Tag Archives: Miracle Fruit

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Farm Harvests.

The weather guess (forecast?) for today was “good day for lawn-mowing.” When we got up, it started raining and it proceeded to rain on and off until 10am. Gnome muttered to himself:

“….hmmm…not good day for lawn-mowing.”

The weather reports are becoming a joke with us and they are starting to appear like wild guesses that are about 90% wrong most of the time. We were thinking of reading tea leaves or getting a crystal ball instead…

We finally managed to get out mid-morning. Gnome dug holes and planted out the rest of the seedlings. We now have peach palm and jackfruit in the orchard area. I went harvesting today; It seems to be berry season right now on the farm.

The huckleberry plants seem to like the worst soil conditions. Last time I planted them in a prime spot on a bed with lovely dark soil and they hardly did anything, This time, I stuck them in the ground in thick, hard clay and they are thriving and producing well. Here are some fruits:

Huckleberries.

We have one miracle fruit bush and it is bearing so much this year. I have described this plant before; it contains a molecule that binds to your taste buds making sour things taste sweet. I find that I can’t use it all the time…there is only a certain amount of sour things you can consume in one day! Anyway, they are a pretty fruit:

Miracle Fruit.

This is all that I collected today. The green leaves are malabar spinach; they grow all year round and are our main greens at the moment. The orange fruits are Barbados gooseberry; I have started putting them in savoury dishes with pork…the acidity helps to balance and compliment the fattiness of the meat…very tasty!

Berry Time.

Oh, lastly…we have a harvest of black peanut. We didn’t manage to get much this time round because there was a large tree shading the peanut area which stunted the growth and production. Nevertheless, we got enough to start a bigger patch and Gnome is very pleased with his black peanuts.

Black Peanuts.

That’s it for tonight. Wishing you all a lovely weekend…there is supposed to be 6 hours of rain tomorrow…let’s wait and see!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Plants

Winter Time in Belize!!

Hello!!  It’s winter time in Belize so temperatures are about 20 Celsius (that’s 68 Fahrenheit for Northern Americans and oldish British people…oh dear, was that politically incorrect of me to say that).  Anyway, it’s woolly hat and jumper time, that’s what I am trying to get at.   It is the last day of November and I am scared of December…I feel that it is going to whizz by…and another year is gone again.  Gnome’s comment:

“How can you get scared of a month…I can understand if it’s a big hairy dog or something…but there are no claws and gnashing teeth…”

Yes he’s right and I can’t do anything about it except maybe try to have some fun and magic (Ha-Ha!!).  Okay, more plant pictures:

This is great way to use up discarded paper and cardboard; I tear them into strips and bits and put them in between the vegetable plants.  This stops the weeds from coming up (believe me…this is a brilliant idea because it saves me from weeding everyday) and the cardboard is great mulch.  We have rocket and kale on the Munchkin menu right now:

Rocket and Kale.

This here is a very interesting fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, otherwise known as Miracle fruit.   This fruit is amazing and great for party tricks…you give somebody a miracle fruit to eat and then you give them a sour lime; the lime will actually taste really sweet.  This is because this fruit contains a natural chemical called miraculin which binds to the tongue’s taste buds causing sour things to taste sweet; the effect lasts between 15 to 30 minutes.  It can probably be used as a natural sweetener for diabetics or people who want to cut down their sugar consumption.  Apparently, this fruit originated from West Africa where they traditionally use this fruit to sweeten palm wine.  This would be an interesting additive for one of Gnome’s fermented beverages.

Miracle Fruit.

We both like bitter gourd or serosi as they call it here.  It appears to grow very well in buckets.  We’ve managed to grow a third generation fruit (by natural selection)  that is 2feet (60cm) in length.  Normal fruits average about a foot in length.  We are trying to grow the longest bitter gourd in the world…maybe get into the Guinness Book of World Records..Ha-Ha!!

Bitter Gourd Trellis.

Oh and this one is very interesting…this is the toothache plant.  When you bite into the flower, you get a tingling sensation in the mouth followed by a numbing sensation.  Good for toothaches hence the name.  According to Wiki, the leaves can be eaten in salads; I might try experimenting with the flowers and leaves to use as flavouring for sauces and relishes.

Toothache Plant.

These flowers are supposed to attract fireflies at night.  I questioned the validity of the statement and said to Gnome: “I haven’t seen fireflies, have you?”

Gnome:

“We haven’t seen the fireflies at night because  that’s when we close up the house and run off to bed!!”

Toothache Plant Flowers.

Have a lovely Thursday and let’s all have a magical December…