Category Archives: Farming

Early Jackfruit.

February 3, 2019 Munchkin 2 Comments

Hello, I am writing a bit more since we are both stuck at home. Gnome’s neck injury is getting better but as soon as he tries to do any type of lifting, the pain comes back again. I am giving him a full week and will re-assess for light activity on Wednesday. He is keeping his humour up and is reading up on silly things like Groundhog Day (which was yesterday) and asking me if I would eat a groundhog; my answer was “Yes…I am Chinese…the Chinese will eat everything!” Oh yeah, he was also looking at the protein content of millipedes to see if we could supplement our diet with it! He’s not kidding by the way…he’s also asked me to re-start the wormery as a protein source and asked me: “…how would you cook them?” and I cheekily replied with,”…Kung-po Worm! Sweet and Sour Worm, name any Chinese-Style and I will make it into a worm dish. I am of course not kidding too and will in the future post up worm dishes once I get enough of them to eat.

Talking of food…this year we have early jackfruit from a newly bearing tree. The tree is about 30 yards from the house in an area away from our normal walkways. We didn’t notice until this week when the geese stopped going to the pond in the morning. We scratched our heads and wondered what was the matter and then we saw the main goosie group camping under a jackfruit tree. Any other goose (not from their group) that happened to cross their path would get pecked and screeched at.

On closer inspection, we saw that a ripe jackfruit had fallen to the ground and head goosie was pecking at the fruit as if he was trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the “Fastest Time a jackfruit can be eaten by a goose in one sitting.” Then we stared up at the tree and saw four humongous jackfruit just ripe for the picking. Aha, the dastardly geese were waiting for the next one to fall down and feast upon! We managed to harvest just in time…look at these beauties:

We normally harvest jackfruit on our farm in July and August. February is very early but it is actually a better time because with the dry weather at this time of the year, they are less likely to rot and get damaged by torrential rain. Plus, this is an unusual time for fruit trees to produce so it is a welcome harvest on the farm.

Yesterday, I prepared one of the jackfruits and attempted to process it in a different way; Gnome’s mother had sent me a link where there was a very skilled person peeling the fruit in a spiral-like manner in a matter of minutes.

utube.com/Nila’s Kitchen

It was one of those videos that made it look so easy peasy! Well, I tried it and found that the jackfruit was too heavy (20lbs/ 10kgs) to manipulate in this way. I did however modify the method by cutting it into 3 inch rings and peeling the rings from the central core… then the fruit could be readily popped out like on the video. This took me less time compared to my old method…30 minutes instead of one hour so I will continue with the new improved approach. Once I am more skilled, I might be able to spiralise it and make a 2 minute video!!

Jackfruit:

Okay, I will write more since we can’t get out right now to do farm work!!

Belize, Farming, Food

Hello!

January 26, 2019 Munchkin

I think it’s been a while since I have written something; Gnome’s Mum is probably wondering what we are up to! Anyway, the weather has been very erratic; the beginning of the week looked like we were heading straight into dry season and now it’s grey and cold again. It seems unpredictable right now so we have to take each day as it comes. This week, we have been cleaning the area around the house. There were far too many trees encroaching upon us and blocking our view so Gnome chainsawed whilst I stacked the wood. After this, we will probably do a big mow around the cleared areas. There are a few more trees left to plant before it starts getting dry so we are actually hoping for some gloomy wet weather over the next few days! Ha-Ha…you would never think that I would say that…

Anyway, today we went into town (Punta Gorda) and I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of tourists. I mentioned this to someone and they said that it was PG Day. I have been here for 15 years and I did not know what PG day represented so I asked the local Belizean: “What is PG Day?” They shrugged their shoulders as if they were baffled too and said:”…well, it’s the party after Christmas and the one before Valentines Day!”

Yes, there is always celebrating going on around here! Anyway, it is nearly the end of the month already and I haven’t shared all my pictures from the last party season so I will finish off with some left-over pictures…

The goosies took over the hill at Christmas time despite Gnome taking a chunk out of it. We will re-claim the hill…the power struggle continues…

During the festive period, Gnome dug a cooking pit into the side of the sand. We spent two weeks baking a succession of au-gratin dishes:

Potato au gratin…we had this one many times. It is a hearty meal for cool weather:

This was a bread and Twix gratin with sweet bechamel sauce. Gratin is basically any dish topped with a browned crust usually with breadcrumbs. Also, bechamel sauce is the most popular type of sauce in these dishes. Basically, this gives you a lot of room for creativity:

Okay, I’ve caught up with my pictures so I’ll be taking some new photos tomorrow…

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Catching Up With Pictures

January 16, 2019 Munchkin

It’s another grey and miserable day and we are feeling it…where is the sun? Wahhhhh!!

I opened the front door this morning and from the veranda view, I spied my eggplant (aubergine) jiggling up and down on a raised bed. Plants don’t jiggle! There was a piece of zinc blocking my view so I stepped outside to see what was happening and it was My Goosie on my vegetable bed munching away! “My Goosie” was the very first baby goosie that I looked after last year; she came from a single egg that we found plop in the middle of the yard on New Year’s Day. While she was growing up, she would follow me around as I harvested vegetables from the raised beds. Learning from imitation, she got into the habit of nibbling on unusual things like aubergine leaves, rocket and mustard.

Well, My Goosie has had a sudden re-collection of childhood days and is eating all our vegetable plants. I have also lost my dandelions to her; fortunately she has not pulled up the roots so I will transplant them to a safer place today. I have tried talking to her but she refuses to listen…must be that adolescent time! 😉

Anyway, goosie antics aside I wanted to catch up with farm news with a few pictures. By the way, talking of aubergines, this is the variety I am harvesting right now; they from Thailand. They are about an inch in size and are really nice cooked slowly in olive oil.

Gnome did a Christmas Eve planting of special Peruvian corn:

The ducks and geese like to walk round and round this enclosure hoping to find an entrance to these sweet tit-bits! This is the corn about 3 weeks later; doing very well and faring nicely in this rainy weather:

Oh and pigeon pea is in season again; I will write more about it soon since we are harvesting and eating this everyday:

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Adventures With M & G…

January 15, 2019 Munchkin

First of all, I have to tell you that it is freezing cold, grey and miserable right now! I think it is about 20C (68F) or less. Right now, we are wearing woolly hats, scarves and many layers including a t-shirt, jumper/long-sleeved shirt and a body warmer all zipped up to the collar. You would think that this is ideal cool weather for working outside but you can actually get sick because the sweat does not evaporate from your clothes and you are left feeling wet, cold and shivery. Hot water showers are a must right now. We are so used to 40C (104F) that it is difficult for our bodies to adapt quickly to the sudden drop in temperature. Having said all that, we still like this short winter time because we know that the dry season is coming soon and that is extreme in the opposite way.

Okay, I promised some pictures from Sunday; Sunday was a gloriously bright day and Gnome (the Adventurer!) had the notion that he wanted to drive the truck to the newly cleared area. Note that in all this time that we have been on the farm, we have always parked the truck in the driveway and never ventured forth into the unknown. There was no road so we had to weave in and out of coconut trees, dodge geese, stumps, bumps and little trees to boldly go where no Munchkin and Gnome had gone before. Weeeeee!!!

More Pictures; adventuring into the wilderness! This is the newly cleared area:

Another picture from further away:

One of the geese (Chinese goosie) poked his head out of the pond to see what all the fuss was about. I don’t think he felt as excited as us:

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Double Squeak!

January 13, 2019 Munchkin

The goosie noise level has quadrupled in the last week or so; there is shrieking, cackling, screaming and squawking every-day and throughout the night. Noise levels start increasing at about 4am in the morning right outside the house. Interestingly enough, the levels reach a crescendo at our waking time which is 6am and do not stop until they hear our bedroom door open. As soon as this happens, we see all four goosie groups scattering off in the direction of the pond. I swear…I am convinced that they have diabolical minds and are deliberately making our lives difficult!

Anyway, yesterday I wanted an extra hour in bed…just another extra hour! My sleep had been broken all night by the sound of Squeaky…there is one goose that squeaks (not squawks) but actually squeaks. The noise is very high pitched and occurs constantly every two seconds ; it felt like he was just standing right outside the house all night and had not moved an inch. Finally we could bare it no more and got up at 6.30am and I opened the front door to shake my fist at Squeaky and tell him what a terrible night I had…of course, it was really just for my own benefit…goosie would be totally un-fazed by my gestures of indignation.

When, I opened the door, the squeaking was still constant and close but the goose was nowhere to be seen. Gnome looked out of the window and spied Squeaky about 50 yards away going off towards the pond. However, the constant high-pitched EEEEEEEEEEE noise was still outside our house…

Oh no…we both realised it at the same time…we have spawned a second Squeaky!!

There was indeed a Squeaky Junior standing proudly and all puffed up giving his best. The all-new Squeaky doesn’t look like his father…he is a Chinese goose. Here is a picture: the Chinese goose type is the one in front; normally these types make a quacking noise like a duck but we seem to have hybrid that squeaks.

Gnome says that in order to preserve our sanity (and our ears) we should try to breed the squeak out of our goosies. 😉 Ha-Ha…project #312 Breeding the Squeak out of the Geese!!

Anyway, that was just a little amusing story for a Sunday morning. The weather is bright and sunny today so I will go out and take new pictures to post up later on.

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Back To work!

January 6, 2019 Munchkin

We had a lovely two weeks holiday together; this generally consisted of switching off our phones (do you remember the good old times when we didn’t have mobile phones and people had to contact you at appropriate times on your land-line?) and switching off other communications including FaceBook. We did still have other forms of communication for family to get in touch if needed. I informed (mostly) everyone that we were off camping in the mountains and so we cut a trail off in to the mountains and carried food and goodies back and forth from the farm to the camp-site. It was nice to do something together and we ate very well. We did come back regularly to make sure that the goosies were behaving themselves.

So now that we have packed on the calories we are ready to start work on the farm again. Gnome said that eating lots of food over this festive period was the perfect way to store energy for the physical labour ahead of us…after all, this is the traditional way that farmers sustained themselves through the seasons and we feel that this is a more natural way for the body to gain and shed energy. I guess that it is important to point out that if you choose this lifestyle, you do have to increase food (caloric) intake in order for your body to remain fit and healthy. Incidentally, I also had to give Panda guidelines on increasing caloric intake with specific food preparation instructions since he is now upping his level of physical activity. I have worked out that Panda (and also Gnome) has to eat 3 whole chickens a week (or protein equivalent) plus the other food groups to sustain this type of lifestyle. Now, we can all eat bacon and eggs in the morning and not feel fat and guilty…Ha-Ha!! This life has its advantages…

Anyway, back on the farm we are trying to get back into the swing of things. Gnome started today by moving wheel-barrows of sand to our designated root/tuber beds…what a way to start! There is a reason why this has to be done quickly… it’s because the geese are having too much fun running up and then sliding back down the sand pile. ARRRRGGHHH!!! It’s ruining our lovely pile! We decided that the best course of action was to get rid of the sand as quickly as possible so that it doesn’t whittle down to nothing on the ground.

You should see the geese at feeding time…they are all on top of the sand pile giving their best to shriek and honk at me and when I do come out with their corn, they all slide down the hill in the midst of complete and utter chaos and mayhem. Yes, oh what fun!! Here are two goosies walking on flattened sand.

Wishing everyone a good start to 2019!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

A Few More Pictures…

December 24, 2018 Munchkin

I thought that I would sneak in a few more pictures from the farm just before Christmas Day. Here are pictures of our peanut; look at the size of the leaves on the black peanut. These will be ready to harvest in February.

These are ripe fruit of the peanut butter plant. When left to ripen on the tree, the birdies usually get them. You can actually pick the fruit at an orange stage and then allow them to soften by themselves. They have the consistency of lotus paste (if you know what I mean).

Peanut Butter Fruit on tree:

Oh, and sorry I don’t have the pictures in sequence but this a picture of the leaves of jumbo peanut…still not as big as the black peanut!

I have started the last lot of seedlings before dry season: Gnome’s Mum will be pleased to see that the pomegranate seeds are still viable after a year; pomegranates in the middle, tobacco to the front and water cress to the back:

The water cress are ready to be planted out in our new grey water pond. We are planting them in a shaded area where the water flows from the veranda to the pond. Water cress likes constantly moving water:

The black peppers transplanted well; here is one showing new growth:

I will leave you with a festive picture. It is sorrel time again:

Belize, Farming, Philosophy

Quiet Time.

December 23, 2018 Munchkin

This is our quiet period of the year; Christmas and New Year…it’s the time in-between time when we try to stop our crazy, goal-orientated farm projects and reflect upon the year. Today we will try to “potter” around and look for likely goosie laying spots to put nests. They are usually over-grown areas with shade or bang right in front of the house whenever the mood takes them.

The geese have been especially feisty, noisy and aggressive. Bossie goosie has been chasing me around so I have been thwarting his attempts by shaking buckets in front of him…there is now a special broom in front of the house…designated “Goosie Broom” just in case things get a bit hairy and out of hand. So far, we are getting through goosie wars…

Okay, goosies! Time to lay eggs! This year we have decided to eat the first lot of eggs because they are usually not viable. Gnome says that he can’t wait to have a fried goosie egg with toast…mmmm…what a treat!

Okay, we will have a quiet day today pondering the meaning of our lives in a background of goosie shrieking and haranguing! It’s actually cold write now…both wearing our Christmas hats…

Belize, Farming, Philosophy

What’s Happening On The Farm?

December 20, 2018 Munchkin

Well, I think I need to cram in a few posts before Christmas especially when our website was down for a wee while. Some people may need an extra dose of Munchkin and Gnome…Ha-Ha!

Anyway, the first grey water pond is dug and is receiving washing machine, dish-washing and bathing water. It’s not completely full because of our conservative use of water (still hauling buckets due to pressure tank giving out) and it has been dry and sunny. Here is a picture of Gnome digging…I cannot emphasize how hard it was to move this heavy dirt with a spade and muscle power…

Moving quickly on, we are constructing more concrete beds to plant cassava, sweet potato varieties (we have the Belizean yellow, the orangey one and a purple!!) and any other root we can get our hands on. In our efforts to plant roots and tubers, we have found that the raised bed works the best since the soil is loose and it allows ease of digging. Also, with the torrential rains here, the beds are good for water drainage.

Panda and I have been clearing at the pond area. Mostly we are using machete and muscle power. Gnome says that I should take snap shot pictures every week so that we can see the work coming along; it is a shame that I didn’t take the pictures from the beginning because this place was just bush! Anyway, I am pleased with our efforts and I am happy that I can wield a machete and chop things up; I use it as a cardiovascular workout!

You can see the bamboo in the picture; before the place was cleared, you could only see the high tufts. The plan is to plant bamboo all down the east side of the area.

This used to be all bush!! Look at the work of Panda and Munchkin!! Look at that!!

And this is the west side:

This is the line cleared on the west side. So, there you go…this is how we all keep fit on the farm. No need for exercise bikes and jogging…

I will leave you with a sunset picture from our farm; you can see the silhouette of the palms underneath and the swirls in the sky are amazing to look at:

Okay, I think I got the hang of WordPress 5…

Belize, Farming, Food

Hot and Sunny!

December 5, 2018 Munchkin

The weather is hot and sunny right now. This is probably a good thing because Gnome is in the middle of pond digging. The first pond is almost done…just needs to go a foot deeper. The first part that I showed you last week has been lined with construction plastic, the sides have been weighed down with heavy rocks and taro and peanut have been planted. I am not going to show you a picture yet because it still looks like a messy construction site. We had to also fence off the whole area because the goosies thought that the new pond was a new swimming and socialising area. I had to chase them off with a broom when they started tearing up the planted peanut. Yes, those dastardly goosies are getting all feisty for breeding season and they are spoiling for a fight!

This is a picture of “Silly Goosie”; she is a bit of a loner and makes a weird “whir…whir…whir” noise as opposed to the more familiar “ghwaa! ghwaaa!” You may only appreciate my goosie communication observations if you are being surrounded 24 hours a a day by a gaggle of geese! Usually she walks about in the yard all the day talking to herself while the rest of them go off swimming. She seems happy enough.

Aside from digging in the dirt, Gnome has been air-layering to get more fruit trees for our newly organised orchard.

I have been planting black pepper cuttings:

The plan is to plant 10 to 20 vines behind the house to harvest enough pepper to use for the year. I have neglected the pepper in recent years and have resorted to buying white pepper…I know…that’s not like me at all!! The bought white pepper is bad quality and I just can’t get that lovely, Chinesy peppery flavour and aroma into my food. Time and time again, I am finding that money can’t buy everything and if I want something good, I have to do it myself! So back to looking after my plants and harvesting and processing…

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Category Archives: Farming

Early Jackfruit.

Hello!

Catching Up With Pictures

Adventures With M & G…

Double Squeak!

Back To work!

A Few More Pictures…

Quiet Time.

What’s Happening On The Farm?

Hot and Sunny!

Everything Handmade in Belize.