We Really Should Keep Writing!

September 24, 2021 Munchkin

Yes, Hello!! We should keep the Blog going, don’t you think? Life seems to get in the way…everyday… and waiting for the mood to write just doesn’t work! I went out on the farm to take a whole load of pictures so I can play catch up (again)! We are generally doing fine on the farm; there is the usual equipment failure, too much rain, too little rain and hot, hot, hot days. That basically sums up Belize if you interested in weather, plants and farming. Sorry…I should add a bit more oomph and enthusiasm to get you all out planting vegetables…after all, this is what my Blog posts are about. Right now, in Belize, we are on a 7pm to 4am COVID curfew so there is plenty of time to stay at home and grow something to eat!! Let’s show you some pictures. Gnome has prepared the land for more melons since we both love cantaloupes.

We have a nice little okra garden going. If you like your own freshly picked vegetables with the minimum of work, I urge you to grow okra. They are an easy crop.

This is a ditch that Gnome dug a few years ago for water chestnut. Our kitchen water drains into the ditch to fertilise and maintain the plants. As you can see, they are looking healthy and we will hopefully have a good harvest at Christmas time.

Oh, and I found an old picture of the pond above so you can get an idea of how deep it is. There you go…the ditch has served its purpose and is producing food.

We have started lotus in basins again. The last time we had lotus, the dastardly geese ate or destroyed them all. Now that we have the geese in fenced areas, our plan is to plant the lotus in the pond so that we can harvest lotus root and seeds.

I will save the other pictures for another post. I know you don’t believe me but I will write again soon. One last picture…honestly, we do look like this! Ha-Ha!! Actually, I jokingly asked Gnome if we looked like this and he said:

‘…uhuh…twenty years ago, dear!’

Art Gallery, Belize

One Month Late!

August 6, 2021 Munchkin

The wet season has come! It’s a late wet season because it has come in August instead of July. We were thinking that other things were a month late this year…like the flood flies came late this year too. Anyway, we are stuck indoors. The heavy rains start early morning and by the the time we get up, there are puddles everywhere. During the day, it rains intermittently and it is grey and cloudy.

You definitely have to wear wellies in this weather:

We have both been drawing to while away the hours indoors. For the last two years (on and off), we have been copying and learning from a ‘pen and ink’ book to learn the technique. Now, we are starting to translate photographs into our own pictures. This is the creative part. I think that we both enjoy drawing and find it relaxing. We have never really drawn much since we studied sciences and all that stuff to become doctors.

Here is a picture of the rosewood stand on our farm. I have shown the photo too so that you can get an idea of what I was trying to translate into my picture.

This is Gnome’s picture. This is a close up of the giant bamboo on our farm:

Okay, it’s still raining as we speak! We are going to swap the photos over and I will try the bamboo picture and Gnome will draw the rosewood. I find it really amazing that despite learning from the same book, our styles are very different and are actually close representations of our personalities. Gnome is more precise and technical. I am a bit more fluid and organic. What do you think? 😉

Belize, Farming

Farm Pictures!

August 1, 2021 Munchkin

Hello Everyone!! I spoke too soon the last time about how little it had rained in wet season! We had a huge downpour last night and I think we are probably flooded in. I haven’t heard any traffic on the road this morning which probably means that the Jacinto River is high and has flooded the junction onto the highway. Everywhere on the farm is wet and yes, the puddles have coalesced into ponds! I took a few pictures a couple of days ago when it was nice and dry. The farm is actually cleaned up…we just need to do the pond area and then we need to re-do the coconut area again. So far, so good…yay!!

This is a picture of the rosewood grove…we planted rosewood about 16 years ago. This part looks like a shaded woodland area. Gnome mentioned that it might be a good place to plant cacao as an under storey.

This is the pathway leading to the pond area with oil palms to the left and rosewoods on the right. We are actually thinking of getting rid of the oil palms because they take up premium space. We might replace them with avocados or mangoes.

This is a picture of the pond. The grass is still high here and we plan to mow this area as soon as it dries up again. Check out the ‘fishing rod’ bamboo…it looks like an afro…needs a haircut!!

After we clean up the pond area, we will go straight back to cleaning up the coconut area…look…he grass is growing up already after a month!

The farm is looking good for the first time in ages!! I hope you enjoyed a quick tour of the farm.! 😉 Have a great weekend!

Belize, Food

Time To Write Another Post!!

July 30, 2021 Munchkin

Oh dear, I just realised that it has been a month since I have written! We are here right here and doing our Munchkin and Gnome stuff. Unbelievably, we have managed to get out and work the whole July…usually it is wet with puddles coalescing into ponds. Gnome is mowing and the mower is working…that is great luck for us because it is usually sitting around needing a repair job…and we are usually sitting around twiddling our thumbs!. I think…cross fingers and touch wood…that we might be getting on top of things this year…wow, first time in 16 years!!

I will catch up with some pictures from this month. We did end up eating the guanacaste seeds:

This is what we did: we dumped the seeds in a pot of boiling water and let the seeds simmer for about an hour. I couldn’t find any cooking instructions on the Internet so I experimented. After a while, the pods started to soften and became more translucent. Once they were done, the shell opened up to reveal the edible part.

They taste like a low fat version of chestnut. Or if you are used to Chinese cuisine, they taste like malabar chestnut or lotus nuts. We liked them…it is probably good as a social snack thing where people gather around a table and open the pods in a leisurely way while they talk. Kinda like shelling peanuts or cracking open dried melon seeds!

Oh, and I never showed you my tofu making pictures. I last made tofu in my Glasgow flat about 20 years ago…it wasn’t much fun because I had to boil the soya beans for about 3 hours before they softened…and then there was some messy pressing and after that, that was the end of my tofu making days. We re-visited the idea of making tofu when we thought of using our wet grinder to do the mashing up part. We soaked 3 cups of soya beans over-night:

And then we added the soaked beans to water and put the grinder to work:

It took about 5 minutes for the soya beans to become a paste. Once this was done, the contents were emptied into a pot and heated up to 85C to remove the soya bean trypsin inhibitor. This was then filtered and the okara bits were fed to the ducks and geese. The remaining filtered liquid is soya milk and can be consumed at this point. The soya milk was then coagulated…we used epsom salts because we can find it here. This was pressed like so:

Okay, so we have been working hard and making our own tofu!! More next time…

Amusing, Belize

On A Roll!

June 27, 2021 Munchkin

Oh yes…another Blog post! I am on a roll…actually, it’s wet and windy outside and I am stuck indoors! We are still in the middle of the transition from dry to wet season. It is getting wetter with night rains. And, oh yes, you have guessed it…we still haven’t finishing the round of mowing yet and the massive downpours of the wet season are imminent.

Anyway, let’s keep on going…where, I am not sure…trying to be funny but I think that fell flat. Here is something funny…I stumbled upon this soda at the Chiney (Supermarkets in Punta Gorda are mostly owned by Chinese people so the locals shorten the name to Chiney). I was very intrigued that there was a fizzy drink touting the flavour of ‘Champagne Cola.’ What a wonderful name…the combination sounded truly divine (methinks I have been in Belize for too long). Here is a picture…sorry, I bashed up the can a bit and then had to re-shape it when I realised that I wanted to take a photo.

It was also really cheap at BZD 1.00 (USD 0.50)!!! This is even cheaper than a bottle of coke…how and why can something be so cheap…the mind boggles. Anyway, here are my tasting notes:

Colour: Super bright sunset orangey, like the colour of rust.

Clarity: Clear bright orange.

Nose: Metallic, familiar smell of a well known brand of carbonated soft drink from Scotland.

Taste: Tastes like (a cheap version) of Irn Bru!!

For all of you out there who are wondering what I am raving about, Irn Bru is a fizzy drink that is very popular in Scotland; in fact, it is the top-selling carbonated drink in Scotland. It has this awful artificial taste that every Scottish person identifies with. In Glasgow, people like mixing it with whisky! The Champagne Cola lacks some qualities of the genuine article but there is still enough of a similarity. This one is for all the Irn Bru drinkers in Belize…try Champagne Cola!

Belize

Another Blog Post!

June 26, 2021 Munchkin

Hello Every-one, I am actually writing another blog post without procrastinating for another 3 weeks! Look…I even have a picture of the ‘Peini’ sign which is what the Garifuna named Punta Gorda when they first settled in this area as a fishing community around 1823. As you drive into Punta Gorda, you will see this sign. Any-one who is a tourist, will want to stop and get their photo (or selfie) taken next to this sign to show that they have been here. Punta Gorda is the main town in the Toledo district and this is where every-one comes to do shopping for groceries and stuff. It is becoming more developed with lots of fancy brand new cars around town. When we first came here about 16 years ago, there was hardly any traffic and most people got around in bicycles. This is a picture of the sea view next to the sign:

I have noticed that a lot of locals like to sit at the pier at lunch time. It is a prime spot! We usually park our truck by the side of the Peini sign and make a cup of tea (or something)…open the car doors to catch the sea breeze.

Here is a close up picture of the pier:

For those of you who follow our blog posts, they might know that we have been drawing a bit. So far, we have been copying pictures out of a ‘pen and ink’ art book in order to practice the technique. We are going to try drawing the Peini Sign and the pier picture!! This will be our first attempt at drawing our own pictures. I will post up the pictures once they look decent!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants, Uncategorized

Big Rain!

June 24, 2021 Munchkin

Hello Again! We had a right old downpour last night and the frogs are calling for more rains this morning…wasn’t last night enough? Anyway, we have had a run of hot, muggy weather until this latest rain. Ha-Ha…are the flood flies coming out tonight?!

The days go back so quickly and it was only today that I realised that I hadn’t updated my blog posts for nearly 3 weeks! I do have some new pictures from the farm so let us start without further ado:

This year we planted a patch of Godiva pumpkins…these have seeds without hulls. The pumpkins are quite small at about 15 to 20 cm in length, the flesh is thin-walled but sweet. In each pumpkin, there is a hand-full of pumpkin seeds without hulls…these are very tasty and creamy. We planted a small patch as an experiment as we are interested the seed for cooking oil. We now have enough seed to start a larger growing area but we do realise that we probably need at least 50 plants to supply some cooking oil for our kitchen. Gosh…it is all such hard work…it really makes you realise how convenient it is to walk into a supermarket and buy a bottle of oil! Anyway, this is what we do for the sake of taste that money can’t buy!

Gnome has been preparing melon growing areas with shade…it has been very hot lately so he had to protect the seedlings:

We like to plant unusual varieties of melons…this year we found two Italian varieties. One of them has is dark green with ribs and the other has a knobbly orangey-green appearance. I was going to include the names but I have thrown out the packets! I will take pictures once they have formed. Melons grow well in Belize as long as you watch out for the pesky caterpillars that burrow holes into them!

This is a new interesting harvest this year from our farm. We planted guanacaste seeds about 15 years ago which have grown into huge canopy trees. This year, they finally started flowering and we have seed. This seeds are very unusual looking…they are also called ‘elephant ear’ pods…

Apparently, in Mexico, they eat they eat the seeds while they are green. When they are mature, you are supposed to be able to ‘pop’ them like popcorn. We haven’t tried experimenting with the seeds yet to test out the edibility. We will…of course…Munchkin likes to eat and will try anything!

Okay, that is for today. More pictures soon!

Belize, Farming, Food

Catch Up!

June 4, 2021 Munchkin

Hello, I finally downloaded some pictures to write about what we have been doing. Oh, and before I forget, the flood flies didn’t come as predicted. So, we are watching and waiting…we think it will most likely be around the full moon this month. One thing for certain is that they will come…those dastardly things have never ever missed a year!

Okay, so I am catching you up with some pictures. We are always doing stuff…I just get too tired or lazy to write about it! I don’t think that I ever mentioned the price of market tomatoes in dry season. Well, they go dirt cheap and drop down to BZD 0.50 (USD 0.25) per pound. They actually come all the way from Mexico. Just in case you don’t know: generally speaking, onions and tomatoes are imported. They don’t grow much of it here…they are notoriously difficult to grow in Belize…believe me, I have tried…too wet, too wet, too wet! Anyway, this year, I couldn’t pass up the bargain tomatoes and decided to dry a whole bunch of them.

Each gallon jar contains 20lbs (10kg) of fresh tomatoes. They are very nice in soups, stews and stir fry; the concentrated flavour is very tasty. We have a new Gnome-Drying method; Gnome has attached trays up against the roof…during the hot midday sun, the temperature can get to about 60oC (140F):

We have found that this a great way to sun dry vegetables and fruit. It has also been sapodilla season so I dried a whole bunch of them for making fruit cake. When dried, they taste just like dates.

This year, I managed to get 4 gallons of dried sapodilla. I have made a ‘date’ cake already…sorry, no picture because we ate it before I could get the camera out. Needless to say, it was very good!

I have a whole bunch of pictures so hopefully you will get more blog posts soon. I’ll leave you with a picture of our own home-made tofu…will elaborate more on this next time.

Have a good evening!

Belize

Get Ready For The Flood Flies!

May 26, 2021 Munchkin

It seems like it is just the right set of conditions for the flood flies to come out. We are predicting that it will be today…at least for our area! It has been pouring down for the last few days and the earth is moist and saturated enough to stimulate the flood flies to come out. It is also the correct conjunction of the stars…well, we have noticed over the many years of living here that they tend to come out around the full moon. Let’s see! We are prepared.

Any-one who has read any of our flood flies posts will know that this is the nuptial flight of the termite queen. Yes, it sounds very romantic but what it actually means is that a whole bunch of termites crawl through every nook and cranny of your house and cover the whole place with their wings. It entails a BIG clean up job for days and it is not fun.

Last year, we turned off all the lights and ran into the bedroom as soon as we spotted the swarms of flies at dusk. But, we still got caught out; they managed to squeeze their way through the crack in our door and ended up crawling all over the place. They don’t bite but it is not a nice feeling to have creepy crawlies walking all over you in the dark!

This morning, Gnome took out the silicone to seal any obvious cracks. We are going to tape the all around the bedroom door this time!! If you have ever encountered this phenomenon you will understand why we go to such extra-ordinary lengths. They make such a devastating mess! Here are some past pictures:

The Mess!

Arrrgh:

Let’s hope that they don’t make such a mess this year!

Art Gallery, Belize

A Quiet Sunday!

May 9, 2021 Munchkin

Hello!! We are having a quiet Sunday today. The last few weeks, the weather has been hot and dry and extremely punishing. We have just had a few days rain which has been such a relief. I am trying to get new photographs of the farm and things that we have been doing together…not ready yet…but I thought I should write something!

I am not sure if I mentioned that Gnome and I have taken up drawing as a hobby. It helps to while way some quiet time and it’s quite nice to do once you get into it. Sometimes it is difficult to start (too tired, too hot, feeling lazy, can’t be bothered, etc, etc) but once we pick up our pens, we start to let things flow. Over the course of a year, we have been drawing on and off. Gnome seems to like drawing buildings and structures probably because of his meticulous and practical mind. I prefer trees, plants and animals…and I don’t like doing straight perfect lines! Anyway, here are a few pictures to show you what we have been drawing. My aim is to move onto scenes from our farm and a few drawing of our pets and animals. I s’pose Gnome might move onto barnyard scenes!

Oh, if our camera gives up…we could post up drawings instead!

Gnome’s Drawings: