Category Archives: Our Products

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!

Belize, Our Products

Our New Website is Up!!

April 6, 2021 Munchkin 2 Comments

We have just put our new website up! It is still casamascia.com. So, here it is! I have to thank Gnome for all his hard work in learning to code from scratch and getting the new site up in a month. We are back to old-fashioned email orders again but with time, we should be able to make it more dynamic; I hope that you will find our product list more comprehensive because we have put EVERYTHING in it! The side bar menu is not complete yet because we are extending our apothecary to include a farm-store, seed shop and tattoo shop. Also, hopefully there will be future offerings in the Art Gallery from Munchkin and Gnome! We hope that you can manoeuvre around this site better…we would welcome your feedback and comments so that we can make this site user-friendly.

Belize, Our Products

Website Down!

March 7, 2021 Munchkin

Hi Guys!! Just a quickie to let you know that our Casa Mascia Apothecary website is down. We are not sure what has happened but it seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth! We are working on it! Anyway, meanwhile if any-one is looking for anything or wants to get in contact with us, please email us at info@casamascia.com. I will write soon but the Internet is really playing up right now!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Our Products

One That didn’t Make It…

December 14, 2020 Munchkin

Hiya Folks…I have been tidying up the house like there is no tomorrow. I was forced to do so today because it was pouring down! Gnome was stuck indoors too experiencing the fun of an even bigger mess…somehow it seems like the beginnings of tidying up start off worse than before because you end up with a pile of things that are useful (that you don’t want to throw away) but there is no designated space for them. Right now, I have a ‘rubbish pile’ and a very big ‘don’t know what to do with but it could come in useful’ pile. Arrrghh…help…it is actually really difficult!!

Anyway, enough of the lament. Guess what I found…on one of my mystery forays into one of the corners of the room:

Ahhh…brings back old memories from over a decade again. Once upon a time, when we thought that time was timeless, we engaged in mega brain-storming into how to convert everything(!) from the farm into products to sell. This was a Gnome idea since we used tongue scrapers and there was none to be found in the whole country of Belize at that time. Also, being Doctors, we viewed it as a great combo promotion of ecological and health (dental) awareness. We thought it was the best idea since sliced bread and it was an original thought…we didn’t have Internet or anything…at the time, we had no electricity, no computer, no phone and zero technology. To put the great brain fart into motion, Gnome cut down bamboo and painstakingly made long strips. Each single bamboo tongue scraper was made lovingly with our own hands in addition to all the blood, sweat and tears (Ha-Ha…going a bit overboard here but it was a laborious task).

You see…we even printed out a label…in those days, we would design and print our labels in the Internet shop in Punta Gorda and pay a $0.50 for each printed sheet. We tried out our new product at the first Cacao Fest in PG (2009, I think?) and we couldn’t sell any!! They started at $2 then we got desperate and slashed the price down to $0.50…still no takers. We explained the oral hygiene and that stuff but we didn’t get any interest…they couldn’t even see the novelty and excitement that we felt for them…we were heart-broken!! All that work and nobody could recognise it. We ended up taking a big bag of bamboo tongue scrapers back home unsold and there in the corner of the house they have sat dejected and unloved for all this time(awwwhh!!). That’s why I decided to write a post on our Bamboo Tongue Scrapers…to give them some acknowledgement and now that I have found them, we will have clean tongues for the rest of our lives!!

Let’s hear it for the Natural Bamboo Tongue Scraper. May it be remembered and I have given it a special place in this post.

Amusing, Blog, Our Products

Hello There…

May 21, 2018 Munchkin 4 Comments

Well, Hello there, here is another update from Munchkin and Gnome. You see, I feel a bit sheepish because I forgot my camera for the Choc Fest (well, you know…there was so much stuff to pack into boxes, packed lunch and icy water…the camera was the last thing on my mind). Firstly, thanks to Alisa Atkinson and Tati for sharing the booth with us this year. We had a great time stuffing ourselves with their croissants and muffins and enjoyed their company very much.

This year, the fair was set up a bit differently since the town council were organising it. The stalls were packed on both sides of Front Street . Most of the stalls were not designated and so in the morning, it was first come, first served. Luckily, we found a place with a breeze from the sea so that helped with the dry season heat. As Gnome has said in the past:

“…Cacao Fest is always the hottest day of the year!!”

The fair started at 9am and ran on until 5pm (Saturday). The Wine and Chocolate was Saturday night instead of Friday this year. Because of this timing difference, we thought that the morning crowd was smaller; it was mostly made up of incidental tourists and Punta Gorda locals.

One thing happened that was really quite funny (maybe not funny for the people involved!!). I hope that I can describe it well so that it makes up for the lack of photographs. Late in the morning, three young Belizean girls came up to our stall dolled up to the nines with cute little skirts and heels. They were ooohing and ahhhing…at first I thought that they were complimenting us on our chocolate soaps…but, then it actually sounded like whining. Their beautiful bare legs were covered in bug bites and all three of them in unison stared woefully down at their bitten legs and then looked at the glowing container of “Copal Ointment for rash and itch.”

They pointed at that tin and uttered in feeble tones:

“…we want that…”

As soon as they received the Copal Ointment, they whipped the top open and dug right into the container…each one of them desperate to calm the itch on their legs. Oh, the poor girls!! There was more oooohing and ahhhing in front of me but this time I sensed more of a relief in their tone. Crisis over, they thanked me and went on their way. Afterwards, Gnome said to me:

“…that was perfect advertising for us…a shame we couldn’t get a picture!!”

We left the fair early afternoon to go home for a rest before attending the Wine and Chocolate. Yes, we did go this year…

(Incidentally, we were both at the the Very First Cacao Fest 2005. I ended up the kitchen cooking all night and Gnome got roped into pouring wine. That’s another story for another day!! But, never again!!)

It was nice to get out and get dressed up. It is certainly quite a job to try to get out of the farm without covering your good clothes in sticky burrs and mud. Nonetheless, we managed with a few passing pecks from the geese of course!! Much wine was drunk and we had a good evening together socialising. Good to get out once in a while…

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Our Products

Hello!!

October 12, 2017 Munchkin

Hello Everyone!! Well, tropical storm Nate passed by without a drop of rain. We had stayed indoors on that day (thinking it was going to pour down) but it was actually a fine sunny day. Gnome said afterwards,

“let’s never look at weather reports EVER again!! They never get it right!”

Munchkin: “Yeah sure but if you remember correctly it was the fruit-monger who told us about the incoming storm first…”

Gnome said: “Since when did the fruit-monger become a meteorologist?”

Munchkin: “Eh…since we trashed the last weather report…”

Anyway, it is absolutely pouring down right now so I am forced to come indoors. Anyway, I should really keep up with my blog posts!

What have we been up to? Making some new chocolate soaps for the new season; oooh nice!! And I even managed to take a cool looking picture (a la Panda…he’s really into fuzzy background photos…sorry, I mean professional looking “coffee table” pictures!! Ha-Ha!!)

Oh, and Gnome bought me this Vision cooking pot as a gift. It was about time for some new cookware!! Over the years, I’ve slowly accumulated bits of kitchenware from people (usually people leaving Belize because they don’t want to be here any-more). So, I’ve ended up with a hotch-potch assortment of old pots and pans…and many missing lids. Gnome told me it was about time that I should have my own set of cookware:

“Munchkin…you really love cooking….why, after all this time have we never got you your own set of pots and pans?”

Gnome bought me one of these to “try out” and I absolutely love it. This is great for french onion soup. Ooooh, can’t wait to get the whole set!!

We’ve been digging up our sweet potatoes…they are huge:

Tobacco is growing and Gnome has been soaking dried leaves in a solution of brown sugar and lovely essential oils. He has packed them in bamboo to cure. Watch this space in 12 months:

Tobacco:

Ok folks, I would lIKE TO WRITE MORE BUT MY CAPS LOCK KEEPS STICKING…LOOK AT tHIs!!

Belize, Medical Related, Our Products

Sting-Done-Gone!!

September 10, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

I wanted to share this with you since it actually happened about 30 minutes ago. I was on the veranda moving paper bricks and I got an almighty, awful sting from a scorpion. It really caught me by surprise because I had just reached my hand out to grab a brick and it must have been hiding behind it. I gave such an almighty scream that even my cat woke up from his dreamy Sunday nap. He promptly fell asleep again once he saw me jumping about like a mad maniac…hmmm, he must think that this is a normal state for me…

Anyway, I didn’t want to be a woose and call Gnome (emergency doc) for a scorpion bite so I ran into the house to see what I could do myself. Yesterday, I had been bottling our Itch Done Gone (insect bite relief) product and since it was readily available, I grabbed some of that.

This is what I did: I dumped a bottle (10mls) of Itch Done Gone, about a 1/4 cup of baking soda, filled the jug up to about 500mls (1/2 quart) with water and stuck my hand in it.

Ahhhh relief…the copal (a natural anti-inflammatory) together with the camphor in the Itch Done Gone cooled down the inflammation and my hand stopped throbbing with the pain. I left my hand in it for about 5 minutes…I would recommend longer (like half an hour to get the full benefits).

My personal thoughts on using this concoction as a scorpion sting remedy: this time round, the area that was stung, did not swell up as much as much as previous times (when no remedy was used). I felt subjectively that although it did not take away the pain entirely, that the pain was lessened in intensity and duration.

Interestingly enough, I have been told by other people that they have used Itch Done Gone for scorpion bites with good results. I’ve been told that they apply it directly onto the affected areas. My use of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) was derived from the knowledge that it is used in allergic reactions such as poison ivy to help with itch relief. According to Gnome’s logic, immunological responses tend to set up an acidic environment so the logic in using sodium bicarbonate is to alkalinize the environment; possibly if there are any acidic components to the venom, they might get neutralised.

My recommendations: I think that a bottle of Itch Done Gone should be an essential in everybody’s first aid kit. Not only is it effective in relieving the itch and inflammation of insect bites, you can also use it in scorpion stings. If you are interested in this product please click on this link: Itch Done Gone in Casa Mascia Apothecary.

Amusing, Belize, Our Products, Soap

See You Today at Choc Fest 2017!!

May 20, 2017 Munchkin 1 Comment

See you today at Chocolate Festival 2017. Munchkin and Gnome (aka Casa Mascia Apothecary) will be found somewhere near the Cotton Tree Chocolate Factory selling their wares. We’ll have chocolate soaps, chocolate body scrub, copal products and lots of other goodies. Come and see us because we are taking this time to socialise and talk to people!! Otherwise you won’t see us for another year!! Come early-ish!!

Amusing, Belize, Our Products, Soap

Chocolate Mint Soap.

March 15, 2017 Munchkin

With so many funny animal stories coming from our blog, I have neglected to talk about other stuff that we do. We have a new Chocolate-Mint soap. It’s chocolatey and has the zing of mint!! (As I am writing this, Gnome is murmuring under his breath…Munchkin, is this your idea of marketing??).

Ha-Ha…

We just dropped some off at the Chocolate Factory (Cotton Tree Chocolate) in Punta Gorda today:

Lovely soap made by Munchkin and Gnome; made from coconut oil and chocolate. Picture Munchkin and Gnome stirring a metal cauldron in the middle of the bush…

We make this stuff on the farm:

If you are not in Punta Gorda, Belize…check out our Chocolate Artisan Soaps in The Apothecary.

We have a range of Chocolate Artisan Soaps and four scented chocolate soaps: chocolate-vanilla, chocolate-mango, chocolate-orange and chocolate-mint.

As an interesting aside, we have noticed that having a website does not actually decrease the administrative work involved in running a business. There are still a gazillion back and forth emails to write. What we have come to realise is that even although everything can be ordered on a website with the minimum of communication, everyone still wants the personal touch. So, we are happy to receive email orders and have a personal relationship with you, if you prefer.

Everything Handmade in Belize.