We didn’t manage a second harvest of jujube (Chiney plum) since it was muddy, muggy and buggy…not always Paradise down here!! I still have our canned jujube all beautifully lined up on the shelf…aren’t they a gorgeous colour!!
Canned Jujube.
Just to remind you, here is a picture of the fruit:
Jujube.
Guess what I made!! Jujube Crumble!! It is so easy. I layered the bottom of a baking dish with our canned fruit and then sprinkled a crumble mixture on top (1 cup plain flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 cup butter made into a crumble mixture with the hands…messy, but worth it). I put it in the oven at 180oC/350 F) for 45 minutes. Look at that!!
Ooops…wrong way round:
Oh and I also put cinnamon on it…I just remembered because I put it there in the background! Very good!! Would be great with hot custard right now…
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Hello there!! Did I get your attention? Did I get my ‘foot through the door’ to get you to click on this blog post! I thought the explosive love would get you!! Okay, now that you are here…I have a few pictures on the farm for you to ‘ooooh’ and ‘aaahhh!’ over.
Jujube.
This is jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) which is also known as Chinese red date. Here in Belize, they call it Chiney plum. I have seen a few trees in people’s yards but it isn’t commonly grown. You definitely won’t find this kind of stuff in Punta Gorda market. We have four trees in total and this year, they are blooming like there is no tomorrow. When eaten green, they have the texture and taste of crunchy apples; when ripe (soft and yellow), they taste like pears. We also have a round variety:
Jujube, round variety.
This second variety is actually more acidic tasting and remind me of tiny pocket-sized crab apples. Since it was such a bountiful harvest (and were flooded in from Hurricane Eta), we did a canning marathon. Gnome peeled and I pared; as we processed, we dunked the cut fruit into water mixed with lemon juice (3.33oz lemon juice per gallon of water). This was for preservation purposes whilst preparing in a humid, tropical environment and it helped prevent oxidation of the fruit. After two days of sweating profusely over buckets of jujube in the jungle (is this the romantic, epic part??!!) we ended up with 48 of these jars in all.
Canned Jujube.
And, Yes! We were surprised with the peachy colour too! We are not sure why… Gnome reckons that it might be a ph indicator for the lemon juice (???not sure). Anyway, once canned, they taste like canned pears rather than apples. We have made pie and eaten some with vanilla ice-cream. Oh, and we made a simple boozy dessert by drizzling our cacao elixir over it. Overall, it is a winner and definitely worth the time and energy in these isolating COVID times. After all, money can’t buy this kind of love and passion!
I spent a bit of time today catching up on cake recipes from the Festive Season for Belize Wild Recipes. I simply had to write about them because this year, for the first time ever, they actually worked out. This is a typical baking disaster…this one was Christmas Spice Cake:
I have also posted up a “Black Cake” recipe which was very kindly given to me by Barbara Nightingale. I haven’t tried the recipe yet…it will have to wait until next Christmas!! And sorry no picture because we polished it all off before we could get a photo!
Hello Everyone!! I am always so pleased with our harvests on the farm; the farm still keeps producing bountiful crops and there is always something new and exciting to eat. It never ceases to amaze me how generous the land can be if you are willing to put in a bit of time and work.
Plenty of Cassava to harvest right now.
Cassava.
A whole bed of sweet potatoes and it gets better…you can even eat the greens like a spinach.
Sweet Potatoes and Greens.
Voluntary wild papayas dotted all around the farm. Get them before the birds feast on them.
Wild Papaya.
This is malabar spinach. Simply stir-fry, steam or boil; also makes a great salad green. It can be started from cutting and grows well in boggy areas. This is such an easy green to grow that I think everyone should have a patch of this in their garden.
Malabar Spinach.
This is a cultivated variety of purslane; it makes a lovely salad green and the edible flowers add colour to a dish.
Cultivated Purslane.
We have been harvesting these for about 3 months solid from one tree…and it has started flowering again! These have a crunch just like apples.
Chinese Jujube.
It is absolutely wonderful growing our own vegetables and fruit to eat. I would not have it any other way!
I was harvesting bird chilli peppers today to dry out in the sun. It is hot and dry again. These come up as voluntary plants everywhere because the birds eat them and poop the seeds out. I like these chilli peppers so I usually let these plants come up opportunistically; these plants can grow into considerable bushes and I have at least a dozen of them scattered around the yard.
Bird Chilli Pepper.
Well, the running joke, on the farm, is that the birds get them all because I never actually get round to harvesting any of them. Gnome says that one day when we finally have our 4 and 20 blackbird pie, they will be very hot and spicy!
In order to put an end to the joke (it is after all at my expense) I took the time to pick some of the peppers; I probably picked close to 1000 and that wasn’t even half of them!
Whilst I was picking them, I realised that all the Munchkin jobs involved food in some way or another. On the farm, I am in charge of food harvesting, preservation, preparation and cooking. It is quite a job because it is ongoing and if you slack off, fruit and vegetables get wasted and fall to the ground.
Yesterday, I prepared another jackfruit “baby”…believe me, this is no mean feat when you have to wrestle with such a heavy fruit with all the latex and goo sticking onto the knife and hands! The jackfruit dried beautifully into very sweet, aromatic chips.
Jackfruit Baby.
More Munchkin jobs coming up:
Picking of Chinese Jujube; these are green fruit about the size of small plums. When they turn yellow-green, they are ready to pick and at this point, have the consistency and crispness of Granny Smith apples. When they are fully mature, they actually turn red and shrivel up like prunes. This is a version of the Chinese red date, which can be purchased at Chinese supermarkets. This year I will have my own to cook in savoury and sweet soups.
Bamboo Shoot Starting.
Oh, and yes we have bamboo shoots coming up. These will be ready in about a week. It sounds like fun when you are reading it off my blog but in actual fact, it is a whole sweaty morning of cutting, slicing and boiling. You really have to be dedicated to food to do all of this!
Munchkin and Grapes.
It is all indeed a labour of love. If I didn’t love cooking and eating so much, I honestly would not do all of this. For any people out there who dream of a self-sustainable farming existence, they need to first of all, ask themselves if they are prepared to spend at least 50% of their day planting, weeding, harvesting, preserving and preparing food. Because that is all it is about. When I first moved to Belize, there were a number of couples who also bought farms and wanted to grow their own food to some extent. One couple, who had more resources than us, even got a digger to mound up 5 feet high garden rows to grow vegetables. Their idea worked wonders and they had tonnes of vegetables…the only problem was that neither of them were willing to pick or cook any of them. At the time, one of them had remarked,
“…do you know what this place (Punta Gorda) really needs? Yes, we need a “Drive Through” so that we can just pick up our meals…in and out…without having to wait around…”
This was a serious comment but nevertheless, I found it hilarious and I still to this very day, it makes me chuckle. For me, the fact that there was no “Drive Through” was one of the reasons why I came to Belize!
In the end, they gave up on the garden idea and now mostly buy all the food in, despite having all the space and resources to plant their own food.
The lesson to be learned here is to realise your own real motivations and predilections because that is your real push to do things. Also, subsistence farming does not make you rich so if you are chasing the bucks, don’t even consider this type of living. If you are looking for food security and independence, then you might think about this as a worthwhile option.
