Category Archives: Farming

Belize, Farming, Food

Back To Cast Iron Baking.

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We are going back full circle again.  When we first came to Belize, I didn’t have an oven so I used to bake in a cast iron pot on the stove top.  Anyway, the cooker (the oven and the knobs dropped off one by one until there were none) carked it a couple of months ago.  So, I have gone back to cast iron baking again.  It’s not actually difficult at all and it takes less gas (butane) and time.  You don’t spend a whole 30 to 60 minutes (with a Mabe oven) waiting for it to heat up to the correct temperature.  It just takes five minutes to heat up the cast iron pot and lid.

Just use your favourite bread recipe (of course Munchkin doesn’t have a recipe…she just chucks flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt and whatever exciting things she can find (miso, grains, anything really….oh…great tip…old condiments or end bits of jam in jars are great to chuck into bread).  Mix it all up, knead into dough and that’s Munchkin’s Chaos Bread.

Using up old jars.

Please remember that my “chaos cooking” started off with following  recipes and doing it over and over again.  In order to get to improvising and creating, you need to put in the “10000 hours” of cooking.  BTW, I may not have mentioned that I worked as a cook whilst I was in medical school so have been cooking for a very long time.

If you require a bit more structure to your cooking methods, here is a standard bread recipe courtesy of Fannie Farmer Cookbook:

  1. Take a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of lukewarm water and 1 package of yeast.
  2. Let stand 5 minutes then stir to dissolve the yeast.
  3. Put in another bowl: 1 cup milk, 1 cup boiling water, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp salt.  Stir until lukewarm and then combine with yeast mixture.
  4.  Add 3 cups of all-purpose flour.  Stir and add more flour if needed to make the dough.
  5. Knead, let rise, shape and bake (see below).
  6. This recipe makes about 8 to 10 rolls.

Okay, so this is what you need to do:

  1. Heat up cast iron (12 inch diameter will do) pot (grease bottom well) with lid for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.
  2. Take bread, shaped into rolls, and place in cast iron pot.
  3. Turn heat down to lowest and bake for 8 to 10 minutes with lid on.
  4. Take lid off and flip bread over with a metal spatula. Bake for another ten minutes.

Et viola:

Cool on wire racks as you do with any old sort of bread.

Enjoy:

Cast Iron Bread.
Belize, Farming

Oh Dear!!

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Oh dear, I think everyone has probably got a complaint or two about this horrible weather!  Well, we’ve lost 4 animals.  Two because of the cold, dampness and rain and two from a snake and all in one day.  Well, the two casualties in the mini emergency unit didn’t make it: old grey goosie in Wheel-Barrow 1 died of pneumonia and The Overlord (aka male turkey) in Wheel-Barrow 2  also passed away.  In the same morning, we found a dead duck in the coop; Gnome noticed some blood on its leg but did not think anything of it.  Later in the day, we counted the number of ducks that we had in the coop…1-2-3-4-5…hey, wait a minute, there was another one missing.  Gnome said suspiciously:

“There’s a predator about!!”

He then scanned his eyes around the coop and found a bloated boa hiding behind the guinea pig cages digesting something the size of a duck:

“There it is!!”

One of our rules on our farm: do no harm to any animal unless it takes the life of one of ours.  So, we had to “take care” of this one with Gnome’s pellet gun.

The second rule is to eat what we kill: this one is going to be a curry…

Boa With Our Duckie.

Retrospectively, it looks like the the first dead duckie was probably killed by the snake and she was the next meal.

Rest in Peace our dear animals!!  And we hope that everyone out there is having a better time!!  Try to stay dry!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Still Going…

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It’s the Wet Season and the puddles have coalesced into ponds and we are ankle-deep in water.  I am not exaggerating!!  Nevertheless, the work still needs to be done.  It’s all day rains right now so you basically have to run out during the breaks to get things done.  Yes, I wish right now that I could hole myself up in a cave (with a full pantry) and ignore the whole farm!  But alas, the animals need to be tended to, the farm still needs maintenance and can’t be ignored (otherwise it will turn into one horrible mess) and I still need to harvest and preserve the fruits of the season.

Gnome, despite his hand injury, is trying to help me out and is doing “light work” right now.   He’s helping me collect vegetables and fruit and generally trying to keep the level of the humour up by reading to me…he could pick something like a light novel…but this is Gnome humour…

Gnome Keeping Out of Trouble.

Here are some pictures from the farm; we have been harvesting wax apple….have to get them before the birdies…

Wax Apple.

The craboo are flowering…really quite beautiful:

Craboo Flowers.

Oh and on Sunday we had a few casualties from the torrential rain.  We have a very old grey goose (we reckon she is ancient…like about 30 years old… because she has cataracts) got caught in the rain.  I found her all sodden in the mud and she was too weak to move.  She’s now been placed in emergency wheel barrow 1 with water and food.  The other casualty was the Overlord (aka male turkey) who had been sitting on turkey eggs for 7 whole days without taking any breaks.  Alas, he was found with his face down in the grass…for a minute I thought he had carked it but he let out an enormous whimper.  I quickly dried him up and carried him to emergency wheelbarrow 2; he seems okay now but is really crabbit (I think this is a Scottish word that means crabby) and feeling very sorry for himself.

Right now our mini medical unit is under the house.  I hope that we don’t get any more sick animals because we have used up all the wheel-barrows!

Anyway, the Duchess (aka female turkey) is still sitting on the eggs…what a champion.  Let’s hope that we get some hatchlings out of this one…about one more week to go.

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Monsters Everywhere!!

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It’s that awful buggy time of the year again…June and July.  The Monster Mosquitoes are out to get you and they are biting through clothes and socks.  Despite all this, we still need to get out there.  But we sure are doing our jobs faster so we can run into the protection of the house (although, there are still mosquitoes in the house). 🙂

Anyway, on a more positive note, there are other monsters (better!) on the farm…

With the big over-night rains, practically over-night, all our plants have quadrupled in size.  There are Monsters Everywhere!!  Check out the size of the aubergine bush:

Aubergine Plant.

Oh, and it is producing such lovely fruit; we are eating aubergine everyday right now (steamed, stir-fry, oooh and deep fried in tempura batter is yum-yum).  This Black Beauty variety has a good firm texture unlike some of the other types that we have had in the past (we don’t like the spongy ones).

Our Aubergines.

This is the pumpkin…it was really struggling over dry season but now it has spread over the whole bed.  Unfortunately some of the newly formed fruits are rotting because of the excessive rains.  I guess you can’t have it all…

Pumpkin.

We are growing air potato in one of our raised beds.  They were doing nothing two weeks ago and all of a sudden, they are climbing.

Air Potato.

Air potato is a type of yam.  We rather like them because we don’t need to go digging around for them.

Air Potato Vine.
Air Potato.

This is the giant bamboo at the pond; it gone absolutely wild so Gnome will be giving it a hair-cut this week.  We are using some of the bamboo (they are 30 to 40 feet in length) as rafters for our new building.

Giant Bamboo.

Hope you are all surviving buggy time in Belize!  By the way, we do have Insect Repellent products so check on The Apothecary….

Amusing, Belize, Farming

New Goosies On The Block!!

This one is an update on our gosling (goosie) situation.  Yes, I know that every-one has been waiting with bated breath for the next thrilling instalment (Ha-Ha!!).  Our L’il Spaddled Goosie with the spaddled legs didn’t make it…it may have had other problems and it just keeled over one day and wouldn’t get up again.  Rest in Peace my l’il sweet one in Goosie Heaven!!

Spaddled Goose.

We now have five goosies on the block and they are doing great.  They are at the ugly stage at the moment (but I still think they are really adorable).  Since they were getting bigger, there were over-crowding problems in piggie metropolis, so they are finally out with the duckies in the Zen coop.

The Piggies: “Phew…we can hear ourselves think again!!  Yay!!”

I think the piggies are relieved now that there is some peace and quiet in their living quarters.  The goosies were getting a bit too chatty and noisy…

Happy Piggies.

The goosies are having a lovely time.  Here are some pictures…

I am getting them used to eating all sorts of things so that they can forage once they get out into the “real world” of the farm.  Right now, I am throwing succulent mombassa grass, mango peels and food scraps at them.  They also get protein rations in the form of puppy food.

This is an old picture when they were all wee…

Wee Goosies.

Now look at them….

Green Goosies Eating.

They are starting to feather:

Sitting Goosies.

Goosies by the pond:

Goosies.

Once they are fully feathered we will let them out.  Meanwhile we will keep them safe inside the coop.

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Working Together!

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.

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Fun On The Farm!

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!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Some Interesting Things to Eat.

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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!

Belize, Farming, Pets

What Happened To Duckie-zilla?

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!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Everything But The Onions!

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…