Tag Archives: Barbados Gooseberry

Farm Harvests.

February 8, 2019 Munchkin

The weather guess (forecast?) for today was “good day for lawn-mowing.” When we got up, it started raining and it proceeded to rain on and off until 10am. Gnome muttered to himself:

“….hmmm…not good day for lawn-mowing.”

The weather reports are becoming a joke with us and they are starting to appear like wild guesses that are about 90% wrong most of the time. We were thinking of reading tea leaves or getting a crystal ball instead…

We finally managed to get out mid-morning. Gnome dug holes and planted out the rest of the seedlings. We now have peach palm and jackfruit in the orchard area. I went harvesting today; It seems to be berry season right now on the farm.

The huckleberry plants seem to like the worst soil conditions. Last time I planted them in a prime spot on a bed with lovely dark soil and they hardly did anything, This time, I stuck them in the ground in thick, hard clay and they are thriving and producing well. Here are some fruits:

We have one miracle fruit bush and it is bearing so much this year. I have described this plant before; it contains a molecule that binds to your taste buds making sour things taste sweet. I find that I can’t use it all the time…there is only a certain amount of sour things you can consume in one day! Anyway, they are a pretty fruit:

This is all that I collected today. The green leaves are malabar spinach; they grow all year round and are our main greens at the moment. The orange fruits are Barbados gooseberry; I have started putting them in savoury dishes with pork…the acidity helps to balance and compliment the fattiness of the meat…very tasty!

Oh, lastly…we have a harvest of black peanut. We didn’t manage to get much this time round because there was a large tree shading the peanut area which stunted the growth and production. Nevertheless, we got enough to start a bigger patch and Gnome is very pleased with his black peanuts.

That’s it for tonight. Wishing you all a lovely weekend…there is supposed to be 6 hours of rain tomorrow…let’s wait and see!

Belize, Food, Plants

Tastes Like Apricot…

February 2, 2018 Munchkin 1 Comment

Can you believe it! Our stats went through the roof with New Sexy Gnome. Too funny. Anyway, back to the fruit and vegetables on the farm. This one is interesting because I’ve written a bit on it here, so click if you want to read more:

I am re-discovering this plant again (since it is fruiting season right now) and it is fascinating. I now recall years ago (it could have been about 8 years ago) when we first saw this plant in Spice Farms in Toledo and Gnome’s eagle eyes chanced upon a single fruit that had dried on the bush. When we both tasted this we were absolutely amazed that it had such an intense flavour of apricot. Anyway, we saved the single seed that was in it. Gnome planted this seed, babied it and it has turned into the huge monster that it is now.

The main point was that I forgot about the apricot taste because I subsequently pigeon-holed it as a “gooseberry” because of its name. When it is picked fresh, it does have the texture and acidity of a gooseberry. In the past, I have mixed it with other fruits to make jams and preserves and not really thought that the flavour was anything exciting or different.

However, this time I tried to make a “jam” out of the fruit by itself. This is what I did:

I picked 2lbs of the fruit and washed them removing any spiky bits.
The fruits contain black seeds that are edible. I felt that sifting the seeds out was too labour intensive so I opted to buzz the whole lot fruit in a blender. The crushed seeds blend into the fruit.
I added equal parts sugar to the fruit and placed all of this in a stainless steel stock-pot and proceeded to make jam.

This is what happened:

The jam did not set. That means that the fruit does not have natural pectin. I didn’t have any pectin so I couldn’t do anything about it so it ended up being a syrup (sauce) type of thing.
When I tasted the cooked fruit with sugar, it tasted of nothing. Quite disappointing…a great looking orangey fruit cooked with sugar.
When cooked, the fruit takes on a gloopy (slimy) texture. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
I thought that the flavour was so bland that I chucked in about 4 Tbsp of ground black pepper.

I canned the “sauce” in glass jars and had some on the same day to try it out. I didn’t think much of it so I planned to re-dump the the sauce into the stainless steel pot and add some kick-ass habanero peepers to it.

Time passed (a week) and I didn’t do anything with the sauce. We were having oatmeal (we ran out of honey) and decided to put some of this sauce on top. Wow was it good!! It just needed time to work the magic…synergise…what-ever but it now tastes like apricots. The black pepper compliments the sauce very well. I am very pleased with it!! I now have 6 jars of Barbados Gooseberry and Black pepper sauce sitting proudly in my pantry. This one is so good I will save it for special occasions.

Definitely worth picking:

Okay have a great weekend!!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Plants

Vegetable Pictures!

January 17, 2018 Munchkin

It is still really cold at about 20C/68F; you know when it gets to this temperature because the coconut oil in the bottles solidify! Anyway, still hats, woolly scarves and home-made charcoal burner at our feet in the morning and at night. So glad Gnome is making charcoal!

We are still taming the chaos…does not happen over-night and I suspect it might take us a while to get back on top of things. The other thing is that the geese are getting badder (I like baaad english!! Pushing passed the barriers of expression) and I got a huge bruise on my thigh from a full throttle head-on attack. I had to sumo wrestle the head goosie and boy, did he have fun! When I let him win, he was honking like crazy and puffing out his chest as he weaved in and out of his goosie crowd, doing the goosie dance (a bit like a chicken dancing but with no head bobbing…head up in the air in the splendour of victory). I let him win, of course, since I have the unfair advantage of being bigger and cleverer and being human. 🙂

Anyway, back to the serious Munchkin and Gnome stuff. Growing vegetables, ogling at our vegetables, eating them and (taking pictures when we remember). We don’t grow vegetables or do our lifestyle in order to Blog about it!! Somebody asked us if we chose our lifestyle in order to talk (Blog) about it…what a very weird way of looking at things!!

To clarify: we grow vegetables to eat them because they taste good.

Vegetable and Fruit Gallery:

Endives grow very well; they are quite drought resistant so we might be able to take them through the dry season.

The fennel looks spectacular right now:

Kale grows well here too:

Spring onions:

Oh had to sneak in last New Year yum-yum picture. Smoked salmon (my favourite), prosciutto, salami and parmesan.

Barbados gooseberry (Ora pro nobis) time again:

Time to make more jam and preserves!

Belize, Farming, Food

Crepuscular Time Again!

February 20, 2017 Munchkin

Yes, time to get Crepuscular. This means that you get up at the crack of dawn, have a cup of tea and run out to do farm chores and then run back into the cool of the house before noon-time. Resting time is until it cools down again…about 4pm…then you run out again to do the end-of-the-day chores. This is the rhythm that we get into as dry season approaches. Gnome has got the brush-mower out and is cleaning up:

The Bush:

Of course, Munchkin work involves less heavy stuff but still keeps me fit and healthy. I am making use of my new wheel-barrow to collect soil for the garden. We are starting fennel today…the bulbs and the wild type. Yum…can’t wait…they are a favourite!

More harvests on the farm…we have Barbados Gooseberry…time to make more jam!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Another Edible Ornamental.

December 4, 2016 Munchkin 4 Comments

munchkin-eating-bread-chair

Hello Munchkin here and I am still munching through the edible ornamentals. This one is Pereskia aculeata also known as Barbados Gooseberry. In a specific area of Brazil, Minas Gerais, it is known as ora-pro-nobis; here, the plant is cultivated for its edible leaves. The leafy green is high in vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Because of its high nutritional value, there has been research into using the dried leaf in bread and sausage making. I like to put this in our miso soup.

The fruit is round, orange in colour and has the taste and consistency of a gooseberry. It looks like an orange gooseberry actually!

You can eat them as they are or use them in jams and preserves. They have a fruity tartness. Oh, but last but not least, the flowers are really pretty on this cactus:

Anyone interested in buying a plant? Let me know and I will bag some in the new year. Cheers!!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Unusual Exotic Fruits: Barbados Gooseberry.

March 14, 2015 Munchkin

This is a beautiful cactus, with spiny stems and fragrant smelling flowers. I propagated it originally from one single seed about two years ago and now it is producing globular, orange fruit which are edible.

The fruit are acidic tasting like gooseberries and I imagine they would be good for jam making or fruit tarts.

I am really, really excited about this plant because I have just found out, on an Internet search that the green leaves can be cooked and eaten. Apparently, there is a particular place in Brazil where this vegetable is prized and it is called Ora-Pro-Nobis meaning “Pray For Us.”

I can’t wait to try this as a vegetable. It has been growing crazy and out of control so it will be a good excuse to cut it back. I will definitely post a blog up about cooking with this new, exotic vegetable.

For those interested, this plant can be grown from seed or cutting and apparently, even from a fallen leaf.

Casa Mascia Apothecary