Folks…that’s Punta Gorda for you. It grows on you and it’s full of friendly faces!!
Hello!! It’s hot , hot, hot (roasting, in fact) and then it’s raining intermittently in the afternoon and at night. I talk about the weather a lot because we are dependent on the weather in order to get projects done or not!! Anyway, here are a few photos to make you smile:
We have a little “spaddled goose.” If you are wondering what spaddle means, look at this photo. His legs are splayed out thus:
Spaddled Goose.
This may be a deformity or due to a vitamin deficiency. Anyway…another Google search on “how to fix a spaddle” and we came up with the solution of tying the legs together with dental floss. Another Accident & Emergency fix-up for Dr. Gnome!!
Spaddle Goose.
Observation is now required to see if fixing a deformity with dental floss works. We will keep you posted:
Spaddle Treated.
The rest of the goslings are thriving and doing well. They share their living quarters with the guinea pigs. They eat the same food: freshly cut grass and sorghum. In the mornings, we put the geese out to pasture by putting them in a movable wire cage. At night, back to the dorms with the piggies!
Goosies with Piggies.
Oh, and last but not least we have 9 turkey eggs under the turkey. No mix and match this time with geese eggs…we are letting her hatch her own kind this time! Countdown: 30 days!!
Hello!! On Sunday, we had a huge downpour at lunch time. We both looked at each other and said, “…the flood flies are going to come out tonight.” They usually come out at dusk in swarms, first of all around the house and when it gets dark, they come inside because they are attracted to the light. This is the nuptial flight of the termites when the queen and drones start mating and begin new colonies.
Flood Flies.
They leave a trail of wings in their path; it’s usually a devastating mess!!
Close-up Flood Flies Wings.
Not this year for us!! We fed all the animals early at 4pm and stuck a hurricane light bang in the middle of the duckie coop. We had a quickie dinner (still entails cooking but not my usual prolonged routine) , showered and were in bed by 6pm. Lights off!! The most important thing is to switch off all lights!! That way they don’t enter the house. The next morning: a few wings were scattered in the window areas but nowhere as awful as previous years! We presume also that the flood flies were attracted to the duck coop light and we hoped that the ducks took the opportunity to feast on them that night.
The flood flies usually herald the beginning of the wet season. Gnome is still busy with construction so we are trying to “get a move on.” It’s a race against time right now and once we get into July, it is usually too wet to get anything done outside. I am lining up the inside chores for wet season already. This is what Gnome’s response to my scheduling:
We are always into eating on the farm and it’s always good to experiment with food. Here are a few interesting things to eat this season.
Ahhh…this first one starts with a story. For a while, the geese forgot there was a pond and hung around the house chasing us around the yard whenever the mood took them (which was very frequently). Then one day, they remembered that there was a pond and en masse trooped off to the pond. When we went to see what they were up to, they were diving under the water lilies and emerging back to the surface with round things the size of chestnuts stuffed in their beaks. They were gobbling them down like there was no tomorrow. And they were back the next day for more of the same.
Pond:
Pond.
After a week or so of watching the geese stuff their faces, Gnome decided to wade into the pond to find out what they were eating. What he discovered was water lilly corms embedded in the mud. He dug up a bucket of these and told me that there was tonnes of them.
“Oh, it would be great if we could eat these too!”
And of course we did a Google search on “can you eat water lily corms” and sure enough, you can. It’s not just for geese.
Water Lily Corms.
To prepare, peel the outer layer to reveal a whitish carbohydrate-like food which can be boiled to eat. I will have more pictures later of the cooked corms. They taste like yam with a mild crunchy texture. Not extra-ordinary (like any carb really, you kinda dress it up for flavour) but definitely edible and worth harvesting if they are just there for the picking. Better than paying for shop bought potatoes!
The next interesting edible is the soursop. This year our tree is loaded so we are getting to experiment with it more.
Soursop.
From the information that I have gleaned from the Belizeans, the fruit is usually scraped over a sieve and the juice is collected to make juice, ice-cream and smoothies. The fruit has a cotton-like texture and tastes mildly sour with fine banana-like nuances. In short, it has its own particular soursop flavour and it is very difficult to liken it to any well-known food. My preparation method involves taking the seeds out of the fruit and eating the pulp as it is.
Soursop pulp:
Soursop Pulp.
Personally, I prefer to do this so that none of the fruit is wasted. Since Gnome and I have been going crazy with a gelato marathon right now, we have been making soursop gelato. By the way, when I say “gelato” I am not trying to appear fanciful. Gelato simply means that you are making an iced milk product with less air in it. We personally prefer this texture to the puffed up fluffiness of soft serve ice-cream. We are also not adding any sugar to the gelato so that the dessert is naturally sweetened with fruit only. In our latest experimentation we have found that a combination of banana (a variety called ice-cream banana incidentally) and soursop gives a very good texture and flavour without any sugar. Ice-cream bananas are very smooth and creamy:
Ice Cream Bananas.
Last but not least, this is an interesting edible pod. This is called Bukut in Belize and the trees are flowering every where right now. The blooms are a showy pink and make a nice ornamental if you have a very large yard! Very big tree! Anyway, the pods can get up to about 2 feet in length and to prepare, crack open and eat the pulp which are adhered to discs. (you can crunch through the whole thing). The seeds are not edible and are very hard in consistency…I think they use the seeds in Hawaii to make jewellery.
Bukut.
This is worth trying: the pulp of the bukut is sticky like thick syrup and tastes like molasses combined with oyster sauce. Really nice!! More for the Asian types that are used to fermented like products like miso and soya sauce. This is also very popular with the Belizeans. Gnome made a bukut frappe the other day; it was tasty….would go great with a shot of rum!! Gnome’s already thinking of using it as a flavouring for wine.
Bukut Frappe.
Here are some pictures. We gathered this lot from Belcampo Lodge in Toledo, Belize; our bukut tree has just started flowering this year and there are only a few pods on our tree so far.
They look great as foragable hors d’oeuvres (I just made that up but it’s the kind of thing people like to market!).
Podded Bukut.Bukut.
This is how we make our lives interesting on the farm. A combination of curiosity and creativity!
We are going from dry to wet season right now and there seems to be a more apparent transition this time round. It’s raining at night and in the daytime it gets seriously hot when the water from the rain evaporates. It’s like wading about in a sauna!! Is this Paradise, by the way…
Anyway, do you remember that we had a lovely yellow duckie co-habiting with the guinea pigs because she was a one-duckie incubator hatch? She started off really small (of course ha-ha!!).
Duckie.
And the she got bigger and bigger in the guinea pig metropolis so we started calling her Duckie-zilla…the awkward teenage years…
Duckie-zilla!!
She is the first of a new generation of laying duckies and so we have dubbed her Dalai Duckie. Well now she has turned into a beautiful golden yellow duck so she is also called The Golden Maiden.
Here she is and she is out with the older generation of duckies. What a beauty:
Dalai Duckie.The Golden Maiden.
Ooooh and one more…
Dalai Duckie.
She has started laying already. Now we have 7 laying duckies so the plan is to start replacing the older 6 with a new generation. The old generation are still going strong despite being over 5 years old; apparently, ducks lay good numbers up until the age of 5. That’s according to information on the Internet…we have to see what real ducks actually do!!
Hello…still in the kitchen! It’s great to “boycott” the farm now and then and refuse to descend into the dirt and wetness (yes it has been raining so now time to swap the mantra over to “wet, wet, wet” instead of “dry, dry, dry.”
Gnome says,
“You can come back to the reality of the farm in your own time my dear…”
Ahhh…I think…that is so supportive of him. But then he says cheekily:
“The grass is getting longer as we speak. And little goosies are calling out for you. Oh and there’s a jackfruit dying a super squidgy death on the veranda….”
Hmmmm. I can ignore alll duties for one more day whilst I re-charge my batteries in the kitchen. Sort of like a re-boot…
Anyway, this is one of my most favourite things that I like to do. Gather lots of food on the farm and make something good to eat. I do this everyday anyway but I am making a concerted effort to ignore anything talking, quacking, wee-weeing, mee-owing, bow-wowing or honking demands at me! 🙂
Yummy Garden Food.
Today, I have made a meal out of everything from the farm. All except the onions. Ahhh the onions…that is going to be called “Munchkin & Gnome: Plant Acre of Onions Project” and will require ingenuity on our part since it is soooo wet (there we go again with the new mantra).
Thank-you my darling duckies for the eggs; I am rather fond of them…the duckies, I mean:
My Lovely Duckies!!
The Meal of the Day! This includes onions (not ours) and aubergines, tomatoes, jalapeño peppers and duckie eggs (all ours). Oh, and thanks to Panda for his Roma tomatoes which I nicked out of his bucket! This is a great way to poach eggs…which Gnome taught me a long time ago in a land down-under: cook your dish as usual on the stove (can be anything; beans, lentils, stew, anything really) and once cooked, crack eggs on top. Place lid on pot and cook eggs, on medium heat, to desired consistency. Hard-boiled yolks require about 8 minutes; so if you want anything in between, give yourself up to this measure of time.
Monday Meal.
Okay, back to farm work tomorrow with renewed energy and inspiration…
Munchkin has sequestered herself in the kitchen to invent new recipes.
I said to Gnome:
“I’m not budging an inch from the kitchen!!”
He replied with:
“It’s okay my dear. Nobody is moving you out of the kitchen.”
So everything is fine and I can go Munchkin Crazy in the kitchen spilling my creative juices and stuffing my face with fine yum-yums!! Yay!! The Joys of Being a Munchkin!
You’ll get the full recipe in the above link. This is a quick walk through with nice pictures of food.
Ooooh…first of all. Here’s a picture of my soup cauldron. It is one of my most favourite possessions…
Clay Pot.
Chaya is a spinach which grows in Belize. It is sometimes quite tough in texture but loaded with nutrients. Blending chaya is a great way to get the best out of this vegetable:
Chaya.
Blending Chaya:
Blending Chaya.
Making Chaya Onion Soup:
Add Chaya to Onions.
Oh and cassava croutons are amazing. Well, let’s face it…anything fried is rather good!! Cut into crouton like cubes to mimic croutons:
Our Lovely Cassava:
Peeled Cassava.
Cassava Croutons:
Cassava Croutons.
Et Viola…
Chaya Onion Soup with Cassava Croutons:
Chaya Onion Soup with Cassava Croutons.
Lovely in this cooler weather!! Have a Great Sunday!! 🙂
