Tag Archives: Canning

Amusing, Belize, Philosophy

Have We Done Enough?

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This post is written for Gnome.  We’ve spent the last week or so cooped up in the house (more rains and wetness all around).  He asked me yesterday, “…have we done enough dear…I don’t think we’ve done enough…”  GUFFAW!!!  Shrieky Fury Munchkin!!  Okay this is what we’ve done in seven days: canned 57 jars of sorghum, canned 114 jars of black beans, made two lots of soap, planted chrysanthemums and fennel out, made soursop cider (56 bottled and under pressure), made sorghum and jackass bitters beer and making coconut castile soap as we speak! WHAT!!  I told Gnome that he needed a reality check and that we were doing plenty.  I think I ranted, raved and shook my fists at him enough for him to get the idea!!

So this is what we have been doing…

Canned Sorghum.
Straining Sorghum Beer.
Bottled Soursop Cider.
Toasting Sorghum for Beer.

Oh and gathered some wild papayas to make relish:

Wild Papayas.

Studying the life cycle of butterflies for fun too:

Caterpillars.

Now I do recall when we worked in the Emergency Department in good old Royal Darwin Hospital that the average number of patients seen per doctor was about 25 in an 8 hour shift.  He used to see about 40 patients in a shift.

We’re not running a hospital my dear!  It’s just a few ducks and geese flapping about.  No emergencies here. Remember that we chose this life-style to live a more tranquil life.  You know…the spiritual quest thingy-me-bobs that we go on about…and the philosophy and all that stuff….

Anyway, after my silly little rant I went outside and was backed into a corner by Chiney-goosie and Rebel-goosie (yes, they have names!).  They sneered and threatened me, pecking fiercely at my ankles; I had to fight them within an inch of my life (just exaggerating a bit but they were behaving like hooligans).  Anyway, I ran back to Gnome and wailed,

“Oh Gnome!!  The geese cornered and attacked me!!”

Gnome’s response: “Oh that’s great dear, it means that it is breeding season soon.”

WRONG ANSWER!! And then I started Fury Munchkin again….

Belize, Farming

What’s Happenin’?

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Hello Everyone!!  As a follow up from the frustrating iguana story, I thank you all for your advice to eat them.  We were actually going to do this but not mention it in our blog as we thought that it would sound politically incorrect.  Anyway(s), watch this space for iguana curry!

Well what’s been happenin’?  Gnome is temporarily out of action…again!  He was lifting and pushing zinc roofing into place yesterday and he has accidentally torn a ligament…in the left scapula region.  He said,

“My shoulder blade feels so unstable, it feels like it’s popped out of place!”

I examined him thoroughly and reassured him that the injury was not too severe but he did need about two weeks rest with no heavy lifting.  He wasn’t happy to hear about that!

So, no weed-wacking, no construction, no nothin’ for Gnome right now.  He’s going to drive me crazy…Ha-Ha!!

Anyway, I haven’t been writing so much but we’ve been doing our usual squirrelling around the farm.  Both can’t keep still!!  We’ve been doing regular canning lately and have amassed a respectable amount of jars in our pantry.  We have another 38 jars of lentils and 34 jars of beef stew.  Oh, and some beef broth too.  More food hoarding!!  Yippee!!

Preserved Foods.

The duckies have been laying but we haven’t been able to keep up with eating the eggs so I’ve started salting the eggs (Chinese style).  You might know the salted duck egg yolks from Chinese  mooncake.  We’ll going to have about 50 of them!

Salted Duck Eggs.

Since I am talking about food preservation, I will end with a big jar of craboo that we have pickled in vinegar with jalapeños.

Pickled Craboo.

Yes, it’s craboo season again and the only people who love this stuff are the Belizeans, Gnome and Munchkin.  Anyone born outside of Belize, refuse to touch this stuff because they think it’s tastes cheesy, in a bad way.   We think it tastes cheesy in a good way…it is after all, best eaten after fermenting in a plastic bag for a few days.  According to local tradition, the best method to get the craboo to ripen  is to place in a car for a few days to bake in the heat of the sun.

How to ferment craboo.

Enjoy craboo season while it lasts!!

Energy Saving, Fermentation, Saving Money

Downsizing Again!

Hello Everyone.  It’s a lovely sunny day  and we’ve decided to take it easy today.  The freezer marathon is nearly over and I have learnt a lot about proper conservation from this experience.  I am down-sizing from a 30 cubic feet freezer to a 10 cubic feet (partly because the big old freezer is not working well and is sucking up electricity like there is no tomorrow).  It was a tremendous feat and quite an eye-opener.  Firstly, I realised that I got into a really bad habit of throwing anything I could find into the freezer because I had the luxury of space.  This led  to chaos and dis-organisation reigning supreme and I could never remember where anything was located let alone know what I actually had.

I feel a tad embarrassed to tell you that about a quarter of the freezer was taken up by fruit (which I was saving to make wine or ice-cream…whenever…at some point in the dim and distant future).  I had about 400 sapodilla fruit packed in the freezer amongst a medley of other tropical fruit purees.  When we did our canning marathon, this fruit amounted to only 30 quart sized jars that take up very little space on my shelf (certainly not 7.5  cubic feet!).

Canned Fruit.

Another quarter of the big freezer was taken up by about 50 packets of pre-cooked cassava.  We managed to convert this into a 5 gallon bucket of cassava miso which is sitting in the corner of the kitchen (inconspicuously taking up a lot less space that 7.5 cubic feet!).

cassava

Converted to miso:

Grinding Cassava.

We also canned a 20lb bag of black beans:

Canning Beans.

I am amazed that I have freed up so much space by simply changing the preservation methods.  Plus, I am saving on electricity.

We have 84 quart jars of preserved food including fruit purees, chicken feet(!) and beans.  That’s it…it took up soooo much space in the freezer!!

Preserved Foods.

The rest of my food (which I would prefer to keep frozen) fits very neatly into a 10 cubic feet freezer.  Phew…small is indeed the way to go…makes my life a lot simpler.  Yes, I can actually find food now without my usual crazy chaos!  And, Gnome has urged me to to keep an inventory and has made up a simple  program on the computer for me to use.  Everything is neatly packed in the freezer with clear labelling.  What a difference it makes to be able to find food quickly….Ha-Ha, I have to laugh at myself sometimes!

Belize, Food

A Waffly Sunday!

Oh, one day it’s sunny, the next day it’s raining the whole day.  The weather can’t make up its mind and it’s driving us crazy!  We have to make up contingency plans for rainy days now…mostly canning things in our freezer right now…chicken feet done…next we are going to make cassava miso and can black beans.  We are actually almost done and will probably be retiring our old freezer this week.

Ha-Ha…now we need a bigger pantry.  More jobs for Gnome to keep him busy.

Canned Fruit.

Anyway, we’ve got these wonderful new cast iron waffle irons and going crazy with them.  I make up the batter and then Gnome makes them on the stove.

We are having a waffly good time:

Waffle Irons.

These are great; we love them because waffles can be so versatile and it’s great to chuck in all sorts of things into the batter.  More about waffle mixes in a later post!!

Ohhh Waffles!!

Oh and a lovely breakfast for a Waffly Sunday (with our duckie eggs of course).

Breakfast Waffles.

Have a lovely Sunday!!