Ground-breaking News in the world of Stingless-bee Beekeeping: Today was a good day to check on the bees. Unfortunately my last transfer was not successful (bringing my success rate to a ridiculous 50%) and it was time to clean the dead hive and make some improvements for another transfer.
Dead Brood Comb in the Brood Chamber.Dead, Rotting Brood Removed.
After cleaning and disinfecting the hive I added some improvements to deal with the cause(s) of this problem: parasitic fly and too much space. Number One: Seal the hive with beeswax. No excuse for this really…it has been laziness on my part.
Sealing up the Hive Parts with Beeswax.
And Number Two: Bypass the honey pot chamber for three to six months (maybe longer) until the bees have completely taken over the brood chamber using blocks of wood that fit together in such a way that they only leave a small passage through the honey chamber.
Blocks of Wood Bypassing the Honey Chamber.
To commemorate this simple hive, I have called it the Gnome Mark III Stingless-bee Bee Hive. The previous UTOB Hive ended up having two established colonies (again), one in the honey chamber and one in the brood chamber.
Brood in the Honey Chamber (again).
This is what I transferred into the new GM III hive today.
We were quietly having our morning tea with the sound of continuous rain beating down on our roof and the rabble of the early morning birds, when we were suddenly startled by the sound of the phone going off. It was 7am…from past experience, we only received early phone calls for medical call-outs. I picked up the phone and I recognised the voice of a guy that I knew from Punta Gorda. He was obviously very agitated and addressed me formerly as “doctor.” In my mind, I was thinking,” Yup…it’s a medical call.” Then he garbled on about trying frantically to find my phone number on the Internet. I acknowledged his efforts with some sort of noise indicating encouragement as I anticipated an ailment.
And, then out of the blue he blurted out,” I think I found a Stinkhorn Mushroom!”
I blanked out. Blinked twice. Brain activity stopped for a millisecond as I processed this statement.
I glanced up at the clock…it was 7.05am. In my mind I was thinking,” This guy is phoning me at 7 in the morning to tell me that he has spotted a mushroom in town?”
I don’t think that he even realised that I was taken aback by his statement and went into a frenzy with a description about a potrusion and a net-like thing. He enthusiastically asked,”which part can you eat?” and, “how do I cook it?” and, “Oh, do the Chinese like to eat it…yes I ‘ve heard it’s rather gelatinous…”
I quickly recovered from my surprise and politely corroborated with his description of the Stinkhorn, giving him helpful pointers on the harvesting of the edible mushroom. Afterwards, I put the phone down calmly and then guffawed silently at Gnome who had heard the whole conversation.
Gnome shrugged his shoulders and said nonchalantly, “I guess this is the emergency mushroom hot-line.”
Interestingly enough, in the last few days we have had many sightings of the Stinkhorn Mushroom on our farm. Here are some pictures of this unusual looking fungus.
Stinkhorn Mushroom.Double Stinkhorn Mushroom.
If you would like to read more about this mushroom, Gnome has written an engaging and humourous essay in the library on The Stinkhorn.
Gnome’s last words before he went to sleep last night were, ” I intend to work all day tomorrow.”
Activation Sequence: Positive Sod’s Law.
And sure enough, it poured down today so no outside activity was possible. In a funny sort of way, we were trying out a new technique which we have coined “Positive Sod’s Law.” This utilises a statement of intention, the Sod’s Law principle and the fact that the final result is what you inadvertently wanted but managed to get through the convoluted channel of a “Sod.”
Anyway, since the well-pump has “done broke” as they would say here in Belize, we have been on water conservation “red alert.” This simply means that we are on bucket washes.
On a typical “Red Alert Day” we use the following amounts of water:
1) Bucket washes limited to 3 x day each; 30 gallons in total (120 litres).
2) Washing Clothes; 20 gallons (80 litres).
3) Washing dishes; 10 gallons (40 litres).
4) Water for consumption; 5 gallons (20 litres).
5) Miscellaneous; 5 gallons (20 litres).
Total water used up in one day is 70 gallons (about 280 litres as an over estimation).
We have two rain water tanks that store 660 gallons so that each tank gives us about 8 to 9 days of water. This means, we can last about 2 weeks of dry weather before we start on the “Positive Sod’s Law” technique. This is assuming that we get our water tanks filled right up to the top after each rain…this is not usually the case…more the case of one full tank.
Anyway, it rained lots today and the distant rumbling of thunder, grey clouds and flood flies indicate that there is more to come.
Flood Flies.
We are anticipating the invasion of the termite queens (the nuptial flight) in the house so we are getting ready for an early night. This equates to a mass of crawling termites and wings a-plenty. Just another Manic Monday!!
Happy Sunday to you all!! We have some more fruit on our farm; luckily this time, there is an abundance so we can share with the birdies, pacas, dogs and guinea-pigs.
The mulberries are giving plenty of fruit. There is one particular tree which is half hidden in the shade of a huge African oil palm so the birdies have not spotted this one. This year, we will be able to make mulberry Elixir (liqueur).
Mulberries.
This is wax-apple; we are into the second year of fruiting and it is producing so much. They are related to the Molly (Malay) apple but these fruits are crunchy in texture like apples. The guinea-pigs really love these ones!
Wax Apple.
The passionfruit are just starting to bear. I like to combine the pulp of this with the Mayan passionfruit (Kun Batz) to make juice. I find the Mayan variety is sweeter so that it helps to balance the acidity of this type.
Passionfruit.Ripe Kun Batz.
With all the passionfruit juice making, I have ended up with a whole lot of seeds. As an experiment, I tried toasting them on a skillet in a similar manner to pumpkin seeds. They actually turned out to be a very tasty snack/condiment; as you toast them, the residual passionfruit pulp around the seeds caramelises to add a unique sweetness. I used the toasted seeds as a condiment on soup which worked a treat. The crunchy texture gives an extra bite to a meal:
Toasted Passionfruit Seeds with Soup.
Also, we had some as an accompaniment to cassava hash browns and steamed young pumpkin. They added an extra “sweet and sour” flavour to the dish.
Toasted Passiflora Seeds with Cassava Hash Browns.
I would definitely recommend the toasting of passionfruit seeds. It just requires 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat on a skillet. Make sure to stir it around to stop it from initially sticking. You will know when it is done when the pulp caramelises around the seeds. It is so versatile that you can choose to eat it with sweet or savoury foods.
If you are thinking of fun things to do at home, why not make noodles? It is a great, short and satisfying project especially when you can directly benefit from it straight afterwards. Can also be a romantic thing to do together if you are so inclined to spend every waking hour together (like Munchkin and Gnome).
So, this is what we did:
We took:
2 cups of wheat flour
2 cups of rice flour
and added about 1 and 1/3 cups of water to make a dough. We Kneaded it until it was smooth and uniform in consistency:
Dough For Noodles.
Next, we rolled it out on a board. We used a wine bottle because it worked well and I have never seen a rolling pin for sale in Punta Gorda.
Rolling out dough.
Next, we cut the the sheet of dough into strips. This is a really neat way of doing it…you take a piece of card or wood and you cut against it to get even strips. We picked this idea up from watching a Japanese Anime in which the characters were making noodles.
Cutting Pasta
The cut noodles were transferred onto a clean dish cloth and sprinkled with flour to stop them from sticking:
Noodles.
With the quantities of flour, we were able to make 4 dough sheets in total. This amount of noodles serves 4 very hungry people or 8 conservative eaters.
At this point, you can dry them to keep or freeze them fresh. The wet noodles can be kept in the fridge for 48 hours.
To cook, place noodles in pot of boiling water and cook for 5 to 8 minutes until done. Then, serve it with anything your heart desires…pasta sauce, stir fry, whatever you want.
We then had a hearty meal of noodles cooked with char sui and tomatoes. Delicious and simple:
Noodle Yum Yum.
These noodles can be varied according to flour types, thickness of rolling out and size of strips. By varying these parameters, you can achieve different tasting noodles with varying textures and degrees of bite. We cut our noodles quite thickly so ended up with a chewy bite from the rice flour.
The rains have stopped and we have had some good dry days. We eventually realised that our procrastination time was coming to an end when the water was slowly going down in the tanks and the frogs had laid enough spawn in our buckets to start a frog farm.
Tadpoles in Water Bucket.
It was time to pull up the well-pump and face reality and deal with it. So, yesterday Gnome cleared the well-pump area which was overgrown with lots of green climbing stuff.
Pump Before Cleaning.Removing Pipe.
He pulled the 50 feet of pipe to bring the submersible pump up. Hoping that the pump was just full of gunk, we ran the pump inside the water tank. It groaned and creaked with each electricity jolt but refused to start up.
Testing Pump in Tank.
On closer inspection of the one-way valve, Gnome noticed that there was a “biological black rotting that slimed out past the valve.” Those were his technical terms and he thought that it was most likely a frog, snake or bunch of slugs which had got caught and mashed up in the intake.
The next thing that we need to do is to open up the pump and clean it out and to see if there is damage to the pump mechanism. We are not sure if this can be done if the parts are all glued together. Anyway, it isn’t looking good for the pump and we are already looking for a replacement. Since we have a variable-draw pump because we have a very shallow (slow) well, the pump is extra expensive…with duty and shipping it will probably cost close to $5000 all up. Needless to say, we are now considering other less traditional types of pumps; Gnome is favouring the “air-lift” pump which will double-up as a compressed air source for the farm. Also, he is trying to save me money!!
Anyway, enough of the technical stuff. This reminds me of our good, old pioneer days when we first came to Belize….
Back in the early days, we befriended the manager at Cotton Tree Lodge who was, at that time, in the early phase of construction of the establishment. He had mentioned to us that he had bought a second-hand well-digger ( a small one which could only dig a maximum of fifty feet) but the only problem was that he could not figure out how to use it from the operating manual. Gnome was able to decipher the manual and so the manager made a proposal to us; if Gnome could dig a well for Cotton Tree Lodge then he would allow us to dig a well on our own property. We readily agreed to the exchange of services and Gnome set about digging a well at the lodge. We loved the idea of being “well-diggers”…it sounded sooo cool and appealed to our sense of adventure.
Anyway, during a short morning break, we happened to meet a visiting medical doctor from New York who was on holiday. When he found out that we were Doctors and that we were enlisted well-diggers, he was absolutely horrified. He guffawed and stammered and finally said,”Doctors, huh? Do you think this is a smart career move?” We just laughed because we were having so much fun in Belize. But all he could do was scratch his head and give us a befuddled look of dismay.
Yes, I definitely have to say that it was a smart career move. Ten years down the line, we have become independent-minded and self-sufficient. We can usually figure how to achieve a job on the farm without paying for an expert or professional. It is all about thinking out of the box and as one very well-seasoned Belizean ex-pat (a Hawaiian Gnome) once advised us,” to make it in Belize, you need to have the smarts to get ahead.”
The Mayan Passion Fruit (Ketchi name is Kun Batz) is still in season. It is a vine which voluntarily grows around cultivated trees and it can also exist in the rainforest of Belize.
Kun Batz Green Fruit.
They have beautiful flowers so can they also be grown as an ornamental:
Kun Batz Flowers.
The fruit can be eaten green like a vegetable (like cho-cho or zucchini).
Green Kun Batz Steamed.Kun Batz in Miso Soup.
If you let it ripen, you can eat the fruit pulp like a passion fruit.
Ripe Kun Batz.
The seeds and the pulp are edible and can be eaten alone or mixed with yoghurt or ice-cream. Today, I sifted out the seeds to get the pulp and the juice:
Kun Batz Seeds and Pulp.
I used a total of eight fruit and towards the end, added a cup of water to the remaining seeds to try to extract the last of the pulp. I was able to make a quart of juice from this method. When I tasted it I felt that it was sweet enough that no sugar was required. Compare this with normal passion fruit which is quite acidic which requires sweetening in order to enhance the taste. This is Kun Batz juice with a sprig of mint:
Kun Batz Juice.
The Kun Batz juice is divine!! The taste of the juice is a combination of pineapple, banana and canteloupe melon with mild exotic hints of passion fruit. It is unique in that it has a mildly sour taste but it is sweet enough that no sugar is needed.
I have a whole lot of fresh seeds to sell so check out The Apothecary. To my knowledge, nobody is cultivating this bush fruit so if you are into rare and exotic plants, then this a definitely one to add to the list!
Planting Instructions:
Passiflora seeds have a hard shell so pr-treat the seeds before planting; Soak the seeds for 24-48 hours in warm to the touch water, just prior to planting. Once pretreated, plant seeds 1/2-1″ deep in moist, sterile soil. Keep soil temperature consistent at about 70-85F. Cool soils will significantly delay seed germination time.
Estimated germination time under optimal conditions: 6 weeks to 6 months.
Plant spacing for this vine is 10 feet (3 metres) apart and can grow to about 20 feet tall. Will start fruiting in about 12 months.
We often get used to our surroundings so that we do not even consider that normal, everyday things can be viewed as a unique experience or an opportunity for creativity. I often talk about my Wednesdays in Punta Gorda but I have not realised until now that it is a perfect opportunity to show you our world of Toledo, Belize.
The town market is busiest on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The market stalls are located all the way down Front Street. Most stalls contain the usual stuff like onions, carrots, sweet peppers, cilantro and tomatoes. The usual fruits are papayas, pineapples, limes and whatever is in season. Mamey sapote are in season right now; these two specimens have not ripened yet but I will be sure to post a tasting once they are ready to eat.
Mamey Sapote.
There is actually not a whole lot of variety from stall to stall but if you take some time to look, there are some interesting things.
Market Stall.
If you care to walk all the way to the end of the stalls, which is about 100 yards, you will come across the smaller vendors. These are usually Mayans from far away villages who bring a couple of pig tail buckets to sell of anything that they can find in their backyard, forest or village. This is where you find more unusual foods.
Here, I found a lady selling young pumpkins. These can be cooked and eaten like zucchini (or courgettes, if you are European).
Young Pumpkin.
I also found a jar of ground, toasted pumpkin seeds:
Ground Toasted Pumpkin Seed.
And, this is what we had for lunch. Steamed young pumpkin seasoned with the pumpkin seed condiment. This is an example for taking some very simple ingredients to make something delicious and fresh.
Steamed Pumpkin with Pumpkin Seed Condiment.
Oh, last but not least. A visit to the ubiquitous Chinese store affords some opportunity for giggles if you take the time to peruse over flayed meat. This is what I found next to the Dak…looking for a Bra?!!!
Bra Luncheon Meat.
Bra’s Luncheon Meat comes in Chicken and Pork flavours from Brazil, of course. Check out the serving suggestions…don’t they make you salivate with anticipation?
Hello Everyone. We just spent the last two days chilling out and relaxing. We still have the same ongoing problems…yes, life goes on but we decided just to take a break from our usual mad running around. Pause to think about life.
It was partly due to this; it was raining buckets. When the weather decides not to co-operate with outside activities, it is best to co-operate with reality and do nothing. We are learning.
Heavy Rains.
Also, we had a visiting froggie that looked like he was contemplating life and so we thought to follow his example. Sometimes slowing down can be a good thing.
Sleepy Froggie Contemplating Life.
Aside from the froggie, we have had another house visitor…a bat. He just hung (ha-ha) around for a day or so and then left.
A House Visitor.
It reminds me of the time when we first moved onto this farm; the wooden house was just one big room and a whole army of vampire bats had taken residency on the ceiling. So, on our first night in this house, we bravely (or stupidly?) slept on a mattress perched on wooden boards (rather precariously, I might say) in the midst of a house with the to and fro fluttering of about a hundred vampire bats. They squeaked, chirped and swooped all around us…it felt like a scene from a horror movie. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep very well on our first night and still to this very day I wonder why we did it…was it an initiation into ascetic living perhaps or learning to live with all creatures? Anyway, ten years on, we have house rules…only visitors…and we don’t mind the odd rat snake, tarantula or bat but the rules are that they can not take up residency in our house. So far, so good…everything seems to be co-operating.
Hello Everyone!! We just got back from the Chocolate Festival in Punta Gorda, Toledo. There were crowds of people, so much activity and chocolate stuff everywhere.
This is a picture of our table:
Cacao Fest 2015.
This is a picture of another booth selling cocoa powder and various assorted chocolate themed stuff:
Cacao Display.
There was a lot of noise with a combination of Garifuna drumming and “Punta” music. Here are some drumming pictures:
Garifuna Drumming.More Drumming.
This is food from the Cotton Tree Lodge Booth; they were serving food in cacao pods:
Food Served In Cacao Pods.
Overall, it was a good event and there was a lot of interest in our products especially with the Chocolate Artisan Soaps. A surprise winner was actually the Clay Artisan Soaps scented with sandalwood; they went like hot-cakes…we did not realise that so many other people shared our passion for this spicy scent. Oh, and I sold my first bottle of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not DB’s.” We are not taking over the world with our products…but we are pleased that some people recognise the time and energy that we put into our stuff.
Ground-breaking News in the world of Stingless-bee Beekeeping: Today was a good day to check on the bees. Unfortunately my last transfer was not successful (bringing my success rate to a ridiculous 50%) and it was time to clean the dead hive and make some improvements for another transfer.
