Category Archives: Farming

Belize, Farming, Food, Mushrooms, Pets, Philosophy

Wee Wee Ant Fungus.

February 10, 2016 Munchkin

The Wee Wee ants (or leaf cutter ants) are one of the most annoying things to any person wishing to grow their own plants and trees in Belize. These pesky ants come out in formidable numbers harvesting vegetation (leaves, flowers and cut grass) as a nutritional substrate for their fungus. They come out in such huge numbers, they are even capable of defoliating a tree in one night. We know this because it happens on our farm! One day, our tree is looking magnificent…the next day, it is totally destroyed!!

These ants usually form mounds above ground which lead down to their underground cities. I call them “cities” because these nests can grow to 100 ft (30m) across with smaller radiating mounds growing to about 260ft (80m) and can house eight million ants. Amazing!!

These wee wee ants cultivate a fungus by feeding it with fresh cut plant material (ie. all our lovely plants and trees). Furthermore, these ants carry a bacterium which protects the fungi from pests and molds. This is a really nice symbiotic relationship…sometimes you wish that us humans could form a better mutualistic relatiionship with the planet in the same way as these ants! The fungus is used to feed the ant larvae.

I asked Gnome,

“Why can’t humans behave properly like the ants and live in balance with the Earth?”

Gnome was in no mood for “love and light” and said:

“…because most of them are idiots!!”

Even though these ants are a real pest on our farm, I can’t help but admire them for their diligent activities.

The other day, we actually found a leaf-cutter colony above ground because it was hidden in a particularly overgrown area.

This is the fungus. We tasted a bit of it and it was quite sweet and mushroom-like. We are thinking of cultivating it to eat and like all this stuff, it probably has medicinal properties. The duckies certainly liked the mushroom as you can see them chomping it down:

Another Gnome project to add to the never-ending list!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Fruits in Season.

January 30, 2016 Munchkin

There is always something new to harvest on the farm. Right now, the mulberries have just started.

I will be collecting this fruit to make our very popular Mulberry Elixir. The final product is a beautiful dark purple colour and it has a lovely, rich berry taste.

This one is a local fruit called monkey cap. It has the consistency of peanut butter and is much-loved by the birds. For all bird-lovers out there, this is one to plant if want to attract all the birdies with pretty colours. The toucans like this one.

The monkey cap tree also makes a nice ornamental for those into landscaping.

Oh, and last but not least…we got our first soursop of the year. Everyone in Belize loves this fruit. I can’t give it justice by describing it but it has a kind of wet cotton-like consistency with a unique tropical fruit taste. I asked Gnome to help me describe the flavour and this is what he said:

“Well…it tastes like a soursop!”

Well, Thank-you Gnome…that was extremely helpful!!

The farm keeps on producing!!

Belize, Farming, Fermentation, Food, Philosophy, Plants

Processing White Peppercorns.

January 21, 2016 Munchkin

This year we decided to process our pepper into white pepper. Usually, we just pick them green…

And as they dry out in the sun, they become black peppercorns.

Because I mostly cook Chinese food, white pepper is actually more useful for me from a culinary point of view. The preparation of white pepper requires a bit more work. This is what you do: Pick the peppercorns when they start turning red:

Then place these peppercorns in water to let them all ferment. After a while, the water will get bubbly and murky. Each day, dip your hands in the water and rub the peppercorns with the palms of your hand. This “retting” procedure loosens the outer shell to release the white peppercorn. Do this for 7 days…you can throw away the outer shells each day but leave the white peppercorns to ferment and do their magic. It all gets rather smelly but hey, I think it is really important to understand the value of doing things yourself. Now I know why ground white pepper costs $30 Belize Dollars per pound and I will no longer complain about the price!

On the 7th day, drain off all the water:

Separate the white peppercorns:

You will find that the peppercorns are at different stages. Remove the white peppercorns and let them dry out in the sun. The rest of the pepper (which still has the outer hard shell) can be placed back in a clean bowl of water. At this stage, you can add newly harvested pepper to repeat the 7 day process of fermentation again.

So there you go. You will find that when you consciously spend the time and energy in processing your own food, it becomes a matter of necessity. It isn’t about economics anymore…it’s about eating good food that money can’t buy.

Amusing, Belize, Construction, Farming

Celebrating With Vernaccia!

January 20, 2016 Munchkin

We had our usual town day today and then stopped off at the hardware store to purchase one connector and a roll of teflon tape. These were two crucial pieces that were missing in the air-lift pump construction that stopped us from completing the full Gnome-Rig yesterday.

Gnome put the missing piece in and switched on the air-compressor. There was a moment of silence as we stared at the pipe coming out of the well. All of a sudden there was the glorious sound of water shooting out of the pipe…YAY!!! Hip Hip Hooray!! Respect To The Gnome. He Gnome-Rigged an air-lift pump all by himself!

And then at Gnome’s finest moment, the clouds gathered together above our house with the inevitable Sod’s Law rain. Ha-Ha!!

We celebrated with a glass of vernaccia; Gnome says that this particular wine that he has made tastes like local (vernacular) Sardinian wine which has a sherry like quality.

Mmmm…what a lovely way to celebrate. A little bit of sunshine in a glass.

Amusing, Belize, Construction, Farming

Gnome Premonitions.

January 19, 2016 Munchkin

This morning Gnome woke up with a start. He had a furtive look about him like a squirrel and his eyes were kinda bulging as he said,

“I know it! We will find the air-compressor in PG!”

I processed his statement in with a pinch of salt as I tried to shake myself out of my sleepy state. I yawned and then cheekily replied with,

“Oh, Neo Gnome…has the oracle spoken?”

In the back of my mind I was thinking that he was just trying to find any excuse not to take the three hour drive to the city to procure this contraption for our well-pump.

He said it again,

“I know it! It’s at Mac’s!”

I yawned and patiently said slowly,

“How do you know that? Where? We’ve never set foot in that shop before…”

With conviction in his words, Gnome said,

“I can feel it…”

I rolled my eyes with my usual derisive Chinese woman look and thought to myself…oh to live with a sensitive Italian Gnome who can “feel” things…what next. I didn’t believe him but I thought it best to humour him.

And so off we went into town and enroute, I made him go into every hardware store to look for a portable air compressor. I wanted to delay the inevitable…the disappointment and then the long tedious journey to Belmopan. None to be found and the last place was Mac’s Shop which is a little run-down shop selling mostly second-hard hardware. The road was blocked so we had to make it on foot. Guess what we saw as soon as we entered…

Gnome rushed over the machine and said out loud,

“There it is! I told you!”

Well, there it was and there was no denying that he was right. Gnome’s premonition was correct. I laughed to myself and thought…all this solitary time in the bush must be activating secret Gnome powers…Ha-Ha. I’ve been watching too many crappy Super-hero movies!! If Hollywood ever make a film about Munchkin and Gnome, in the bush, developing special powers, I want Maggie Q to play me! Too Funny.

Anyway back to reality…

We now have a portable air-compressor and Gnome is putting together all the bits to make the Air-lift pump..

He has been messing around with PVC pipe, hoses, bits and pieces and stuff (oh, how technical of me) all afternoon:

Nearly accomplished but we are missing a connector. So, watch this space for the next thrilling installment! Will Munchkin and Gnome get their well-pump working again? Will they be able to do it before all the water runs out? Oh the thrills and spills of living on a farm!! Oh, and what if Gnome really has super-hero powers??

Belize, Construction, Farming

Time To Sort Out The Water!!

January 18, 2016 Munchkin

It was quite a while when we had discovered that our well pump was broken…apparently by a frog getting caught in it and sliming up the whole contraption (remember the thrilling installment of Pump Vs Frog??). Anyway, we have been thankfully saved time and time again by the Toledo rains. Lately we have been getting dry season weather…you know, that stifling heat with some young plants starting to wilt in the ground. Our water supply is fast dwindling and we are now on red alert ie. back on bucket washes and hand-washing clothes (boo-hoo). What a life…living in Paradise. Anyway, it is about time we started sorting out the water situation!

We have decided to replace the whole mechanism of pumping with an air compressor. This utilises the “air-lift” effect which was a Gnome brain-storm; just so happens to be more elegant plus you can buy all the parts here (which is very important if you live in Belize). Basically, compressed air goes down which in turn, displaces water upwards.

Now to find an air compressor and would you believe it…none to be found in the Toledo region. Looks like we are going to have to take a trip to the big city to get all the equipment. We have to get this done quickly or we will be out of water within a week or less. It’s a race against time!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

A1 For Effort!

January 5, 2016 Munchkin

Yesterday was bright and dry and we managed to maintain good humour despite all our machinery being broken. I planted a bunch of seedlings including some lemons which had been left at our gate on New Year’s Day by somebody (we think we know who the gift bringer was…so thank-you Dave).

Gnome was in top form and got out the manual lawn-mower…look at that…the sheer motivation of Gnome to get out there and do something.

But of course Gnomes are rather ingenious creatures and the tinkering of machinery is what life is all about. So he has started reading a book on small gas engines (thank-you to a Hawaiian Gnome for giving us this book) and he has decided that it would be a lot more efficient to attach the tiller engine onto the manual lawn-mower in order to motorize it…watch this space for more Gnome Rigging.

This morning was not so bright and cheery since Gnome woke up with a swollen hand. About two weeks ago, a huge prickle penetrated his left knuckle area. At the time, he managed to pull it out but unfortunately, part of it actually got stuck inside. We had to cut the area open in order to remove the foreign body. However, with the way life is on the farm, Gnome never really got round to resting it completely in order for it to heal. Hence we have a Gnome unable to do any work but sorely tempted to do work. We had to end up wrapping the hand in a scarf so that he couldn’t move it at all…looks a bit like a sock puppet! Here is a picture of him holding our new year’s baby. This is a straight haired lemon agouti guinea pig.

At least he can enjoy the piggies!!

Belize, Farming, Philosophy, Plants, Saving Money

Living The Philosophy!

January 3, 2016 Munchkin

When we first came to Belize, 10 years ago, we had decided that we wanted to eat all our own food off the farm ie. become totally self-sustainable. We have planted all manner of food plants including root vegetables, greens and fruit trees. Everything is bearing and we have loads of fresh food to feed ourselves with.

The start of this year has indeed been a time of great contemplation for me as I step into the kitchen and I am confronted by all this processed, packeted and shop-bought food (all imported, no less!):

Looking at all this made me realise that I was not living my philosophy and I have allowed the insidiousness of convenience to edge into my life. Don’t get me wrong…we do eat mostly our fresh food but I use packet food as a “back-up” when I don’t feel like getting out and digging something up (when it is raining or it is bug-ridden). We would like to get completely self-reliant and not feel that we even need a weekly trip into town to buy food (at this point our grocery bill only amounts to about BZD$30 (USD$15) a week so we are not doing too badly.

We would like to live our philosophy so we are going to address this habitual need to buy products. We have decided to finish off every single packeted food in the house until there are none and we are not going to buy anymore products from the shops. Once we polish off every single packet, we are going to switch over to farm food only. This will lead to an even healthier lifestyle with continual planting, digging, harvesting and preparation of enough food to feed us 365 days of the year. And of course we will save money from not needing to buy any groceries from the super-market.

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Bruk Dong III…With A Vengeance!!

December 30, 2015 Munchkin

Yes, Bruk Dong Monday continues with a vengeance. If you will recall, on Monday all our machinery stopped working including the weed-eater, the chain-saw, the drill bit broke and our make-shift table (crate) broke. After that, we decided that the best course of action was to lay low and do nothing. I even stopped Gnome from mowing the grass. At about 6pm that very day we heard a funny popping sound coming from outside but we could not determine the source of the noise. On Tuesday morning, Gnome smelled some smoke in the air and thought that it was a funny time for some-one to be burning at this time of the year.

It all started to make sense when Gnome went to get out the brush-mower on Tuesday morning. This is what he found:

Look…the wires have all melted!! Gnome explained that the ignition switch finally gave up and in failing caused a short circuit that melted the wire. This has also caused damage to many other parts and in short (ha-ha)…it is not working.

Gnome apologetically said:

“Sorry, I can’t Gnome Rig this one!! We need to bring in the parts from the States!!”

And I replied cheekily,

“But Dear, we don’t have 24 hour rush delivery in Belize!”

So, no more mowing for a few months until we get the parts. I guess we can finish the house paneling and the duck coup instead! Definitely no shortage of work on the farm…

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Bruk Dong Monday!

December 28, 2015 Munchkin

What a Monday. This morning, before we had even stepped out of the house, Gnome had said rather aptly (with great humour intended):

“The equipment on the farm works according to the planetary day of the week.”

He started off with the chainsaw and it refused to start. He even cleaned up the spark plug to make sure. In the end, he told me that the Primer Bulb had broken…I have to say that statement meant absolutely nothing to me….

Next, he started using the weed-eater and it kept losing power and cutting out. Gnome finally inspected it and thought that there were carbeurator issues (again that statement just went over my head). When he was trying to open the weed-eater up, the drill bit broke:

On top of all of this, the crate (which was a make-shift “work-top” suddenly broke!

We finally decided at 9am to “call it a day” because everything was done broke. I did not want to tempt fate by asking him to get the brush-mower out! I was even eyeing up the huge pile of laundry and sorely tempted to switch on the washing machine. Having thought about it for a few seconds, I finally said to Gnome,

“Ok Gnome! I think I get the message. Let’s take it easy!”

And so we did…just because of the unfortunate conjunction of the stars!

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Category Archives: Farming

Wee Wee Ant Fungus.

Fruits in Season.

Processing White Peppercorns.

Celebrating With Vernaccia!

Gnome Premonitions.

Time To Sort Out The Water!!

A1 For Effort!

Living The Philosophy!

Bruk Dong III…With A Vengeance!!

Bruk Dong Monday!

Everything Handmade in Belize.