Just writing to let you know that NJV Pharmacy on Front Street, Punta Gorda has stocked up on our Casa Mascia products. A Big Thank-you to the Vernons for continuing to support locally-made natural products. You will find our usual goodies including Copal Medicinal Soap, Oil and Ointment, Lemongrass Insect Repellents, a selection of our Massage Oils and lots more!
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.
With the start of the rainy season in Belize, the bugs have come out; the whole army of biting bugs include mosquitoes, botless flies, sandflies and noseeums. It can drive you crazy especially when they get aggressive and start buzzing around you. Here are a few tips to keep the bugs at bay:
Check out The Apothecary for more information.
Hi Everyone!! I am writing to let you know that Annette Vernon of Placencia Pop-Up Art will be selling our Casa Mascia Apothecary products at the Placencia Sidewalk Festival next weekend. She will have all the following goodies: Copal Medicinal Oil Vials, Copal Medicinal Ointment, Copal Medicinal Soap, Itch Done Gone, Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm, Jackass Bitters and Neem Soap and White Pitahaya soap. Look out for all these products…
Sorry we won’t be there this year!! If there is anybody that wants something that is not on the list please email me. Cheers and have fun at the festival this year!!
Hello Everyone. This is a late post for me but I decided I had to keep the Blog going to bring the traffic in!! I have noticed that if I don’t write for about three days, our viewing statistics go down. Anyway, we found a whole load of missing Apothecary pictures stuck in a nameless file in the computer. We have downloaded them and I will be sticking them in the appropriate places in our website very soon. Meanwhile, enjoy our picture gallery!
Chocolate Swirl Soap. Hand-made with Toledo cacao and coconut oil.
Our Chocolate Mint Body Wash is made from coconut oil castile soap (totally detergent free) which lathers up very nicely. A must for any chocolate lover out there!
The Lemongrass Foot Spa is great for tired, achy feet. It also acts as a natural deodorant and anti-fungal so it can be used for Athlete’s Foot.
If you feel like treating yourself, why not go for a 32oz (1 litre) Elixir?
Luxury Cacao Butter Soap is one of our new offerings for 2016. Very indulgent with a creamy lather…lovely!!
If you want to see all this stuff plus lots more, please have a look at The Apothecary.
Hello Everyone!! The Elixirs Page is up and ready for you to read. There is an introduction to our Elixirs giving general information and there are also detailed profiles on five of our liqueurs. The Ginger Elixir is a brand new one for the season.
Check out the New Pages:
Elixir Profiles.
Metaphorically speaking, the Elixirs are the bottled essence of our Joie De Vivre!
As Gnome would put it, “Biomass is a Bitch!” and I truly agree with him, after the amount of work I have done in gathering medicinal herbs to dry. As mentioned before, we are working in partnership with BotanicaBelize to produce a line of facial products. One of the products is a facial tea which is jam packed with an array of medicinal herbs and plants (according to the season in which they are picked). This entire week, I have been picking Red Head (Hamelia patens), Plantain, Bamboo, Hierba del Cancer, Lemongrass, Hibiscus (Sorrel), Sage, Basil, Chanca Piedra, Noni Leaf, Mint, Culantro and Jackass Bitters.
And it is not just a few plants here and there as I gaily skip from one plant to the other. No, it is actually a real labour of love where I gather bunches and bunches of each plant in a wheel barrow. I sweat and I use muscle power (Munchkin Power!). You will not believe the amount of fresh stuff that I have had to harvest to get a final dry weight…for every 2oz (60g) of dry weight in material, I have to gather 1.5 lbs (600g) of fresh herbs! And this is dried noni leaf…about 2oz dried.
So, when you buy any dried tea like chamomile or mint, to give an example, each teabag is actually 1 oz (30g) of fresh herb. It is totally mind-boggling…plus a lot of work if you do it yourself!
Anyway, I am glad I have done it! It is nice to hoard everything in jars to display:
Yay!! I managed to get all the herbs gathered and dried in time, despite Gnome’s frenzied time with Miso (!) Everything is All Right and I managed to finish off all the drying process this afternoon despite a surprise early afternoon blustery storm.