Category Archives: Our Products

Chocolate Festival Toledo 2015.

May 22, 2015 Munchkin

The Chocolate (Cacao) Festival is taking place this weekend in Toledo, Belize. It is a welcome distraction from farm headaches and issues. For those of you who have been following our water problem, the saga continues as it is literally pouring bucket-loads so we can not pull up our well-pump to fix or replace it. I can’t complain because both our water tanks and numerous 5 gallon buckets have been filled right up to the top. And, the frogs haven’t had the time yet to deposit their spawn everywhere! Better get my washing done before the tadpoles start appearing.

Anyway, Casa Mascia Apothecary will have a booth at the Cacao Festival tomorrow. We will be located at the Chocolate Factory (near Uno Service Station). It will be fun for all the family with plenty of food and chocolate…what more can you ask for!

We will be bringing our Chocolate Artisan Soaps which will be on special for the festival:

And, of course, we will bring our Copal Medicinal Products:

We would like to launch our new product at the festival tomorrow. It is called “I can’t believe it’s not D.B’s”; this is our coconut castile soap similar to a famous brand named after a doctor. Castile is oil-based liquid soap which is free of chemical detergents. This product is still made by doctors (ie. us) but the only differences are that we are not well-known and we live in the middle of the bush in Belize! This item is available in litre bottles in original and peppermint.

We hope to see you there. If you can’t make it we will be sure to take lots of pictures. I will make sure that Gnome does not take the pictures because they would be fuzzy and out of focus!

Just in case you can’t find us we have many of our non-chocolate products in Vance Vernon Pharmacy on Front Street, Toledo (next to BTIA). They have all our Copal Products, Massage Oils, Lemongrass Insect Repellents, Bitters Oil and much, much more.

Belize, Farming, Fermentation, Food, Our Products, Soap

Munchkin and Gnome are Still Here!

May 14, 2015 Munchkin

Yes we are still here!! A few people have been wondering what has happened to us so I would to reassure everyone that we are absolutely fine. It is transition time from dry to wet season at the moment and with this change, brings early morning rains. As a few of you will know from our previous posts, this has really messed up our farm routine. So, instead of staying at home and feeling sorry for ourselves, we have rearranged our whole farm routine to fit with the weather change. Changing things around a bit isn’t so bad actually as it makes life a bit less predictable.

From our observation, the rains start around 7am and then by 11am, the sun starts coming out…this is horrible because the atmosphere is heavy with humidity and you can’t sweat to cool down. Anyway, by about 3pm, the ground has nicely dried up again and so we have moved our farm work to late afternoon. Gnome is still able to clean up and continue with the brush-mowing while I keep up with maintenance. This work then runs into animal feeding time and so by the time I get into the house, I don’t feel like writing a chronicle of the day. Just to change the routine a bit, we have been going to bed even earlier…about 7pm because we have both been in the mood for reading before sleeping. I am reading Mark Twain and Gnome is reading C.S. Lewis (the lesser known science fiction novels). We both like to read the Classics though I have caught Gnome on occasion reading trashy novels…he just laughs and calls me a literary snob!

Munchkin and Gnome are still doing their stuff…

We made another batch of Chocolate Artisan Soap:

We also prepared Chinese Fermented Black Beans; Needs to get more smelly and fermented…we will give it 12 months to do its thing:

Gnome is making brown rice koji for brewing and miso-making:

And here is a Toledo Firefly…you usually just see a mass of green lights in the dark:

And the cat is up to his usual tricks again, running after lizards in the house. The is a savvy lizard hiding on Gnome’s foot…this one got away:

Slinky on Gnome's Foot. — Slinky on Gnome’s Foot.

Ok everyone, have a good night and hopefully I can be more organised with writing the daily posts!

Belize, Elixirs, Fermentation, Food, Our Products

It’s Cacao Picking Time!

May 7, 2015 Munchkin

April and May are the months for collecting mature cacao pods here in Belize. Today, we harvested a whole lot of pods; they come in all shapes and sizes and colours:

Here is a picture of an opened cacao pod:

The white pulp around the seeds is edible and has a sweet aromatic, acidic taste to it. For the actual chocolate making process, the seeds/beans are fermented with the pulp and dried out in the sun (for up to 7 days). Fermented cacao beans at this stage are shipped by container loads overseas to be processed into chocolate.

We use cacao in many of our products; one of the main ones is Cacao Absolute which we are know selling as a product in The Apothecary. We use this essential oil in our soaps, body oils, massage oils and body sprays; for more information on how we make this check out Making Chocolate Essential Oil.

We are collecting the fresh cacao beans to make Elixirs (or liqueurs). This is a favourite with the chocolate connoisseurs. This is what it looks like initially:

This is on Day 7; look at the spectacular burgundy hues!

The Cacao Fruit elixir requires time to mellow out and develop the complex layers of taste of cacao fruit and bean. The beans will be removed soon and thereafter it is left to sit to allow natural sediment to sink down to the bottom. Every two weeks, the liquid is siphoned into another glass jar so that the sediment can be discarded. There is a lot of work required in creating clarity in this product. We will probably make a batch of about 5 gallons of this which will be ready in about 12 months time. The best things come to those who wait!

Amusing, Belize, Our Products

Munchkin at the Post Office.

May 6, 2015 Munchkin

A visit to the Post Office in Belize is always full of surprises. First of all, I opened up my post box to find that a Christmas Card had just arrived, 6 months late. Inside, was written, “Hope your Christmas is full of wonderful surprises!” dated the 4th of December 2014. Wow, that was certainly a belated surprise. I wonder where this card has travelled, in all this time from Australia to its final destination in Belize? Mind-boggling, isn’t it?

Anyway, today I had to send a package overseas. I need to tell you about what all this entails so that you know what it means when I send something by post. I had been in the post office the week before with the same package to have it weighed and priced for delivery. At this point it important to mention that there is seldom a queue in the post office but as soon as you walk into the tiny Government building, you feel time suddenly stops and everything moves at an infinitely slower pace. Getting a package price means getting a weight done and a bizarre and mind-boggling calculation (which seems to change from week to week and is dependent on the pricing schedule whims of the clerk, the conjunction of the stars and blind luck). You are talking about a 15 minute wait to get this information.

Upon delivery approval, I brought the package into the post office today…open..to be inspected by the postal staff. The post clerk has to approve of all the contents and the packaging. I am so careful to pack well because I have been sent home a few times with “inadequate packaging” and it was also a very hot Friday afternoon and they were just about to close. I also have to go in armed with brown paper wrap, scissors and sellotape so that I can wrap up the box and have it sent on the same day. I have learned to speed wrap within 60 seconds…not that it actually matters because the rest of the post office world is going at a snail pace. Otherwise, after inspection, you can actually take it back home to wrap up to then return to the post office for final posting! This time, I got another surprise…the price of delivery was less than what was quoted the week before. I wasn’t really that surprised…sometimes it is hit and miss…and most times, I actually lose out with delivery cost and have to pay extra. Nevertheless, this time it was a positive surprise and I will have to get in touch with the recipient to tell them the good news.

The postal service is one of the challenges of Belize. It is not even something that you can complain or get upset about. I have to like or lump it and try to work with the system. I do still want to earn a little bit more money by sending our Apothecary items overseas so I persist with it and hopefully on each occasion, I can find something to be pleasantly surprised about.

Belize, Food, Our Products

Coconut and Rice Flour Pizza with Sausage Topping.

April 25, 2015 Munchkin

Hi Everyone, since we are selling our farm-fresh Coconut Flour and Rice Flour in The Apothecary, I thought I would post up a recipe for pizza made with these ingredients. There is no wheat flour added so it can be eaten as part of a gluten-free diet. The eggs and the xanthan gum act to bind the flours giving elasticity to the dough. You will find this pizza slightly more crusty and biscuit-like in texture…which gives a delicious nutty “bite” to the eating experience. For the topping, I have put sliced sausage, onions, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Oh, and some rosemary and thyme too.

Enjoy…this is what we had for lunch today.

For the full recipe, check out this link for Coconut and Rice Flour Pizza.

Amusing, Belize, Our Products, Soap

Soft Lilacs For Springtime!!

April 22, 2015 Munchkin

Hi Everyone!! Just something short and sweet today because we are both hot and knackered from our town day. It is was our usual frenzied running around seeing patients in between delivering soap orders, opportunistic coconut cream selling and buying supplies. Sometimes it gets so funny…I have a bucket of coconut cream in one hand and a doctor’s bag in the other!

Anyway,”Soft Lilacs For Springtime” is the kind of title that a well established British boutique would use to sell expensive furnishings and perhaps soaps! So, I just wanted to see if I would get more traffic into The Apothecary with a title that promises elegance and panache!

Furnish your bathroom with these delightful soft-lilac soaps:

**Stacks of Lilac Soaps: Indulge in Sophistication.**

Gentle swirls inspire calmness and serenity:

A must for the discerning; Gentleman’s Shaving Soap:

When the lady of the house hosts her fabulous dinner parties, visitors will see this remarkable soap in the bathroom and she will be praised for her soap discernment. Her social standing will surely be raised as a result of this…

Our new soaps are Clay Artisan Soaps made from the purple clay from Bladen, Toledo area of Belize. They are gently exfoliating and have a lovely and luxurious scent of sandalwood. The Gentleman’s shaving soap is back by popular demand as the clay acts as a good slip which results in an even, smooth shave.

Come on everyone, show that you know good soap…show your discernment. Buy our soap!! 🙂

Belize, Our Products, Soap

Artisan Soaps and Apothecary Additions.

April 18, 2015 Munchkin

Phew…today started off with steaming, stifling heat at 5.30 in the morning and it just got hotter and hotter. In the dry season, strategy is the key and there is a small window of opportunity from 6am to 10am to “get things done” and in our case this means brush-mowing the farm, collecting coconuts and processing them into cream, weeding, watering plants, housework, making soap and packing products. It is indeed a mad rush before the wall of heat gets the better of you and you collapse into a red-faced, sweaty heap. What Fun!!

Here are the Artisan Chocolate Soaps that we made yesterday:

The soaps turned out to be more of an “impressionist” style of art, as you will see from the following Rorscharch examples. For those of you who are not familiar with Rorscharch, it is a test which uses a system of ink-blot pictures as psychological analysis. Being a doctor, I think it is fun to try to perceive impressions from our Artisan chocolate swirl soaps.

Rorscharch Gallery:

A Crab…

A Pig Snout…

A Willow Tree Bending in The Wind…

I do have quite an imagination! Do you see it too? Or am I just getting googly-eyed from the heat?

Last but not least, there have been new additions to The Apothecary which include: Body Salt Scrubs (Lavender, Lemongrass, Passionflower, Ylang-Ylang) and Foot Soaks in the same scents. This completes our Spa range of products.

Belize, Food, Our Products, Plants, Saving Money

Sticky Rice, Nori Flakes, Kun Batz and Stinky Tofu.

April 17, 2015 Munchkin

Hello Everyone!! I am back in top form and promise that there will be no complaints today! Many thanks to the readers (namely, Erin and Adriana) who wrote back with a positive word and encouragement. Thanks to Gnome’s Mum for looking at 9 pages and the flurry of visitors after last night’s post. We indeed felt that life was worth living again. 😉

In a bid to increase our Stats, Gnome kindly wrote a post earlier on Ballistics…Hmmm…I am sure everyone stopped whatever they were doing to look at this must-read! Gnome reveals all in his mind-blowing revelations on pellets! Just out of interest, I don’t give Gnome any pocket money for his pellets and so he funds his pass-time through coconut products. So, if you have bought any coconut cream, water or flour, you have helped Gnome out.

Gnome says, “Buy more of my coconuts!!”

Because it is a lot hotter, we have not been feeling so hungry hence the reason for less recipe posts. However, I thought it would interesting to let you know what we had for lunch today. In our last trip to Belize City, we stopped by the Taiwanese store to buy some goodies…interesting that when we think of buying yummy treats we always go for Chinese or Japanese food. We found some short grain rice (the kind that you use to make sushi), nori seaweed and stinky tofu.

Today, I boiled the sticky rice in our coconut cream…yes, the one that we sell in little bags! I also added whole black peppercorns to spice it up a bit. I toasted the nori flakes in a skillet and I brought out the stinky tofu.

The vegetable featured on the top right is Kun Batz. This is a wild passiflora vine which grows voluntarily in cleared areas. This plant produces fruit which can be eaten green like a vegetable; here I have cut it into pieces, steamed it and added soya sauce.

With plenty of vitamins and minerals from the sea-weed and B Vitamins from the stinky tofu, there was no need to include meat into the meal today. It was yummy!! Hooray for smelly (sorry, I mean fragrant) Chinese food!

Some pictures of Kun Batz (This is the Ketchi Mayan name):

Kun.Batz.Green.Fruit — Kun Batz Green Fruit.

Here in Belize, the Mayans prize this fruit considerably and like to eat it in its ripe form. Once ripe, the flesh turns yellow, spongy and inedible. The pulp around the seeds is eaten and has a fruity floral taste which is esteemed by the people here. It can eaten out of hand or used to flavour cool drinks. It is very similar to the giant granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis).

Good Evening everyone!! May all our lives become so simple that Blog Stats become the most important thing!!

Belize, Blog, Farming, Fermentation, Our Products

Nobody is Reading Our Stuff (and it’s hot).

April 16, 2015 Munchkin 3 Comments

I am feeling a bit disheartened because I think I am writing at a brick wall. As usual, I try to write a post everyday but my Stats keep on dropping. Persistence is supposed to be the key so I will endeavour to keep on going…

It is also soooo hot here in Belize!!

Anyway, today Gnome racked the Melomel because it had stopped bubbling (or talking) to us. We had a quick taste…it was bright orange from the sapodilla and carrots…and it tasted rather orangey. Let’s see how it will evolve. He also put the last of the koji beans in jars in an attempt to make Chinese fermented black beans. We can’t find a recipe anywhere for this so we have decided to add salt to it in a jar and let it keep on fermenting. The fermentation area has been cleared up to make way for start of our soap marathon and so we shall be making a batch of chocolate soaps tomorrow. Gnome also removed the last of the barbed wire fencing which had been originally constructed for the division of large animals on the farm. We are not even going to pretend any-more…we are fine with small things like guinea pigs!

Well, I have developing more products for BotanicaBelize; this time it is Mens’ facial products. It was so hot!!! But, alas I did muster enough creativity, despite the heat, to make some nice products.

One day at a time…

I would like it to be fun all the time but sometimes the sweaty, horrible heat gets in the way!!

Belize, Fermentation, Our Products, Saving Money, Soap

Hatcho Miso Belize Style.

April 9, 2015 Munchkin

Miso Madness is almost over as the Munchkin is starting to feel twitchy over our dwindling supply of soap…

…which means that our run of frenzied fermentation is coming to an end and the previously, prematurely terminated Soap Marathon is going to have to resume (yeah, our soaps are really popular and people just can’t get enough of them; this is A Good Thing, she tells me ;-P).

After the frenzy of rice koji making and the resulting shinshu and shiro misos, we are ending our run with a couple of pig tail buckets of hatcho miso. The first bucket was made two days ago, however, it turned out to be about a gallon short because I held back some of the black bean koji to reinoculate the next batch of beans. There was a slight set-back with that particular batch (yes, yes, I’m sure you’ve heard about the Great Bean Bungle…let’s move on…) and to make a long story short, another batch had to be introduced into the equation. Anyway, back to the short bucket: I just “happened” to have a gallon batch of miso from last year which was made with cacao beans and while very aromatic, the chocolate taste was just too overpowering (yes, chocolate-lovers, this is actually possible!). So, we emptied all of the containers, mixed them together again with the addition of bird peppers (Korean-style??) and a generous handful of black peppercorns.

Mixing Black Beans, Last Year's Chocolate Miso, Chilli Peppers and Black Peppercorns. — Mixing Black Beans, Last Year’s Chocolate Miso, Chilli Peppers and Black Peppercorns.

And voila’, the first full bucket of Belizean Style Chocolate (Cacao Bean) Hatcho Miso (with chilli and black pepper) was born:

Time to start thinking about soap…

Everything Handmade in Belize.