Category Archives: Food

What Is Gnome Doing?

September 24, 2023 Munchkin

Gnome is always doing, fixing, repairing and figuring out anything from plumbing, electrical wiring, solar to mowing. Plus he’s the soap-maker and coconut oil presser. Oh, and a Doctor too. To add to his endless repertoire, he also draws (pen and ink) and he is a tattooist. I have probably missed many, many things but he basically tries to do everything. This goes along with our self-sufficient life-style and he likes to learn new things. However, the bottom line is that somebody has to do the work!!

Gnome…you have to do the work because somebody has to do it!

So, just to update you on a few of his projects. We have been for sometime trying to breed soldier fly larvae as a protein source for our duckies. We watched some u-tube videos and came up with a few of our own breeding contraptions. This is a ‘Black Fly Love Cage’ where hatching takes place and then they are supposed to breed and lay more eggs. The love cage is for the procurement of eggs. Well, this one didn’t work despite Gnome’s best efforts. We caught flies inside and they didn’t breed…or they just sneaked out somehow!!

This was another attempt to breed and feed the pupae. Sturdy piece of work but rain got into it!

Well, after all these efforts, you will not believe worked in the end. Just a simple plastic container filled with fermenting food stuffs; the large plastic tub is set on jars on the 4 corners and is placed on a metal tray filled with sand.

Once the larvae are mature, they crawl out of the plastic box and drop into the tray of sand …they crawl round and round in circles until they find a card-board ramp (made by Gnome) and inevitably travel through the entirety of the ramp to fall down into a collection container with smooth walls.

So, there you go. The black fly project was a success after all but there was a lot of sweat, tears and failures!

Gnome has given me the option to cook on coals…yes, we have coals…lots and lots of it because we have plenty of wood to burn…

And he has equipped me with a coal stove which is modeled from a blast furnace project that is for forging knives! He said that the fact that I got first dibs on the blast furnace for cooking meant that he loved me dearly….

Charcoal Blast Furnace For Munchkin Cooking.

As you can imagine, the fire that comes out of this is very strong…so it’s good for soup making and steaming food. Oh, and great for a real, authentic stir fry! You just have to watch your eyebrows so they don’t get singed with the blast of heat…just joking…but it is HOT!

I have plenty of other projects to talk about but let’s leave it at that for now. Here is a tattoo that Gnome designed (with collaboration with da Munchkin). The arm belongs to a friend who has since left Belize (for Scotland incidentally) and wanted to take a reminder of Belize.

This is a picture of Ixchel, Goddess of Medicine in Mayan culture. This is the outline…I can’t find a picture of the completed tattoo. But, look at the smoothness of the lines. One pass only and this is Gnome’s first tattoo. Well Done!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

A Rainy Day

September 17, 2023 Munchkin

We were poised to work this morning since the rains have been stopping us from getting outside…and there is so much work to catch up with. We heard the distant sound of thunder as we awoke…hmmm rather ominous but pretended to ignore it! At 7am we ran out and Gnome got the mower out quick smart…at the same time there was a huge clap of thunder. More signs!! We both ran around and tried to get as much done as possible and sure enough at 8am, the rain came pouring down.

We came into the house both drenched. This happens all the time…the weather just doing its thing and we have to go with it. We have been doing this for about twenty years now…this is the story of our lives! Anyway, the grass keeps growing, the bush is encroaching and the weeds need weeding. Jolly good…we are right into the swing of rainy season in Belize!

Let’s talk about what we are harvesting right now. We have (at long, long last) started getting mangoes. Mango season in Belize is July but our season seems to be later and extending through to September. In fact, all our crops always seem to be behind a couple of months!! Since Gnome is the more technical one, I asked him why all our crops were late and out of sync with the rest of the country. This is what he said:

Oh, okay, thank you Gnome for your valued input!! Let’s just talk about the mangoes then…these are the best and our favourite. They are giant slipper mangoes that can weigh anything from 2 to 5lbs. The flesh is a chunky, smooth with no fibres and the taste is absolutely mango. We were given the seed by a Taiwanese horticulturist about 4 years ago and now it has started bearing very generously. This one is a keeper.

About 4 years ago, we also bought a whole lot of ‘grafted mangoes’ from a nursery. The variety is Tommy Atkins and we were told at the time that the grafted mangoes would bear at about 1 year. Nothing happened until now and all the trees make variations of the Tommy Atkins fruit so we think that these were not grafted after all and they were just grown from seed. Tommy Atkins Mangoes are a beautiful blue-purple and then ripen to a dark red colour. Our fruits are varied…some are large, round and very fibrous and others are slimmer looking and there are ones that taste like sour pineapple! I was disappointed at first but there is no way of knowing what you end up with until it starts bearing…by that time, the merchant has legged it with your hard earned cash!

Our breadfruit trees are bearing and not only are they ‘out of season’, they are also consistently small. Most breadfruit are the size of soccer balls…ours are more like baseballs. We have tried all sorts of things like mulching and fertilising…they are still teeny weeny tiny!! That’s okay, they are still tasty and edible…

In my twenty years in Belize, the only way that I have seen this cooked is fried like french fries. They are peeled (or not), the central core is removed (sometimes not) and they are cut into about 1/2 inch slices and fried in oil. It’s very nice and tasty but if you have a bearing tree, you can’t keep up with eating fried breadfruit all the time…you will end up feeling like a greasy lump! This is what I do: I gather the harvest and prepare them in batches. The fruit is peeled, cored and cut into cubes. Then par-boiled for 6 minutes, drained in a collard and once cooled, stored in quart bags in the freezer.

So, when you want to eat breadfruit, take out a bag of frozen breadfruit and thaw it. You can put them in stews, soups, stir fries…anything you like. It is also very nice cooked in coconut milk with garlic and chili pepper. Just be imaginative…they basically taste like potato so just use them in any recipe that you would otherwise use potato. It is very versatile and yes indeed, you can even fry it in oil from the frozen form!

Okay, that is it for now. It’s sunny again and Gnome has just ran out with the mower. It is amazing what magic he can do in one hour!! Go For It, Gnome!!

Farming, Food

The Golden Goosie Egg STORY.

September 9, 2023 Munchkin

Hello Again! As you know from last time, I haven’t written blog posts for quite a while. This is what actually happened that sparked off interest and wonderment again. I like to make pickles and have all sorts of jars of indescribable food things next to my bedside (coolest place in the house). I always had this inner cultural fascination to make the perfect salted egg…I managed (kinda) with duck eggs. Please note that only the Asian readers might have a clue about what I am raving on about. To achieve a perfect salted egg, the yolk has to become golden orange/yellow and oily. If you have had a mooncake with the duck egg yolk, you might know. Anyway, I haven’t been able to achieve this same effect with a goose egg…probably because they are so big so it is hard for the salt to penetrate through the whole thing.

To salt eggs, there are two methods: one is immersion of eggs into salt solution or the second is to tightly pack eggs in salt, ash and spices. The first method did not work for the goose eggs and the salt couldn’t get into the yolk area to do its magical thing. I had to throw this experiment away which was an awful waste of eggs!! And the second technique? I have had the gallon jar sitting there for 2 years. Since I can be a bit of an Eeyore, I thought that since the first method didn’t work…why would the second? Terrible, terrible logic but there you go!! I lamented over this jar, hugged it and talked to it for 2 years and finally, I had enough of looking at a ‘failed experiment’ that I loathed to throw out.

The other day, I decided that I really should dispose of this jar of eggs and be done with all the anguish and suffering! As an after thought, I cracked open one goose egg just to see the result. This is what I got:

It looks right and it smells right and it is very Chinesy!! It actually worked!! I got my Golden Goose Egg! I cried out for joy and showed Gnome my success. He said:

‘…well, it just needed time…the Chinese do call these century eggs…at least you didn’t have to wait 100 years!!’

So, the moral of my story is:

Don’t give up on the quest for the Golden Egg!

Don’t lament at a jar of pickled eggs for 2 years and suffer needlessly for no reason!

Farming, Food

The Launching of the Raft!

September 15, 2022 Munchkin

Good Morning Everyone!! It has rained every day since June and it is not relenting. What a wet year it has been…we have been unable to plant any vegetables or seedlings for three months because the water table is is always high. Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining and this year the pond filled up immediately after only drying out for 2 weeks (usually it stays dry for two months of the year). We were able to re-introduce our tilapia fingerlings into the pond and after three months, the pond is teeming with small, medium and big fishes. We had such a good harvest earlier in the year and are trying to get the fish breeding optimised so we can fish all year round.

Earlier this year, I had been fishing with a bamboo pole with dental floss string with a fish hook attached to the end. I used fish food as bait and manage to catch about one fish every minute. It was so easy since the the pond was so well stocked up. Gnome has offered to get me real fishing gear but I am okay to stick with traditional because it works fine enough. Besides, I am tired of cramming more possessions into our tiny little house.

Since I was only able to fish on the edge of the pond, Gnome has made a raft out of bamboo stick so that I can get around the pond easier. So, here it is…The launching of the raft!! We didn’t have a spare champagne bottle during the launch so just settled for loud cheers…

Here are some more pictures to show you since Gnome put a lot of time, attention and effort into making it. We have put empty plastic bottles underneath the bamboo to help it float up. It is very sturdy and takes both our body weights and we can move around by paddling with a long bamboo stick. It is really quite romantic floating about on a bamboo raft on the pond.

More Pictures:

I am really pleased with the raft and I am planning to do some fishing this weekend. It is a very nice spot out here to get away from the stress of angry, dastardly geese!!

There you go…we are trying to make our own Munchkin and Gnome paradise in the middle of nowhere!

Belize, Food, Plants

Adventures with Suriname Cherry!

August 28, 2022 Munchkin

Today, I thought I might write a post on Suriname Cherry because it is worth writing about. The Latin name for this fruit is Eugenia uniflora and the fruit can vary from purple to red to orange coloured.

The fruit has a complexity of flavours that are hard to describe and compare to any cherry or berry that we are familiar with. It has a resinous taste but sumptuous and unctuous at the same time. It is truly unique and there are sweet varieties, sour varieties and ones in between. I would like to dedicate this blog post to talking about it because there isn’t much information on it on the Internet. I think that it is mostly unknown and neglected and should be recognised for its taste as much as a strawberry is recognised by all palates.

Anyway, I am not going to re-hash a Wikipedia page; I think it is more important to talk about what I have learned about the fruit. The fruit grows in Belize. Belizeans call it ‘cherry’ and every-one here has tasted it before. It is one of the fruits that you have to taste in someone’s yard. Just like many of the indigenous, well-loved fruits of Belize, you will never (ever!) find it at the market. That is why I always think that money can’t buy everything…you need to grow it yourself!! The plant grows into bushes so they can be trimmed into hedges. We have about eight bushes on the farm that we placed inside duck coops for the ducks to sit underneath as shade from the sun. We had a great crop this year from all the ducky fertiliser (thank-you, my lovely duckies!!). In the past, we have eaten a few now and then out of hand. We have a slightly more acidic type so eating too much causes mild gastritis. This year was a bumper crop so I felt that it was my duty to do something with it. I feel rather peevish when I let fruit just drop off the tree and go to waste.

After picking the suriname cherries, I processed them by pipping them with a cherry pipper. You can do it with a small sharp knife…it just depends on whether you want intact whole fruit. Since I was picking about a 2lbs (1 kg) almost every third day for about two months, I had to consider preservation methods. In my Internet searching, I only found scant information on making suriname cherry jam. In piecing together the information, I learned that the ripe fruit does not have enough pectin to make the jam gel. So, you can add extra pectin to the fruit or interestingly, you can include a few seeds, whilst doing the fruit/sugar boil thingy to make jam.

Please note that it is hard to find pectin powder envelopes off the supermarket shelves in Belize. You can probably find it in the city or some specialty health food shop. In short, you don’t have the luxury of buying pectin here.

Oh but Munchkin always likes to do her own experimentation!! I discovered that by adding unripe suriname cherries (usually more orangey colour) to the ripe fruit, this provides enough pectin to gel the jam.

So, this is Munchkin’s Easy Suriname Cherry Jam Recipe:

Take 4 cups pipped suriname cherries and add 3 cups white sugar. Add about 10 unripe suriname cherries to get the pectin. Cook until you get to gel phase. Makes about 2 pints.

This recipe presumes that you know about gel phase and that you know how to make jam. If you don’t, look up u-tube to get familiar with textures and gelling temperatures.

If you don’t want to bother with the jam phase and you want a quick preserve that you can stick in the fridge, you can make a Suriname Cherry Compote.

This is what you do: take 4 cups pipped cherries and add two cups brown sugar. Cook under low/medium heat until the fruit loses its composition. About 15 minutes.

Once cooled, pour in jar and stick in fridge. Good for about 1 month and use it on yogurt, ice-cream, custard, cooked oats, breakfast cereals, etc. As a treat, I made cinnamon buns topped with suriname cherry compote. Very nice:

Okay, what else did I do? I found a recipe for Cherry Olives and substituted it with suriname cherries. This is good for cocktails or salads. This is what you do:

Pack a pint jar with 2 cups of pipped suriname cherries. Add to jar, 1 and 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup mild vinegar. Fill the jar with cold water (boiled already and cooled down to room temp). Put on cover and turn upside down. Let stand in fridge for 2 weeks before using.

(This was a modified recipe from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, very ancient edition.)

Oh, I made a massive 1/2 gallon jar since I had so many cherries. It is August now and it is still good to eat in the fridge.

And here ends my adventures with suriname cherry for the year. The fruiting season was about February to April so it was 2 months of continuous harvesting. I have stashed away about 4 quarts of jam to have with ice-cream and as savoury, it is very good with roast pork. Looking forward to next year’s harvest!!

Oh, I had so much to write about today, I forgot to mention that we make a Suriname Cherry Elixir. That will be for another post!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Something New!

August 16, 2022 Munchkin

For something new, we have started learning a bit of Q’eqchi’, the main language of the Maya people in Belize. The best place to practice is Punta Gorda market where you can ask questions like: What is that called? How much for that? I would like 2 lbs please.

We have quite a bit of fun with this; Gnome said to me the other day:

‘Hah, Munchkin!…you speak Q’eqchi’ with a Scottish accent!’

He then proceeded to exemplify his statement by saying:

‘ It’s not a bad thing. It’s just like Sean Connery. He spoke everything in a Scottish accent. He even spoke Latin, Russian and Greek with a Scottish accent…’

His voice sort trailed off when I looked at at him with dismay…

Munchkin: ‘Oh, is that why nobody understands me!!’

Anyway, one must keep on trying!! I have had trouble with this accent for the all the time I have been in Belize. When I first came to the country, I think I spoke too fast and my accent was very guttural and harsh-sounding. I remember speaking to a Belizean person (in the Queen’s English), and he said to me in a sympathetic tone of voice:

‘…don’t worry dear, you will soon get the hang of speaking English if you stay in Belize for a longer time.’

Anyway, moving quickly along, I wanted to show you some exciting things that we found at the market while we were practicing our new language skills.

The root on the left is a type of yam…they call it soup yam…this is a small one because I have seen them as large as footballs. We were very excited about the one on the right…we had never seen that before and we didn’t recognise them. I showed the latter one to a Belizean friend and she posted the picture on Facebook to see if anyone would come up with a name. We were amazed to find out that it was arrowroot. I didn’t even know that they grew arrowroot here to eat as a tuber…the Maya call this ya’ootch and they like to boil it up in their famous caldo (chicken soup).

Anyway, I boiled these two roots up separately just to get an idea of texture and taste:

The soup yam tasted like a ubiquitous yam-type of tuber with no great distinguishing characteristics. It is fine as a bland carbohydrate that can be used for soups and stews. We didn’t get too excited about it but nevertheless, it is an edible, inoffensive vegetable.

The arrowroot was boiled in water and softened in about 20 minutes:

We found this one more interesting since we have only seen this vegetable in powder form used as a thickener. Yes, this was a winner!! This is sweet and crunchy and makes a good alternative for water chestnut. This is a definite keeper and we will plant a patch of this stuff.

Anyway, that’s it for now. More soon!

Belize, Food

Happy Easter!

April 17, 2022 Munchkin

Hello and Happy Easter from Munchkin and Gnome. It is dry season here in Belize and it is that time of the year to splish splosh splash about in water to keep cool. Well, the ducks are doing it already:

To give you a re-cap of the last two months, we have been harvesting lots of food every-day. It has been a continuous process of harvesting, processing and preserving. Our year started off with a bonus harvest of wild mushrooms…in this instance it was puffball mushrooms. I will write about it in more detail but we felt very blessed with these wonderful harvests which seem to have an affinity to goose manure.

Next came the abundance of eggs from the geese and ducks. We look forward to the goose eggs every year because the season only lasts for 2 to 3 months. The yolks are very creamy. This year, I made a lot of custard with the goose eggs….compared to the duck eggs, the custard is thicker and creamier. At this point, we still have eggs coming out of our ears so I am making salted preserved duck and goose eggs (Chinese Style). We are willing to put up with the usual goosie bullying and carrying-on to get these lovely treats:

I have also had many experimental adventures with suriname cherries. We are still continuously gathering them and their delightful resinous taste is a delight. I have made jam, relish, olives and stewed fruit.

And this year, for the first year in 15 years, the pond has not dried out yet!! And, look what we have. Tilapia!!

And there’s more…so, I need to write more!!!

Belize, Elixirs, Farming, Food, Our Products, Plants, Uncategorized

A New Year!

January 4, 2022 Munchkin

A Happy New Year to you all! Let’s make 2022 a good one!! We started off on the right foot this year by planting peanut on the last day of the year and we had a big rain yesterday which will hopefully ensure that the peanuts will sprout. The January rains are usually the last rains before dry season so we are trying to get things into the ground this month. I have a few left-over pictures from last year that I would like to share with you.

For Christmas, we decided to buy a local chicken from the village. These chickens are much prized and go for about $5/lb (compare to shop bought Mennonite (battery reared) chicken that goes for about $3/lb). Apparently the Chinese really like it too and drive around the villages buying up all the chickens to eat. When I received the chicken, it looked like a pheasant with very long bones. It wasn’t fat and plump so I decided it would not make a good roasting chicken. I thought that the best thing to do was to make it into a curry in order to tenderize the meat. So, we had an impromptu Christmas Curry this time! Look at the bones on this chicken…

I was a bit concerned about the texture of the chicken and was anticipating very chewy meat. However, the curry tenderized the meat very well. The meat was flavoursome, tender and had the perfect bite. It was a very nice surprise…I wanted to show you a close up picture of the meat…it looks like game…

See…it is not white like poultry meat. Anyway, it was delicious and we would definitely buy local chicken again. This is completely different from the super soft chicken that you buy in the supermarket. This has taste!! Here in Belize, the Mayans like to use this chicken to make Caldo; this is a soup made with annatto, culantro and other spices. I think the Chinese (in Belize) boil it into a medicinal soup with Chinese herbs.

It has been cold this winter (18C/64F) so we had the pleasure of mulled wine for Christmas. Of course, we made it Belizean style with herbs and spices that we gathered from the farm. This year, we used the following: sorrel (roselle), all-spice, cinnamon, cardamom and orange peel.

We have had some winter harvests as the farm keeps on producing generously. Presently, we have long gourds growing on trellises. This one is a Sicilian gourd which can grow up to 5 to 6 feet. When it is completely mature, it hardens and looks like a very long baseball bat. This gourd is very tasty…I like it steamed or cooked in stir frys.

The next picture shows a Python Bean. It can grow to about 6 feet long but has a curled look to it. The outside skin is striped. It tastes like a very large long bean. It has a nutty taste and I like it best raw in salads in order to preserve the crispiness of the texture. This is definitely another winner and we will be planting more.

I will leave you with a picture of a passion fruit flower. We planted these from seed about a year ago and they are now producing. I am hoping to make Passion Fruit Elixir from this harvest. Our Elixirs are made from from a base of white rum, muscovado sugar or cane sugar and herbs and spices. In this case, it will be made from fresh passion fruit pulp!

Wishing you all a Lovely Day. Make it a good start to 2022!!

Belize, Food, Mushrooms, Our Products

Another Week!

October 16, 2021 Munchkin

Another week has gone by and it is time to write another blog post. You won’t believe it…the computerised chores have revolutionised the place. Things are getting down both inside and outside the house…I am actually finding the time to get housework done! I was thinking about why this method is working for us…one reason is because I have relinquished the responsibility of trying to remember chores. That frees up all the mental anguish of retaining extraneous information. Also, it is impersonal. If the computer comes up with the list for the day, you either do it or you don’t. There is no need to spend extra energy explaining to the computer whether it is the right time to do something.

Anyway, it has been unbelievably hot for the last week…it feels so awful and we have had to really push ourselves to get out in the burning heat. It is getting to about 34C (93F). We still keep going because it is so lovely to see all the plants thriving. Here are some more pictures from the farm:

The akee are just starting to bear. Once the fruit gets bigger and splits, they will be ripe for harvesting. This is a very good tasting fruit with a buttery texture and taste.

Gnome has been air-layering Gnome-style…lychee plants. He stuck plant pots filled with soil around branches, These covered parts will hopefully form roots and and be removed and planted in about two to three months.

Here is a close up:

Here is a picture of some puff ball mushrooms that I found growing in the goose coop. They are edible but these ones were too old to be eaten. It’s a shame because they were large enough to make a good meal! When, I sliced them in half, they were spongy and dark inside. They are at their peak and edible when they are pristinely white inside.

And, oh I have run out farm pictures! Other things that I have been doing…I have new Chocolate Lip balm flavours! These are all White Chocolate…yum!!

And, let’s have a group picture!

Check out our Shop for more Chocolate Lip Balms. Other Chocolate flavour available are Original, Orange, Mint, Cherry and Raspberry. Oh my, it’s all busy on the farm right now!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Plants

Getting it Done!

October 7, 2021 Munchkin

Hello Everyone, we have been moving along quite quickly with our planting. This is partly because we have computerised our farm work into daily lists. Gnome has put the chores on weekly, fortnightly and monthly cycles so that we can keep up with all maintenance. I can’t believe that such a simple concept can make such a difference! Now I don’t have several scraps of paper with endless lists of work to do. I don’t even try to remember what needs to be done…which inevitably leaves to every thing being forgotten as life gets in the way all too often…the computer can do it for me!

Everything is looking great on the farm…I say that with such glee because this is a first for us. Usually something is sadly neglected but this time, everything is getting care and attention!

Oh look at the pitahaya growing so nicely against our stone rock bed. We are planning to transplant all these into a pitahaya orchard with wooden posts as support to allow the plants to grow upwards. The orchard will allow more space to produce fruit and weeding will be a bit easier. This rock bed method looks nice but requires too much maintenance.

We have some wild rocket (arugula?? Is that how you spell it??) and besides, Gnome tells me that this is the Sicilian name for this popular bitter salad green. In Italian, it is called ‘rugola.’ I like the wild variety because it has a very sharp, bitter taste and has a texture more like a dandelion green.

This is a picture of kang kong (sounds a bit like King Kong! I can never remember the name of this plant and usually come out with a mish mash of the name.). The latin name is Ipomoea aquatica, if that helps. How we managed to procure this green was quite interesting…I bought a bag of kang kong from a Chinese grocery store and rooted one of the cuttings. They grow very easily in wet, marshy areas. This edible green is growing in our water chestnut pond.

This is a close-up of the kang kong:

Oh, and what do we have here? Munchkin and Gnome have branched out into ornamentals!! How we procured this is another interesting story…a hotel!!…we don’t take the towels…we take the seeds from plants (we DO ask of course!). You know those nice pots of ornamentals that they have in reception or at the front door…Ha-Ha!! This is Papyrus: a very good looking plant…

Okay, that’s it for now. I will write again NEXT WEEK!! Yes, you have guessed it…I’ve got the computer to remind me!!

Casa Mascia Apothecary