Category Archives: Mushrooms

A Day in a Life of Munchkin and Gnome.

July 7, 2015 Munchkin

This morning, we got up a tad later than usual at 6am. We sat down to have a hot honey drink whilst drunken baymen (black stingless bees that buzz and bumble in a swaying motion) swarmed around us trying to steal honey from our mugs. It wasn’t that comfortable because every-time I took a sip, the bees would make a mad swoop for the mug and I would cough and splutter trying not to swallow a single bee! What a way to start the morning!

This is a typical day in the life of Munchkin and Gnome.

We mixed up a batch of soap; this time we made Chocolate Vanilla Cookie which is fragranced with a blend of essentail oils to give off the smell of oven-baked cookies. They appear marbled at first but with time, they assume a uniformity with a light chocolate brown colour.

Gnome then went off to procure a large stick…wahooo!! The Big Stick is coming out so coconut products will be available soon!

I went off to wash the dogs…they were actually really well-behaved today as I soaped them and then doused them thoroughly with Sulphur-Lime Dip (a Gnome Bored-in-Belize concoction) which is used against fleas, tics, mange and ringworm. It is great stuff and works well…however, we all end up smelling of rotten eggs. Afterwards, I had a shower and doused myself in lavender oil.

Next, we both donned our respectable clothes to go into town to assume our identities of Doctors Munchkin and Gnome (or “The Doctors” as we are known in Punta Gorda). We had an appointed patient review.

So, we did our doctoring stuff and as Gnome was walking down the path, he spotted a decaying tree with a whole load of oyster mushrooms growing on them. You have to be on the look-out at all times for mushrooms to pop up! They were such beautiful clean specimens. We picked the whole lot of them and I was so pleased with our find that I let Gnome store them in my town hat.

We also spotted White Goods on a Pick-up! Our Pick-up game that we like playing where we spot white goods on trucks for points.

Munchkin: Sloooow down! What do you think it is…a washing machine? Or a mini freez…

Gnome: Quit blabbering! Take a picture now!! We’re turning left now!! Pronto!

As we were leaving Punta Gorda, we stopped off by the sea to have a hot drink together (yes, I brought my food bag with the thermos flask…no biscuits this time). We stared out at the choppy sea and marvelled at the enormous amounts of seaweed on the shore. This will be a Munchkin and Gnome project for the future…this particular seaweed is called “sargassum.” It is of particular interest to us because it is actually used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is named Hai Zao and it is used to dissolve phlegm, act as a diuretic and relieve oedema.

Homeward bound back to the farm where I cooked up curried ripe jackfruit and lentils for lunch:

Will post recipe this week! Too much to write about…

And that was just the morning of a typical day with Munchkin and Gnome!

Belize, Farming, Food, Mushrooms

Wild Chinese Mushrooms in Belize.

July 3, 2015 Munchkin

Hi Everyone! More wild mushrooms in Belize and we haven’t even stepped outside our farm! I have called these mushrooms “Chinese” because they are eaten mostly in Asian cuisine and they are commercially cultivated for this reason. The wonderful thing is that I can harvest them fresh in my own backyard rather than buying the dehydrated form from China via container transportation to the little known country of Belize.
This one is known as “snow ear” or “silver ear” fungus in Chinese. Yes, even I know this one because it is so popular in Asian cookery. If you ever find yourself in a Chinese household, you will be sure to find a packet of this dehydrated fungus secreted in their food cupboard. It is usually used in soups (pork soup in my household). Wiki states that it is cooked in sweet dishes…I have never heard of it being cooked in this way.
Tremella fuciformis growing on a dead branch on our farm; it is slowly getting bigger day by day:

You can buy this mushroom in the dehydrated form in Asian supermarkets. It looks like this:

The next one is another very popular Chinese fungus called “wood ear.” This is another “must have” in the Asian kitchen cupboard. Again, this one is used in soups and stews. Both the snow ear and the wood ear fungi have the texture and bite of soft and succulent ligamentous tissue…again, you have to be Asian to appreciate this. This is why we like eating them (Gnome likes them too…that’s because he is a wannabee Chinese). Auricularia auricula fungus growing wild on our farm:

Shop-bought dehydrated form of wood ear mushroom:

There is a spelling error on this packet: “Dride Black Fungus.” Gnome figured that it was a Scottish-Chinese who made the spelling mistake. Ha-Ha!!

And, of course, there is the paddy straw mushroom, which I have mentioned in previous posts, which preferentially grows on cacao trash (which we get from the Chocolate Factory in Toledo for manure). These are the egg-shaped mushrooms that you get in Chinese food and stir frys.
Volvariella volvacea on our farm:

You can buy these mushrooms canned in Asian Supermarkets. But guess what…we have fresh ones to eat…yeah!

What an auspicious three-some to find on our farm. Such delectable wild treats…who needs a restaurant when we have the best food right here at home. Whenever I mention going out to eat, Gnome laments and says: Wah!! Our Food is fresh fresh fresh…what more do you want? Why waste money eating bad food outside?

Sometimes he sounds just like my mum! And so we feast a plenty at home…

Belize, Mushrooms

Mushroom Medicine.

June 25, 2015 Munchkin

I guess I shouldn’t complain about the rains when lots of very interesting mushrooms are coming up on our farm. It is amazing that we have found such a wide variety, each within a few yards of each other.

The Lingzhi mushroom is worth its own post because it is a fungus which has been recognised for its medicinal properties by the Chinese for 2000 years. In addition to this, medical scientific research has shown that it boosts immune function and it has been explored as a possible adjunctive therapy with patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The lingzhi mushroom (Ganoderma sp.), in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is used to strengthen the heart and improve the memory and is viewed as a medicine for longevity. It is seen as a divine, sacred and en-lightening mushroom by the Chinese.

These polypore mushrooms are very easy to spot because they have a shiny surface and when fresh, have a soft cork-like consistency.

The mushroom can be prepared by thinly slicing, or pulverising (when dry) and then boiling it in water for a couple of hours to make a tea.

About a couple of years ago, I noticed that there was a sudden surge in interest in this mushroom as an anti-cancer tea in Belize. It appeared that someone was actively bringing in sachets of this “mushroom tea” made by a natural herbal company in the States. I saw them everywhere…in the pharmacy in Punta Gorda and in the main supermarkets in Belize City. And, they weren’t cheap too…something like a $100 for a pack. I could not believe that this stuff was getting imported at such an exorbitant price and it was growing in our own back-yards!

This one is definitely a fungus to go hunting for. When we conducted our foraging tour at Belcampo Lodge, we also spotted it growing in the bush:

Belize, Farming, Food, Mushrooms

Paprika Stinkhorn Egg with Nori Flakes.

June 19, 2015 Munchkin

Hello Everyone, you are getting two posts almost back to back because our Internet was down for most of the day. The day started off with a thunderstorm and stayed stormy for most of the day; there was also a power-cut for most of the morning.

As promised, I have posted up my recipe with the Witches’ Eggs which I foraged yesterday. I seasoned the sliced immature stinkhorn mushrooms with paprika and white pepper.

The dish actually turned out nicely and Gnome commended me for my efforts. Prior to eating, he had been giving me a sideway neophobic ducky look in preparation for the slimy quality of the mushroom. However, when he did eat it, he looked surprised and likened it to oysters; he said that they should be called “vegetarian oysters” or “faux oysters.”

The toasted nori flakes complimented the “seafood” taste of the mushroom very well. For the full recipe, check out Paprika Stinkhorn Egg with Nori Flakes in Belize Wild Recipes.

At this point, I would like to thank our Chinese friend (real Chinese, not like me!) for emailing us to give us some more information on this fungus.

This is what she said (more or less):

This mushroom is called Zhu Sun in Chinese. The Zhu means bamboo (because it grows on bamboo litter) and it also has the same sound as congratulations. The Sun means smooth and successful. Zhu Sun also means longevity. This mushroom is usually eaten during Chinese New Year but can also be eaten all year round. The Chinese eat the mature mushroom and the recipes are usually found under “bamboo pith” on the Internet.

This information was a great help and we will be collecting some fresh mature specimens to eat. I can’t wait!

Yes, she is right, they do grow on bamboo litter as you can see:

May we all have the pleasure of eating such an auspicious mushroom!

Belize, Food, Medical Related, Mushrooms

Witches’ Eggs.

June 18, 2015 Munchkin

Hello Everyone. It has been pouring down all day and we are surrounded by big puddles of water. It is dull, miserable and grey and so I naturally gravitated to the kitchen to make some comfort food. I made mochi balls with lotus paste. They definitely hit the spot…at least for the 15 minutes in which we were devouring them. Anyway, these are not the “Witches’ Eggs.”

These are the Witches’ Eggs:

These are the stinkhorn mushrooms in their immature form. If you want to harvest these, you need to go to a spot where you have seen this type of mushroom, get down on your hands and knees and look and feel for these round protrusions above the soil. I found eight of them today and this is a picture of a the mushroom cut in half:

These Witches’ Eggs are edible although I can’t find any recipe on the internet. A lot of information comes from other blogs where people have voiced their disgust over the gelatinous quality of this mushroom. Apparently, this fungus is cultivated by the Chinese and I was surprised to read that it is actually the mature form which they eat. They are dried and then re-hydrated for soups. Apparently, it is a highly esteemed ingredient in Chinese cooking and considered a delicacy. With the promise of delectability, I am definitely getting out there in my rubber boots to collect this for my soup.

I have known about the edibility of the witches’ eggs for a long time since we used to collect them in Scotland. At that time, we were really spoiled for choice with chanterelles, boletes and all manner of freshly foraged mushrooms that I didn’t really make much of an attempt to cook these ones up. Since I am now in Belize and mushroom foraging is less diverse, I have decided to give this mushroom another chance. I will be cooking it tonight so will post up my recipe tomorrow.

The protein content of these mushrooms in the egg form is comparable to that found in meat. Mmmm…something for the vegetarians to consider.

Also, this mushroom contains anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.

Oh, and this one is very interesting…according to a 2001 publication in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, the smell of the fresh fungus can trigger spontaneous orgasms in human females. Definitely another reason to get the rubber boots out and go mushroom foraging?!

Belize, Farming, Mushrooms

Another Lepiota in Belize.

June 10, 2015 Munchkin 2 Comments

Hello Everyone, we are continuing with the mushroom theme since the rains are bringing a huge abundance of them onto our farm and the Toledo region of Belize. Interestingly enough, many of them fall into the category of the Lepiota sp…also commonly known as the parasol mushrooms.

Here are some pictures from the farm:

Lepiota mushrooms are notoriously difficult to identify and many of them are poisonous, whilst others are edible and delectable. Although we are pretty adventurous with our eating, we have decided not to chance it with these mushrooms since it would be pretty embarrassing for two doctors, in the bush, to come to an early demise due to mushroom mis-adventure.

This particular Lepiota is more distinctive as it has green spores. This one is Chlorophyllum molybdites; unfortunately, inedible and can cause gastro-intestinal upset.

Chlorophyllum molybdites.: distinctive green spores.

Even although we can’t eat any of these, we still have a passion for mushrooms and love to take pictures of them.

By the way, we know that we are back in the Toledo region of Belize (been out of town last few days) when we have to stop the car to let the little piggies cross:

Belize, Food, Mushrooms

Another Mushroom in Belize!!

June 9, 2015 Munchkin

Oh, I can not believe that I forgot to mention that we had found a puffball mushroom whilst on our travels the last few days. We had just driven up to the Taiwanese shop and the next thing I knew, Gnome had scrambled out quickly and was on his hands and knees in the grassy field beside the car-park.

He was so excited because he had spotted a puff-ball mushroom. These are edible and some of them can get to the size of footballs. We have never had the pleasure of eating one but apparently you can slice them and cook them like steaks.

We took this specimen back to the farm and Gnome stomped all over it on the grass to disperse the spores. Hope to have puffball steak sometime soon!!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Medical Related, Mushrooms

Adventures in Belize.

June 8, 2015 Munchkin

Hi there!! Here are some more pictures from our adventures through Belize. As promised, here are some pictures from the Anime convention held by the Japanese Embassy in Belize.

Cosplay Contest:

The Japanese Embassy entertained with music, songs and dancing on the stage. And of course interspersed with Anime: Negadon: The Monster From Mars, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers and Komaneko- The Curious Cat. They also had various booths to display information on Japanese culture. Here is the calligraphy booth:

We stayed at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza for the night. We were pleasantly surprised and found that it had a colonial, Caribbean feel to the place despite being located in the middle of a busy city.

Back in the hotel room, after a 3 hour drive to Belize City and attendance at the Anime convention for about 4 hours, Gnome took his boots off finally. Out of one boot, a frog popped out!

Gnome certainly insisted on taking part of the farm with him! He said that he thought that he felt something wet in his shoe…he did not realise that he was accommodating a frog and so was somewhat relieved to find a benign cause for his slimey foot.

The frog stayed in the room with us and in the middle of the night jumped onto Gnome’s face. It jumped and boinged quite happily in the dark attending to mosquito control. In the morning, we found him asleep in the toilet.

This morning, we went to the Belize City public hospital, KHMH to pay our medical licences. The Medical Board of Belize have implemented a new policy with payment whereby the money has to be paid into their bank account. Then you have to travel all the way to KHMH in Belize City to present your bank deposit slip to them. This year they have also started issuing annual licences to doctors once payment has been fulfilled. Presumably they are for framing in the doctor’s clinic. In our case, they will be hung up in the barn.

After the hospital visit, we stopped by the Taiwanese shop to pick up some Chinese goodies. We had some refreshments…

I can not read Chinese so I don’t actually know what we drank. It tasted like soya milk with hints of strawberry. Check out the picture…it seems to suggest the promise of love? Some feminine love potion drink? I felt a bit giddy with love for my darling Gnome afterwards…so, maybe it worked!!

It was a lovely drive with blue skies:

We even managed to squeeze in a visit to Lost Reef to meet up with friends:

Our Happy Friend...She DOES look like this!! — Our Happy Friend…She DOES look like this!!

Our Friends. They actually look like this!! — Our Friends. And yes, he looks like that too!!

Homeward bound. We took the frog back home with us too!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Mushrooms

Emergency Mushroom Hot-Line.

June 2, 2015 Munchkin

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.

If you would like to read more about this mushroom, Gnome has written an engaging and humourous essay in the library on The Stinkhorn.

Belize, Farming, Food, Mushrooms, Plants

Fruits in Season.

May 18, 2015 Munchkin

Hi There! Just something short and sweet…pictures from the farm. We find that the farm just keeps on producing and doing its own thing. Even although we have taken a few days from farm work it doesn’t stop it all from growing up…aagghhh…the bush and the grass are all coming back with the rains! Anyway, here are some things that make us feel that it is all worth it in the end.

Mulberry is in season; you would naturally consider this as a temperate fruit but it actually grows in Belize very well. The yields are very high…the only thing is that you have to pick them early morning before all the birds get them.

The bees are polinating the African oil palm. Again, this is a favourite with wild animals so you have to grab them while you can. The palm nuts are actually really nice boiled in soups and stews. Oh, and another thing, the dog likes them too. So much competition…we don’t mind sharing but the problem is that the rest of the other critters have no concept of leaving a few behind for us!

This is a nice specimen of wild mushroom. They are Lepiota sp. unfortunately, not edible.

These yellow fruit are called abiu. They have a clear, whitish pulp with some similarity to the texture of persimmon. A tasty fruit which can only be picked once there is a tinge of yellow on the outer shell. The birds seem to be able to eat them green so we tend to lose a lot of them to our little friends. Here is a nice picture of two surprisingly intact specimens:

It is mango season and the trees in Toledo are totally loaded. We are lamenting over this because when we initially started planting fruit trees on our farm, ten years ago, we were so excited about planting weird and exotic trees that we completely overlooked the common back-yard mango. So, now we have no mangoes on our farm and they are actually our favourite fruit. We are making up for it this year by planting seedlings but it is going to be quite a wait to have our own farm-fresh mango…about 5 years! Here is a picture of mangoes on a tree (not on our farm).

Oh, and this is an unusual fruit called velvet apple. They are furry red balls with a yellow/orange pulp which we have actually never tasted before. They have a very nice peachy smell to them. This picture was taken from a friend’s farm; they look like Christmas decorations:

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Now is the time to stuff yourself silly with mangoes until July…then it will be avocado season! Lots of wonderful fruit to look forward to.

Casa Mascia Apothecary