A Good Day!!

April 22, 2021 Munchkin

We had a Good Day today! I am hurriedly writing this Blog so that I catch the moment of pleasant contentedness and bask in the brief glory of satisfaction! The truck started working this morning…yeah!!…yes, we were on a roll…and, Gnome managed to fix the mower again! Ahhh…breath a sigh of relief!!

I haven’t been writing much because I honestly think that 2021 has been a real bumpy ride for us! I didn’t really want to moan and groan about it on a Blog post because well, it isn’t exactly entertaining. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have had a succession of muscular and tendon injuries (gosh, you would think I was an athlete) which has rendered me (almost) out of action on the farm for about 2 months! I even sprained my ankle a couple of days ago when I was over zealously doing a big house clean…oh, what a klutz!! To add to all this, Gnome needed an urgent dentist appointment last week because his crown fell out in bits (he’s only had it for 9 months!!).

Two days ago…the mower stopped working because the clutch cable broke. When this kind of thing happens, the mower is usually out of action for over a month waiting for parts to be shipped from the States. Gnome was adamant that he was going to fix it…in other words ‘Belize-rig it’ and he said that we could probably find some sort of bicycle wire as a replacement. So, we jumped into the truck to get into town…and…and…it wouldn’t start again!!!

TODAY, our prayers were answered and/or it was the correct conjunction of the stars. The truck problem turned out to be a battery problem…that was fine …we just charged it up and the motor started. Yay!!! we were so pleased…after the truck starter saga, we just didn’t want to face the pain again! After this, Gnome ‘felt lucky’ and decided to try his hand at fixing the mower. That worked too. Wow, I should have played the lottery at that stage! I asked Gnome what he used to fix the clutch cable. He smiled sheepishly and told me it was a tattoo needle!

I was quite blown over by his ingenuity actually. Now, we can keep on mowing!

Let’s finish up with a few pictures on the farm:

Another eggplant (aubergine) that I really like. This is Rosa Bianca, a favourite because of its smooth texture and sweet taste.

We aren’t keeping much going right now because we are in the middle of dry season. The tobacco is still doing well:

The Pennsylvania tobacco is worth a mention because they are largest leaf tobacco that we have grown. The leaves have got to about 3 to 4 feet in length. This is definitely a keeper.

I hope that you are all having a good day today!

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.

Amusing, Belize

Excitement Central!

March 31, 2021 Munchkin

Hello!! What have we been up to, you may be asking? Excitement Central?? Well, I just wanted to get my foot through the door…TRUCK PROBLEMS!!! You need to look at the picture and guffaw and laugh!! We have put our truck on a ramp to push start it manually!! Yeah, just the two of us pushing 4 tons together. We must be getting older but fitter or something!!

Okay, to get out of the farm it has been tough this month of March! We started off with the truck not starting in the middle of Punta Gorda; that was all fine and good because there were loads of tough, strong men to push start the truck for us! It turned out to be a starter problem so we decided to get it fixed straight away. We drove back home and parked it on a downward slope and made an appointment to get the truck fixed. Next day…with copious amounts of praying…we got the truck started at 5am on the dot (still have the 10pm to 4.59am curfew here) and drove all the way to Belmopan which was about 3 hours drive. So far so good, we managed to get it to our Toyota dealership for fixing. That day was not so good. There were other trucks on priority and we were forgotten; it ended up being a last minute rush job that got everyone (including ourselves) in a tizz. The starter was ‘re-modelled’ and we paid a hefty bill for this and other problems. Munchkin was not happy but at the end of the day, the truck started and we just wanted to get home.

That wasn’t the end of the story…no, there is more…

Last week, we were called on a medical emergency while we were at home. Okay, so we did our usual and ran into the truck and…and…and…it wouldn’t start!!! Oh, the stress of it all. We couldn’t believe it was the starter again (didn’t we just pay a huge bill to get it fixed!!) so Gnome checked the battery and everything else. He turned the ignition key again…nothing!! Arrrrgh!!!!

Oh dear…we finally had to call the people who had the emergency to come get us. So, that was okay.

When we got home from the medical call-out, we had to deal with our own emergency! We decided to ‘sit on it’ and think about what to do. I wasn’t in a rush to go back to our previous mechanic (they were rubbish!) and besides, we couldn’t get out of the farm. It wasn’t parked on a slope so we would have to push start it somehow.

Meanwhile…we got phone calls from people in town requiring medical appointments. Oh, more stress!! I hate letting people down. Of all the weeks that it could happen…we seemed to be very popular that week. Oh, and there was a business meeting out of town…not sure if that was anything but we are usually not in such demand!

We finally got help to push start the truck off the driveway. When the engine was running, the first thing that Gnome did was to build a ramp for the truck. Yes, let me show you again what he did…

How to push start a truck in the middle of nowhere!!

So, when we need to go for a drive, Gnome releases the hand-break and we use the momentum to push the truck out of the farm onto the main road. Gnome pushes from the left door and I am hanging onto the right door. At some point, Gnome has to turn the steering wheel to get onto the main road. We still push on both sides…this is hard work…my butt still hurts!! Then, when the truck starts moving down the main road, Gnome has to jump into the driver seat (more thrilling heroics) and I am still pushing at this stage. Once there is enough speed, Gnome starts the ignition and the engine splutters to life.

Okay, that is how we have been getting the truck started in this tiny piece of nowhere in Belize. Right now, we are only going out for emergencies!!

Belize, Farming

Gnome is Working!

March 21, 2021 Munchkin

Hey, Every-one!! A Happy Sunday to y’all (Gnome thinks it is very funny when I start getting all Southern because he says I don’t sound Southern at all! Anyway, enough of the silliness…oh, yes the new website…the first few days, Gnome was very frustrated and couldn’t get anywhere with coding our new shop (well, he has never programmed in his life until now). But, patience won out and he has nearly finished coding the brand new website. My Hero -HaHa!! We have set up the website in an extremely simple way…it is not dynamic at the moment with shopping carts and all… we are going back to old-fashioned ‘order by email’ for now. With time, we will get fancier but please be patient with us…we are also busy harvesting peanuts right now and trying to clean up 20 acres of land! Anyway, I am happy with the new website because it is more comprehensive; it is easier to code all the information onto the pages so we will have every single product available on-line. The present website does not have everything…anyway, the new one is scheduled to be up for Easter (fingers crossed!!).

It has been raining lately so we have had the time to work at the computer. However, in between that time, we are always doing stuff. We are still in the middle of cleaning up the yard and yonder 20 acres. Here is a picture from our veranda…

Still looks bushy but it is cleaned up!! the coconuts are getting really big…these ones were babies when we first came onto the land. Now they are baring heavily. Here is another picture of a coconut palm…I am amazed at how much they have grown…

Not much else happening since we are getting ‘square eyes’ sitting in front of the computer screen. Gnome is coding whilst I am writing the page content. Oh, we have more wine…Gnome is also going through a wine- making phase…

That’s it for now. We are enjoying the rains before the dry season!

Belize, Farming, Food

Website Back Up and Other Stuff!

March 11, 2021 Munchkin 2 Comments

Hello!! We sorted out the casamascia.com website and it is back on-line. Having said all of that, we had a good think about the website (whilst it was lost in the ethers of Internet space) and admitted that it is a real pain to manipulate. I think that superficially, the site is okay. However, I haven’t been updating or adding anything new because the logistics behind the site are unwieldy and painstakingly tedious. It isn’t so straight-forward and it takes about thirty pages (clicks) to change one single thing on the site. Our Internet is slow so about thirty clicks between page changes takes about 2 to 3 hours. We have decided to change-over (it will take some time) to a simpler website; Gnome has embarked upon learning web-design (in amongst his already busy schedule of mowing, planting, doctoring and general gnoming). We think that if we have a simpler website, we will take more opportunity to expand and spend more time on it.

Anyway, onto other things since I have not written for a while. What have we been eating lately? The geese have started laying and we have been eating goose eggs!! We have got so used to the size (they about the size of three chicken eggs) that we think that they are normal sized. We feel blessed that we can indulge in a luxury that simply cannot be bought: fresh goose eggs with lovely yellow, runny yolks cooked in our home-pressed vegetable oils.

Look at that lovely yolk:

What else? February and March is pigeon pea time again. We have been collecting them green, shelling them together in a romantic Munchkin-Gnome sort of way and cooking them in stews. When they are green, the peas just need to be boiled for about 5 to 8 minutes and they are ready to eat. They retain the green colour with cooking so make a great pea substitute.

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajun) is also known as Ganga Bean in Belize. It is a long forgotten plant and many older people remember picking the pods as young children for their mothers to cook. I don’t see much of it in Belize but it is a high protein bean that is very nutritious. It is a good animal forage food for fowl, cattle and horses. They grow easily from seed, require no maintenance and are very productive. I definitely recommend this crop for anyone who wants to grow their own food.

Pigeon Peas:

We have been eating a fair bit of this too:

Oh yum!! These are all the reasons for growing your own food!!

Wait, there is more…

We have Gnome-made sorrel (roselle) wine. Check out the colour. With all this food and drink, we don’t want to leave the farm:

Okay that is it for now. I am off to search for goosie eggs for lunch…

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!

Farming, Food, Plants

Hot and Windy!

February 28, 2021 Munchkin 2 Comments

Every-time I decide to sit down and write a post, the Internet starts playing up. It has been on and off for days. Just like the weather! It has been blowing hot and cold and gets terribly windy. I thought that I should show you our February harvests before the month is over! We planted sesame seeds (wangla, in Belize) and they came up very nicely…they are tolerant of all extremities of weather and definitely one to plant all year round.

We did a test plant of about a 1/8 acre just to see how we could handle the harvest together. Once the pods had dried, they were harvested and hung up to dry. The pods split to emit the seeds. I took a picture of the pods just to show you what they look like…we are all so familiar with this seed but how many of us would recognise the pods or even the plant?

The harvested sesame seeds:

We pressed the seeds raw to produce a very acceptable vegetable oil which has a lovely rich yellow colour. I did not toast the seeds since I just wanted a normal, bland cooking oil. The seeds yield a lot of oil…for every 1kg (2lb) of seed we got about 500mls (about a pint) of oil. Here in Belize, the locals toast wangla to make a chewy sugar candy.

We planted another test patch with black peanuts. These produced very well. We only had about twenty seeds so we planted these to make more seed for a larger plot. This peanut plant was very vigorous and healthy and produced large pods. We will probably use peanuts for cooking oil too…once you start pressing your own cooking oil…there is no going back…the shop-bought bottles of cooking oil and so refined, blah and boring. Home pressed oil is so flavoursome and imparts more character to your food…it is like cooking with wine. Planting, harvesting, processing and cooking your own food brings your meals to a whole new level of experience!!

Okay, let’s have one more. We have had a good jackfruit season.

This is the first harvest of the season and there are more to be picked. Processing the jackfruit is quite laborious and they can all mature at the same time…when this happens, I have to devote a whole day (or two) to messy peeling and cutting. Since we have so much of it right now, we are drying the fruit to store.

Jackfruit: peeling can be very messy because it has latex that sticks everywhere…

The fruit:

This is a very generous fruit…the seeds can be boiled, toasted and eaten:

Okay, that’s it for now. Hopefully, I can write again soon!

Farming, Food, Plants

Easy Greens!

February 13, 2021 Munchkin

I realise that not everyone has the time or inclination to maintain a vegetable garden. However, I think that we can all agree that eating your own home grown greens is a good thing. There are many reasons: they can be grown organically, you get out of the house for fresh air and you can snip fresh greens as you need them. When I asked Gnome for other reasons to support growing your own greens, he said:

‘…Zombie Apocalypse…’

He actually continued to explain,

‘…that’s right…if there is an apocalypse…the vegetable market won’t be open. And if there happen to be zombies wondering about…even if the market was open…you wouldn’t dare go out! That’s why you need to grow your own greens!!’

Okay Gnome!! I think you might be displaying hints of cabin fever!!

Let’s swiftly move onto the topic of easy green vegetables to grow in Belize:

I am emphasizing the word ‘greens’ because generally speaking, these types of vegetables are packed with more vitamins and minerals. Okay, here is my list.

Malabar Spinach:

This is an easy green to grow. We grow it on a raised bed but you can probably grow it as a ground cover. It grows quickly from cutting and takes over the place. It likes a lot of water so it does very well down here in Toledo; however, it can still tolerate the dry season here. It has lots of good stuff like Vitamin A & C, Iron and Calcium. It can be eaten raw like a salad vegetable or cooked in soups,stews and stir fry. It has a mucilaginous texture when cooked lightly but if you don’t like this type of texture, just boil it for about 7 to 8 minutes.

Chaya:

This one so easy to grow. Just stick a one to two foot thick stem into the ground and it does its own thing. It takes well in any type of soil…even rock hard, clay un-fertilised earth. Once stuck into the ground, you can forget about it! It grows all year round. The leaves can be a bit tough so should be chopped up finely for soups and stews and in my opinion, boiled for more than half an hour. It does not have much of a taste but it is good for you.

Purslane:

This puslane grows wild in Belize but you can allow a patch of this to grow in your back garden. Again, this requires no maintenance; it is an edible sprawling plant that keeps on growing. It is good raw in salads…has a slight tangy taste to its crunchy texture. You can also cook it with eggs or meat. It is a very versatile vegetable and you can cook it any which way you please.

So, if you are not much of a gardener but would like something to snip from the garden, the above are my top three picks.

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Sherlock Gnomes Goes Bananas!

February 12, 2021 Munchkin

I know…Ha-Ha…I am scraping the bottom of the barrel with Sherlock Gnomes! I have decided…even if I am the only person who gets a silly giggle out of all this silliness…at least that is something! It is better to laugh than to cry!

Okay, so we are harvesting banana bunches like there is no tomorrow. Gnome has been hanging them up on the rafters of the veranda. Lotsa Bananas!! You get the picture…

Every morning, we woke up to decimated banana bunches…they have been nibbled at from all sides. Something was eating our bananas…in a bad way…a little bit here and there. It was soooo annoying! If something is going to pilfer a banana, they might as well take the entire banana and be done with it! They ended up spoiling every banana without eating the entire thing. Anyway, we thought: It must be rats!!

Based on this premise that the bites looked like rat-sized bites, Gnome set about putting rat traps up on the rafters. Since we only had a limited number of traps, Gnome had to guess the route of the rat via the rafters. Every-night, he tried trapping a different route and every morning, we woke up to more lost bananas. The rat was out-witting Munchkin and Gnome!! Ha-Ha!!

After a few days of losing copious amounts of bananas, we decided that we just had to get the culprit! We were losing our precious food!! So, one night we switched off all the lights and pretended we had gone to bed. We waited in the dark to see what would happen and to see the actual route of the rat. Can you guess what we saw??

It was a FRUIT BAT!! No wonder the rat traps didn’t work. In the dark, it swooped back and forth from the bananas taking little bite size chunks.

So we finally solved the Mystery of the Decimated Bananas. Since it was a bat, we simply stopped hanging the banana bunches from the rafters and laid them down on the table with a cloth over them. That did the trick!!

Now, what happens if we have a rat and a fruit bat at the same time??!! Also, what is our farm cat doing at night…the lazy good-for-nothing!!

Belize, Farming, Food

All About Aubergines!

February 11, 2021 Munchkin

We have decided to develop a definitive list of vegetables that we want to grow every year. You know…the ones that are ‘the bread and butter’ of our meals. I love aubergines…eggplants… I love to watch them grow from seedling to plant and I love the look of them. Oh, and I also like to eat them! There isn’t enough time and energy to grow every single aubergine that I like so for the last two years or so, I have been growing different types and then deciding if they should be on my ‘must have’ list. This post is a dedicated gallery to all my lovely aubergines that I have grown so far. I will show you a picture and tell you a wee bit about them.

This stripey orange eggplant is originally from Africa (not sure where in Africa). It grows to about 5 feet tall and produces copious bunches of fruit. It is a prolific producer and can grow in the worst soil ever (dry, clay and unfertilised soils). It is very drought tolerant and can with-stand Belizean dry season. It is a tough plant that does not need much care. The fruits start off being white with stripes and gradually ripen to the orange colour. The taste is mediocre…mildly bitter and the skin is mildly tough. They have the texture of what we know as eggplant but not much of a taste. They are best boiled in soups and stews to absorb the flavour from other ingredients. Conclusion: I like that it produces tonnes of fruit but I decided against re-planting because they are not tasty enough.

The next one is a Thai eggplant that look like little eggs. They get to about an inch in size. I had two rows of these plants; they ranged from a purple/white to completely white in colour.

These aubergines are very pretty and also make a nice ornamental. They needed heavy fertilising and nearly died over dry season in Belize. I thought that this plant would be heavy with fruit but I was sadly disappointed. Despite good soil, heavy watering and constant trimming, they still produced few fruit. And the taste…rather disappointing also…they are so cute and I was hoping for a sweet juicy ball to pop in my mouth. They tasted of nothing with lots of seeds!! This one is pretty but is not on the list to re-plant.

I managed to get heirloom seeds of an aubergine from Iran. These are great! They are hardy and drought resistant. In fact, they can even take the Toledo rains. They grow all year round and are very good producers. The fruit can get to a really big size (depending on rainfall) and I have had ones about half a foot in width. They are sweet and tasty. The only downside is that when they get too big, they can have the texture of hard foam. Otherwise, they are a winner and will be planted again this year.

I have saved my favourite for the last one. This is another Thai variety of aubergine.

This is a beauty!! It can get very big and can weigh about half a pound. They grow into massive bushes so need a lot of space. It seems to have survived wet season and I am now watching it as we enter dry season. Oh, the taste is delectable; they are sweet and the texture is firm. They are even lovely steamed with a little bit of salt and pepper. This beautiful aubergine is my favourite so far and is a definite keeper!

I am growing more aubergines so I haven’t quite finished my aubergine rant yet! Until next time…

Everything Handmade in Belize.