Gnome uses Linux so every morning we get a “Fortune Cookie” message on the screen. Sometimes they can be quite funny…today’s was:
Today is National Existential Ennui Awareness Day
In response to this, I said:
“Oh no! What are we going to do?”
Boom Boom Laugh Laugh and the crowd goes wild with frenzy at Munchkin’s joke!!
What a weird day for weather…one minute it was dull and grey and then the next minute it was hot and sunny. And it was so blustery. Make up your mind!! To add to all this, the power was going on and off. As soon as it switched on, I would get up to try to get something done and when it went off, I had to sit down again. It was like musical chairs!! Arrrghhhh!!!
Gnome had a better attitude; well, at least he was in a better mood by the end of day even although we both had an unproductive day.
“I am going to sit here and not move.”
Well, I guess we are not all as spiritually enlightened as the Gnome!! Despite the ups and downs, the farm is our constancy…still producing lots of lovely stuff;
Hope the weather makes up its mind tomorrow!!
This is an easy and delicious cooling dessert and it’s made from the bit that you usually throw away when you cut a musk melon.
This is what you do:
Scoop out the seeds of the musk melon and rub it through a sieve with a plastic spoon. You will end up with some thick sweet-tasting musk melon pulp.
Meanwhile boil 10gm of Agar in 900mls (1 quart) of water. You can buy agar from Chinese Super-markets or Health Food Shops.
Once the agar has dissolved, mix in the melon pulp. I also added passion fruit pulp with seeds. I used the wild Mayan Passion Fruit, Kun Batz…how’s that for something special!
Refrigerate for about an hour and enjoy! This is a healthy alternative to a cream bun. 😉
I have written about the making of banana flour in previous posts and our main reason for doing this was for preservation. From a completely practical point of view, if you are going to go through the trouble of processing (grating, drying and grinding), it is really important that you actually like eating it!
Hmmm….we were very dubious initially after making a banana flour pizza made from a recipe found on the Internet. The recipe called for 4 cups of banana flour and when I baked it in the oven, it came out like stiff card-board…let’s say that if you threw it at somebody you could cause bodily harm. We valiantly put toppings on it and ate it like a pizza.
The next morning…and a few days after…we were totally constipated…
We then decided to do the math:
4 cups of flour is equal to 32 bananas
therefore, we ate the equivalent of 16 bananas each in one sitting.
Imagine eating 16 bananas all at once! And worse still, without the water content of each banana!
This of course results in constipation!
Anyway, after that escapade, I was in no mood to make anything with this flour! A few weeks later, I decided to use it up and make dog food …I didn’t even think about it…I just put a cup of flour in a pot of water and let it boil. It actually came out like a nice porridge. Much to Gnome’s dismay, the tasty looking porridge was for the dogs and not for us:
“What do you mean it’s for the dogs?!!”
Since then, I have formulated the Banana Flour Porridge as follows:
1/2 cup of banana flour
1 quart (900mls) of water
1 can of sweetcorn (optional)
1 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
Place ingredients in a pot and stir on medium flame ( about 7 to 10 minutes) until the porridge thickens. Can be eaten hot or cold.
This serves 2 people. Yes, 1/2 cup of flour = 8 bananas! So, each serving is four bananas. The result: tasty meal and happily non-constipated!
The Flood Flies finally came last night and we were ready with Protocol Flood Flies still in place. Lock down started at 4pm and everyone (including the animals) were fed and watered by 5pm. Last minute shower and into the bedroom quick smart. Lights out! This morning, there was still some evidence of flood flies with their wings but not as much as previous years. Switching the lights off to reduce numbers really works and this year, I am actually not suffering from Post Traumatic Flood Flies Syndrome. Usually with the after-math of winged chaos, I am reduced to a depressed, quivering wreck armed with a vacuum cleaner in one hand and a snotty tissue in the other.
Phew…it’s all good! And so with rains come the planting. Gnome has bee planting sorghum:
We have planted more of the “brain” (Amorphophallus paeonilfolius) out:
Oh and Gnome has been cutting more houses for Coco-Prune Resort…there has been a sales boom and all the piggies want a luxury condo. Don’t try this at home guys…the table saw is done broke so Gnome is using a circular saw on a steel drum!! I know…cringe!!
But the Piggies want their million dollar condos! It was the Spa and Yoga that sold it!
The clouds have been gathering for days and we were wondering when it would start raining. This morning at 8am we heard the distant rumble of thunder, the sky turned from light blue to black in an instant and it poured down. We sighed with relief, the ducks quacked happily, the geese honked and the cat couldn’t care less. Get ready for the flood flies. Switch off all lights at 5pm tonight, close all doors and windows and run into the safety of your bedroom (or truck!). This will help minimise the invasion and hopefully this will mean less work tomorrow. This is the nuptial flight for termites. They leave wings everywhere in the after-math of their awakening.
Last Year….Arrrrghh!!!
What a mess…
Be Prepared!! We are!! Flood Flies Protocol is in place…that’s why you are getting an early post. We’re off to bed now.
Join us next year for The Flood Flies Day Lottery!
You would think that money would buy you everything that you needed; not necessarily so… as we invested in new super-duper sized guttering for the house recently. We had a test run with a little rain last week and it was dripping all over the place! Gnome went out to inspect and found that that every single joint had warped with the heat of the sun!
We’ve managed to rectify the matter by drilling screws through the joints in order to secure them in place. As you can well image, Gnome was frustrated and disappointed.
“Even when you pay for something, you still can’t get quality!”
Since then he has been sizing up the giant bamboo in the corner of our property.
Mmmm…it looks like we have no choice but to resort to Giant Bamboo Gutters or Gnome Gutters TM!! If we want quality, we’ve got to do it ourselves!! A Gnome’s work is never done…
A few months back at an Elixir Tasting at Cotton Tree Lodge, I took the liberty of describing the plethora of jobs that Gnome had undertaken in working independently on the farm. Not only has he been a medical doctor for 20 years but he is the on-site engineer, mechanic, plumber, electrician, farmer, soap-maker, wine/ liqueur maker, herbalist and generator of great and amazing ideas. One woman in the group after listening to the description said gleefully,
“If I had my own private island, I want you both on it!”
I feel that he definitely deserves acknowledgement for everything that he does. Because I am usually the spokesperson for us, a lot people don’t realise that we are living our idealistic philosophy because Gnome has the tremendous strength the carry it forth and keep it going.
Here’s one for Gnome! Hip Hip Hooray!!
Gnome Buddy Does It Better:
We have been hearing all sorts of weather predictions and looking at reports on the Internet with forecasts of hot, dry weather…forever (well, it feels like that anyway). This morning we were sitting down with our cups of tea (can’t take the Scottish out of either of us…still like a cup of tea to hit the spot) and lo and behold! Grey clouds gathered right over us and it started raining. What a relief! It wasn’t torrential but it was enough for the plants and trees to quench their thirst for a wee while. This is one of the longest dry seasons that we can remember. Every year, the season tends to end abruptly and we are usually left thinking,
“Hey, hang on a few more days…or weeks…we haven’t done this and that..we haven’t done everything on our dry season list!”
Well, this year, it’s hanging on for a while so we have no excuses but to dig the trench in the pond…
This is to allow a catchment area for the tilapia when the pond dries up every year. We are doing it this year and Gnome is digging!
A lot of people wonder why we do our own work…a couple of ascetic wannabee farmers who like pain and suffering?
The truth is that we are actually both very healthy and fit from this lifestyle…a lifestyle that we like to promote to all our patients…we reckon that the only way to give advise is to do it (not just talk).
After digging a trench three feet wide and two feet deep today, Gnome said:
“Yes, I can eat as much as I want!”
Yes, indeed he can stuff his face with satisfaction with that smug look on his face!
We have been so busy that I have not had time to stop. Yes, I do realise that the weekend has come and gone and it is only now that I have paused to sit down at the computer. Phew….for a start…here are some Cacao Fest pictures from Saturday. Our stall was tucked away in the corner between these boinging things and some parked cars. We were quite tough to spot!!
Some more pictures:
This is a big crowd in Punta Gorda!
It was really hot and dry (still no rains!). Gnome said that sitting in the heat for the whole day was punishing! I told him that we had to make an appearance sometime even if it was only once a year!
On Sunday, we were off to Belmopan. Double Goosey is our new hailing signal…meaning “may all travelers be blessed with golden eggs.”
We joined the runners of the Diabetic Run 2016 at Palacio’s Retreat. What a lovely place for a party:
The Diabetic Run was a success…well done to our friend Sharon Palacio for organising such an extra-ordinary event.
Then we met up with our friend, Inaldi:
What fun but so tiring!! Back to farm work…
