Tag Archives: Lotus

Teas For Insomnia.

November 21, 2016 Munchkin 2 Comments

Hello, Munchkin here!! I am feeling a lot better and the serosi (bitter gourd) tea really worked. Mouth ulcers gone in 48 hours. Since, we’re on the subject of herbal teas, Gnome and I have been experimenting with different teas for insomnia. We’ve been drinking each of the different teas every night for about a week. The overall conclusion for each of them is that they help you to get to sleep quicker but then sleep can be interrupted during the night. None of them actually work great by themselves and the effects seem to lessen with subsequent days. We are looking more in depth into this personal study to see if a combination would actually work better…perhaps with a few more additions.

Here is a summary of some of the main effects from the different teas; do remember that this experimentation is completely subjective.

Passionflower (Passiflora sp.) tea.

Preparation: 12 large leaves including flowers (if you can get them) boiled in 500mls (pint) of water for 15 minutes. Then steeped for 1 hour. This makes enough for 2 people.

Effects: Felt sleepy about 30 minutes after ingestion and managed to fall asleep fairly quickly. It was a deep, calming sleep but we both experienced interrupted sleep (Gnome couldn’t get back to sleep for about 4 hours and I had a 2 hour sleepless period). Felt refreshed in the morning on waking up.

White Lily tea:

Preparation: 2 flowers(chopped up) and boiled in 500mls (pint) of water for 15 minutes. Then steeped for 1 hour. This makes enough for 2 people.

Effects: Fell asleep within 1 hour and both us experienced prolonged dreams with “running commentary”…ie. dreams with a constant internal dialogue in the background. The content of the dreams were very mundane like talking about what to prepare for dinner or running through “to do” lists. We would wake up and then fall asleep in a few minutes back into the same dream (over and over again…sounds really bizarre!). Woke up in the morning feeling groggy.

Lotus Flower tea:

Preparation: 20 petals boiled in 500mls (pint) of water for 15 minutes. Then steeped for 1 hour. This makes enough for 2 people.

Effects: Gnome didn’t get anything out of this one! We both felt sleepy on drinking the tea but as soon as we got into bed, 30 minutes later, the sleepiness was wearing off!! Not much information to say about this one!! Do you possibly have to drink this one in bed so that you can take advantage of the effects as they come on?

Anyway, will keep you posted on our insomnia experimentation…watch this space.

Belize, Farming, Plants

Catching Up.

October 10, 2015 Munchkin

We have only written three posts in the last month so I am using this post as an opportunity to catch up. We have actually had very hot and dry weather for about 10 days with no rains until today actually. In the last 3 to 4 days we had to go on “red alert” as the water supplies were going down fast. This meant bucket washes (no long showers) and hand-washing clothes. The well-pump still has not been fixed yet but Gnome has a plan to use compressed air to pump the water up to the surface…all we need is a compressor.

I have heard the frogs ribbitting on for rain and we have even joined them in their gloriously orchestrated croaking. The grey clouds are gathering above our house as we speak! Let us continue Ribbitting!! We are down to half a 550 gallon tank of water and we need two 550 gallon tanks totally filled up. When we are on “red alert” a lot of activities are postponed including soap-making…this requires a lot of water for washing up and cleaning of big pots, buckets and utensils.

I will leave you with some pictures from The Spice Farms which is situated in Golden Stream in Toledo, on the Southern Highway of Belize. The place is owned by another fellow medical doctor (anaesthetist) from the United States, formerly from Kerala, India. Being Doctors/ Wannabee Farmers together, Dr. Mathew was nice enough to give us a guided tour of his establishment last week. Lots of vanilla, black-pepper, cinnamon and other spice plants to see.

Have a good night!! Let’s hope for a massive downpour tonight!!

Belize, Fermentation, Food, Plants

Coconut Feta Cheese Update and Gnome Project.

August 26, 2015 Munchkin 2 Comments

Last week, I wrote about making coconut milk cheese – feta style…this is the update. After the three days of dry brining, I took out the cheese and cut it into pieces like so:

The cheese had dried to a firm consistency and so it was easy enough to cut without too much crumbling. I then placed them in 7% brine; one jar with bay leaves and the second flavoured with whole black peppers.

I am going to leave the jars out at room temperature so that they can ferment further for two weeks. After that, I will I will let them continue to ferment for several months in a cooler area (probably the refrigerator). Hope they taste good after all the waiting!!

Gnome Update:

Gnome has started on a project where he is digging out a small pond next to the house:

He has also started up some lotus seeds in a basin which have germinated and come up nicely:

The plan is to have a lotus pond next to the house. Apart from the beautiful flowers, we also want to grow them for food. We would eventually like to make our own lotus paste to make Chinese sweets:

This was sent to us as a gift all the way from Singapore; I am saving it to make moon cake this year. Also, lotus seeds are really tasty in Chinese soups…yes, you can actually buy these in Belize!

Lotus root is also quite a treat and I would love to grow some of our own because I haven’t eaten it for over a decade since I came to Belize. It will probably take over a year before we can harvest any to eat.

Aaaaargh…more waiting!!

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Tag Archives: Lotus

Catching Up.

Coconut Feta Cheese Update and Gnome Project.

Everything Handmade in Belize.