With all the rains from the last two weeks or so, everything is bushy again!! The grass is growing…needs another mow…oh no, more work!
Here are some pictures;
This one was shot with a “fishbowl effect” just for fun!
We are getting lemons again this year and it looks like it will be a bumper crop…
Lots of fresh callaloo to pick…
African oil palm seeds…the piggies love these:
And this one is lemongrass; great for tea and to flavour food.
Well, Gnome has always been telling me that he prefers lemons to limes. In fact, we find it at lot easier to grow lemons in Toledo compared to all the other citrus. The citrus here are really susceptible to the “citrus greening disease” which is caused by the Asian citrus psyllid. We don’t need to go into the technical details but basically this insect feeds on parts of the citrus tree and in turn spreads a deadly bacterial disease. The diseased tree exhibits yellowing of leaves and defoliation. Many of our citrus have this disease and in fact we have lost grapefruit, oranges, limes and kumquats to this infestation.
This disease is also called Huanglongbing because its origins trace back to Tropical Asia and this means “yellow dragon disease.”
Anyway, back to the lemons. Out of all the citrus, our lemons seem to have developed a healthy resistance to this disease. And we have been getting a really good harvest this season. We have been using peels for flavouring (teas/ liqueurs/cooking), collecting the lemon essential oil from the peel and squeezing the juice to make solid lemon ice cubes. We also have limes baring but I have not been as aggressive in harvesting them.
And, so everyday, we drink cool water with lemon ice cubes. Today, I decided to try the lemon-lime challenge with Gnome to see if he would notice the difference. Instead of his usual lemon cube, I squeezed lime juice into his water. With a twinkle in my eye I said to him,
“Well, did you like your lemon drink?”
I put particular emphasis on the word “lemon.”
Gnome replied, “Yes, very good.”
I giggled and guffawed and said, “You’ve just failed the lemon-lime challenge!”
(It’s a bit like the Pepsi-Cola Challenge!!)
Gnome retorted by saying that it wasn’t fair because he did not know that I was testing him.
I said, “That was the point.”
Anyway, in conclusion we have decided that we can squeeze lemons and limes to make our ice cubes. It makes no difference really and both adequately quench our thirst. So no more poo-pooing limes!!
Hi Everyone. This morning, poor Gnome woke up with a terrible crick in his neck. Despite this pain, he soldiered on since the weather was looking good…a bright sunny start and we were ready for a big clean up with brush-mowing and coconut palm cleaning!! All of a sudden, grey clouds gathered and blocked out the sun and we had a down-pour at 8am this morning.
And, so the place is still looking bushy:
Gnome took solace in making some more Pet Sulphur and Lime Dip:
Gnome really likes the smell of sulphur; he says he feels cleansed and invigorated from the fumes.
We received a re-order for our new pet product which is used to treat mange, fleas, ticks and ringworm: 
We have decided to recycle old beer bottles to make the product really cheap and affordable. And, so when we went to the Farm Store in Punta Gorda last week, the manager said to Gnome,
“I’d like to order some more Presidente, please!”
Despite removing all the tell-tale beer stickers from the bottle, the farm store manager and workers still recognised the Presidente branded beer bottle! This is a picture of Gnome bottling the Sulphur-Lime Dip…now, also known as Presidente!
Anyway, we tried to keep busy. We harvested our lemons and put them through this cool citrus peeler, which the locals usually use for oranges.
I dry the peel and use it for flavouring of food such as stews, stir frys, soups and of course, limoncello Also, in the process of peeling, we can catch some essential oil from the peel…about 1ml for every 4 lemons and so to get 30mls(1oz) you need 120 lemons in total! Just goes to show the value of a tiny bottle of essential oil…the quantities of biomass never ceases to astound me!
Have a lovely Saturday night!!