Tag Archives: Passiflora

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, Food, Plants

Farm Fruit and Toasted Passionfruit Seeds.

May 31, 2015 Munchkin 1 Comment

Happy Sunday to you all!! We have some more fruit on our farm; luckily this time, there is an abundance so we can share with the birdies, pacas, dogs and guinea-pigs.

The mulberries are giving plenty of fruit. There is one particular tree which is half hidden in the shade of a huge African oil palm so the birdies have not spotted this one. This year, we will be able to make mulberry Elixir (liqueur).

This is wax-apple; we are into the second year of fruiting and it is producing so much. They are related to the Molly (Malay) apple but these fruits are crunchy in texture like apples. The guinea-pigs really love these ones!

The passionfruit are just starting to bear. I like to combine the pulp of this with the Mayan passionfruit (Kun Batz) to make juice. I find the Mayan variety is sweeter so that it helps to balance the acidity of this type.

With all the passionfruit juice making, I have ended up with a whole lot of seeds. As an experiment, I tried toasting them on a skillet in a similar manner to pumpkin seeds. They actually turned out to be a very tasty snack/condiment; as you toast them, the residual passionfruit pulp around the seeds caramelises to add a unique sweetness. I used the toasted seeds as a condiment on soup which worked a treat. The crunchy texture gives an extra bite to a meal:

Also, we had some as an accompaniment to cassava hash browns and steamed young pumpkin. They added an extra “sweet and sour” flavour to the dish.

Toasted Passiflora Seeds with Cassava Hash Browns.

I would definitely recommend the toasting of passionfruit seeds. It just requires 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat on a skillet. Make sure to stir it around to stop it from initially sticking. You will know when it is done when the pulp caramelises around the seeds. It is so versatile that you can choose to eat it with sweet or savoury foods.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday night!

Belize, Farming, Food, Our Products, Plants

Mayan Passion Fruit Juice.

May 28, 2015 Munchkin

The Mayan Passion Fruit (Ketchi name is Kun Batz) is still in season. It is a vine which voluntarily grows around cultivated trees and it can also exist in the rainforest of Belize.

They have beautiful flowers so can they also be grown as an ornamental:

The fruit can be eaten green like a vegetable (like cho-cho or zucchini).

If you let it ripen, you can eat the fruit pulp like a passion fruit.

The seeds and the pulp are edible and can be eaten alone or mixed with yoghurt or ice-cream. Today, I sifted out the seeds to get the pulp and the juice:

I used a total of eight fruit and towards the end, added a cup of water to the remaining seeds to try to extract the last of the pulp. I was able to make a quart of juice from this method. When I tasted it I felt that it was sweet enough that no sugar was required. Compare this with normal passion fruit which is quite acidic which requires sweetening in order to enhance the taste. This is Kun Batz juice with a sprig of mint:

The Kun Batz juice is divine!! The taste of the juice is a combination of pineapple, banana and canteloupe melon with mild exotic hints of passion fruit. It is unique in that it has a mildly sour taste but it is sweet enough that no sugar is needed.

I have a whole lot of fresh seeds to sell so check out The Apothecary. To my knowledge, nobody is cultivating this bush fruit so if you are into rare and exotic plants, then this a definitely one to add to the list!

Planting Instructions:

Passiflora seeds have a hard shell so pr-treat the seeds before planting; Soak the seeds for 24-48 hours in warm to the touch water, just prior to planting. Once pretreated, plant seeds 1/2-1″ deep in moist, sterile soil. Keep soil temperature consistent at about 70-85F. Cool soils will significantly delay seed germination time.

Estimated germination time under optimal conditions: 6 weeks to 6 months.

Plant spacing for this vine is 10 feet (3 metres) apart and can grow to about 20 feet tall. Will start fruiting in about 12 months.

Belize, Food, Our Products, Plants, Saving Money

Sticky Rice, Nori Flakes, Kun Batz and Stinky Tofu.

April 17, 2015 Munchkin

Hello Everyone!! I am back in top form and promise that there will be no complaints today! Many thanks to the readers (namely, Erin and Adriana) who wrote back with a positive word and encouragement. Thanks to Gnome’s Mum for looking at 9 pages and the flurry of visitors after last night’s post. We indeed felt that life was worth living again. 😉

In a bid to increase our Stats, Gnome kindly wrote a post earlier on Ballistics…Hmmm…I am sure everyone stopped whatever they were doing to look at this must-read! Gnome reveals all in his mind-blowing revelations on pellets! Just out of interest, I don’t give Gnome any pocket money for his pellets and so he funds his pass-time through coconut products. So, if you have bought any coconut cream, water or flour, you have helped Gnome out.

Gnome says, “Buy more of my coconuts!!”

Because it is a lot hotter, we have not been feeling so hungry hence the reason for less recipe posts. However, I thought it would interesting to let you know what we had for lunch today. In our last trip to Belize City, we stopped by the Taiwanese store to buy some goodies…interesting that when we think of buying yummy treats we always go for Chinese or Japanese food. We found some short grain rice (the kind that you use to make sushi), nori seaweed and stinky tofu.

Today, I boiled the sticky rice in our coconut cream…yes, the one that we sell in little bags! I also added whole black peppercorns to spice it up a bit. I toasted the nori flakes in a skillet and I brought out the stinky tofu.

The vegetable featured on the top right is Kun Batz. This is a wild passiflora vine which grows voluntarily in cleared areas. This plant produces fruit which can be eaten green like a vegetable; here I have cut it into pieces, steamed it and added soya sauce.

With plenty of vitamins and minerals from the sea-weed and B Vitamins from the stinky tofu, there was no need to include meat into the meal today. It was yummy!! Hooray for smelly (sorry, I mean fragrant) Chinese food!

Some pictures of Kun Batz (This is the Ketchi Mayan name):

Here in Belize, the Mayans prize this fruit considerably and like to eat it in its ripe form. Once ripe, the flesh turns yellow, spongy and inedible. The pulp around the seeds is eaten and has a fruity floral taste which is esteemed by the people here. It can eaten out of hand or used to flavour cool drinks. It is very similar to the giant granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis).

Good Evening everyone!! May all our lives become so simple that Blog Stats become the most important thing!!

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Tag Archives: Passiflora

Farm Fruit and Toasted Passionfruit Seeds.

Mayan Passion Fruit Juice.

Sticky Rice, Nori Flakes, Kun Batz and Stinky Tofu.

Everything Handmade in Belize.