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, Farming

Doing Gnome Stuff: Ballistic Testing.

April 17, 2015 Munchkin

It has been a day for doing some Gnome Stuff; in this case, Ballistic Testing of Three Different Pellets. Here is a picture of them:

0.117 Calibre Pellets Tested: Hollow Point, PBA, 10.5grain Domed.

The testing materials used were three aluminium bottles filled with water, the sort used to carry specialty oils and a cocoa powder can. The bottles were set at thirty yards, like so:

Bottles filled with water and set in the test field.

And the can was set at sixty yards, hanging off of a tree.

The first thing that can be seen from the above photo is that the rightmost bottle was knocked over by the shot with the heavy, 10.5 grain domed pellet. The entry and exit holes for this pellet:

Entry Point for 10.5 grain Domed Pellet.

The PBA pellets make a very impressive crack, almost like a real firearm, as they break through the sound barrier. These are their photos:

This is the embarrassingly bad photo of the deformity at the back of the bottle, ie. it didn't go through. — This is the embarrassingly bad photo of the deformity at the back of the bottle, ie. it didn’t go through.

The lead hollow point pellets also break through the sound barrier and are only slightly heavier than the PBA pellets. They showed similar results:

Entry Point for Hollow Points Pellets. — Entry Point for Hollow Points Pellets (yes, another bad picture).

The Hollow Point also did not go through the bottle either (I know, I know, the pictures are getting really bad...but Munchkin didn't take these, I did). — The Hollow Point also did not go through the bottle either (I know, I know, the pictures are getting really bad…but Munchkin didn’t take these, I did).

As an additional note: the can set at sixty yards and hit with the 10.5 grain domed pellets, fared like so:

Can.at.sixty.Entry.Heavy.Domed — Entry Point for 10.5 grain Domed Pellets.

And the exit point (Yay, I can actually see this one!!).

There are no photos of the can for the other two pellets because I couldn’t hit the can with three shots…presumably the accuracy of the other two pellets isn’t as good as the heavy pellet, which hit the can in one shot.

These are interesting results. The heaviest pellet happens to be the cheapest but appears to go through everything shot at in this test and also seems to be the most accurate at the longest distance. While the other two pellets are more expensive (the PBA pellet almost ridiculously so), they would not go through the metal bottles and did not seem to have long distance accuracy. This is probably of no consequence for plinking (expensive plinking, mind you) but for hunting, the heavier weight and improved accuracy of the domed pellet may be an advantage in stopping something a bit bigger (and yummier!).

Laters Everyone!! 😀

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, Farming, Food

The Trouble with Coconut Water!

April 15, 2015 Munchkin 2 Comments

On our farm, we have a coconut plantation and you would think that it would be quite the thing to sell coconut water with fun and profit in mind. The reality is not the case as we have discovered because there are so many considerations that make you stop and wonder whether it is all worth it or not.

The first thing is cost; here in Belize, people expect to pay between BZD0.50 to 1.00 for a fresh water coconut which gives an average yield of 150 to 200mls (5 to 6.6fl/oz) of coconut water. Belize manufactured coconut water can be bought for 500mls for about BZD2.00 (USD1.00). So, it is rather cheap and affordable as you can see from the prices and making a grand fortune from the sale of water coconuts was never possible but we decided to sell a couple of gallons on a weekly basis just to stimulate our daily maintenance of the coconut plantation.

In doing so, we realised what it actually meant to process coconut water and all of the pit-falls involved from the cutting of fresh coconuts to preservation and selling of the water.

Firstly, coconut trees have to be climbed by Gnome and 20 to 30 coconuts (most of ours are medium sized) give one gallon (3.785litres). The coconuts are cut open by slicing through the husk and the shell with numerous deftly cuts with the machete whilst you hand is holding onto the coconut …you need to watch your fingers… and then, the water is poured into a bucket. The water does get detritus from the coconut shell so it is then filtered through a muslin cloth. At this point, it needs to be freshly frozen as the nutrient-rich liquid is the perfect medium for bacterial multiplication. After de-frosting fresh coconut water, it should be consumed as quickly as possible (2-3 days in the refrigerator); at room temperature, in the Tropics, it will start fermenting within 2 hours.

I am sure that you all know, fresh coconut water has an unrivalled taste of sweetness. This is another one of the challenges that we face in processing our coconut water…we have to freeze it in order to preserve it but freezing it makes it less sweet. At this point, I would like to thank Adriana Guzman for independently noting this fact. We tested her observations and also found that the thawed coconut water tasted as if it had been diluted with water.

It was then that we came to the important realisation that shop-bought coconut water must be one, treated for preservation (probably a combination of pasteurisation and addition of preservatives) and two, sweetened to overcome the loss of sweetness due to the preservation process. This is why it never tastes like the real thing. The only way to get the true, natural taste is to have your own stash of fresh coconuts and be willing to cut them open yourself.

Amusing, Belize, Pets

Eureka!

April 13, 2015 Munchkin

I pondered over getting a hand-held vacuum cleaner for a long time. The main reason is because I live in Belize and it isn’t a matter of going down to the shopping mall or going online and ordering it on 24 hour delivery. Making a decision to buy something which can’t be bought in Belize entails ordering it on-line, sending it to a shipping company which transports to Belize, sending the invoice to the shippers, waiting anywhere from 2 to 6 months to get it shipped here, paying duty and transportation and then driving to the final collection point which is a 2 to 3 hours away.

And so I cogitated, procrastinated and then did some more thinking and finally told Gnome that I really, really wanted a Eureka hand-held vacuum cleaner. I went on-line to Amazon and noted that in some of the reviews, many people mentioned that it was very heavy for a hand-held machine. And so I told Gnome that the vacuum cleaner was 5lbs in weight but I wasn’t sure if this was too much for me to handle. With a glint in his eye he mentioned that the Cat was 5lbs in weight (at that time). He said rather nonchalantly, “Try the cat.”

I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that comment so he further explained that I should lift up the cat with one arm and shugle him about like I would a vacuum cleaner. And so I did, with the kind permission of our pet cat, Ewan. He didn’t seem too heavy to handle and he didn’t seem that bothered by my man-handling. And so Gnome concluded from my cat-vacuum cleaner emulation experiment that the Eureka was to be bought and I should go on-line immediately to purchase it and fulfill my cleaning requirements.

Six months later we collected it and brought it home. I was beaming with hope, pleasure and excitement as I unwrapped the box like a Christmas present (a belated one at that). It didn’t turn out to be heavy at all…Munchkin power can handle a measly 5lbs in weight and it worked like a charm.

Now the funny thing is that it is a running joke that the Eureka and the Cat are both sucking up all the crumbs on the kitchen floor and under the dining room table. We have a good old laugh about it…which is which? We have even started calling the cat “Eureka!”

HaHa…we know how to entertain ourselves out here in the middle of nowhere!

Belize, Farming, Fermentation, Food

Full of Beans!

April 11, 2015 Munchkin

Gnome was full of beans this morning and brimming with energy right from the get go. He was out of the house by 5.30am with the brush-mower clearing the back of the farm. I started cleaning buckets and basins, started a big pot of beans on the stove and washed sheets for koji making. It was bean mania and the various bean preparations continued to exude beaniness into every square inch of the house.

When we finally met up again, Gnome had grated coconuts and I proceeded to squeeze the cream out of them. I then laid out the coconut meal in the sun for the making of flour.

After this, it was back to the beans. The night before we had decided upon making a “meatier” hatcho miso and so today we made Beef Jerky Hatcho Miso or as Gnome has coined it “Meat Lover’s Hatcho Miso.” This involved putting 20 cups of fresh black bean koji and 2 lbs (1kg) of beef jerky through a meat grinder.

There was a few cups of black bean koji left over so we decided to make a small batch of Taosi which is a Filipino fermented black bean preparation, made by soaking the koji in brine.

Next we took the freshly cooked beans from this morning and added more Aspergillus spores to start a continuous batch of black bean koji. Our goal is to fill a 55 gallon drum with hatcho miso…more about that in a later post!

We then had a brief intermission for food and refreshments. For those interested, we still think that it is important to sit down and eat two proper meals a day, despite all the frenzy and excitement. We had Chinese roast pork, pumpkins and shiitake mushrooms cooked in mead and sweet potato cakes.

Anyway, the next task was making Shinshu miso with the mountain of bungle beans from the freezer. This was Gnome’s idea since I had been giving him such a hard time about the bungle. Yes, we used up all the beans so problem has been solved. We made 2 and 1/2 gallons of this…ready in one year!

Phew, it has been a bean marathon. We were done by 2pm.

Munchkin and Gnome: Mad About the Beans!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

On The Farm.

April 10, 2015 Munchkin

The whole house smells of bean juice with trays of hatcho miso and buckets of beans soaking in water. At this point, all windows have to be opened or else one can get over-whelmed by the fart smell of bean. What better reason to take a look outside and tell you what interesting things are happening on the farm.

First of all, one jackfruit tree has started bearing this year:

We were not sure how to check for ripe fruit so we had to look up information on it; apparently, you can harvest them when they are green and to speed up maturity you can place it in the sun. When ripe, the outer shell is suppose to crack with firm pressure placed on it. Well, we have one of these babies getting a nice sun-tan outside and we can’t wait to eat it! Jackfruit can get to a massive size (20kgs or 50lbs)…our are a modest 15lb (7kgs) in weight.

The kenep has just been flowering. It has a lovely smell of vanilla which attracts honey bees. Kenep fruit are similar to lychee in that there is an outer shell which you crack into with your teeth and then you bite into a thin soft flesh around a seed. The great thing about this is that the seeds can be boiled and eaten. So far, still no sign of fruit this year..

This is a grub that we found whilst digging around for sweet potatoes. In Australia, they call them “Witchety Grubs” and traditionally they are eaten raw. Gnome has eaten one before and said that it wasn’t that good…a bit over-rated!

We tried to throw this at a duckie and she looked at us in a “duckie” way…a sideways neophobic and partially horrified look…

Looks like she doesn’t know what to do with the Witchety Grub!

Belize, Fermentation

Rice-Banana-Coffee Beer Tasting.

April 9, 2015 Munchkin

Do you remember the Mystery Beer which was made about 2 months ago? Yes, the one that involved lilac sheets! This was bottled last Wednesday and at that time, I had a quick taste and I have to admit that I just noted the “burnt” flavour from the coffee but nothing to get overly excited about.

Well, here is the tasting after one week of bottling:

Colour is red amber and very effervescent; small sized bubbles with moderate fizz. Clear with good head.

Smells like strawberries! Lovely fresh strawberry smell, like walking through a strawberry field. There is a lingering berry sweetness.

With the first sip, there is an immediate delicate and distinct taste of strawberries! There is a mild sourness and the last flavour component is the coffee taste which compliments the whole experience.

Wow, this tasting is truly amazing! I can not believe that a beer can develop such complex taste components in just 7 days. It has captured the taste of delectable strawberries even although this fruit is not an ingredient. The rice and banana combined has given this unique and fruity taste.

After this tasting, I thanked Gnome for his love and discipline in making beer (and his general practices in life). It is quite interesting to note that Gnome does not drink much and in fact, makes fermented beverages because he actually enjoys the whole making process.

Thank-you Gnome For Your Fermentation Magic!

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…

Casa Mascia Apothecary