Tag Archives: Peanut

Hot and Windy!

February 28, 2021 Munchkin 2 Comments

Every-time I decide to sit down and write a post, the Internet starts playing up. It has been on and off for days. Just like the weather! It has been blowing hot and cold and gets terribly windy. I thought that I should show you our February harvests before the month is over! We planted sesame seeds (wangla, in Belize) and they came up very nicely…they are tolerant of all extremities of weather and definitely one to plant all year round.

We did a test plant of about a 1/8 acre just to see how we could handle the harvest together. Once the pods had dried, they were harvested and hung up to dry. The pods split to emit the seeds. I took a picture of the pods just to show you what they look like…we are all so familiar with this seed but how many of us would recognise the pods or even the plant?

The harvested sesame seeds:

We pressed the seeds raw to produce a very acceptable vegetable oil which has a lovely rich yellow colour. I did not toast the seeds since I just wanted a normal, bland cooking oil. The seeds yield a lot of oil…for every 1kg (2lb) of seed we got about 500mls (about a pint) of oil. Here in Belize, the locals toast wangla to make a chewy sugar candy.

We planted another test patch with black peanuts. These produced very well. We only had about twenty seeds so we planted these to make more seed for a larger plot. This peanut plant was very vigorous and healthy and produced large pods. We will probably use peanuts for cooking oil too…once you start pressing your own cooking oil…there is no going back…the shop-bought bottles of cooking oil and so refined, blah and boring. Home pressed oil is so flavoursome and imparts more character to your food…it is like cooking with wine. Planting, harvesting, processing and cooking your own food brings your meals to a whole new level of experience!!

Okay, let’s have one more. We have had a good jackfruit season.

This is the first harvest of the season and there are more to be picked. Processing the jackfruit is quite laborious and they can all mature at the same time…when this happens, I have to devote a whole day (or two) to messy peeling and cutting. Since we have so much of it right now, we are drying the fruit to store.

Jackfruit: peeling can be very messy because it has latex that sticks everywhere…

The fruit:

This is a very generous fruit…the seeds can be boiled, toasted and eaten:

Okay, that’s it for now. Hopefully, I can write again soon!

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Farm Harvests.

February 8, 2019 Munchkin

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:

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:

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!

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.

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!

Belize, Farming

Farm Update.

October 7, 2018 Munchkin

Hello Everyone, I haven’t written for a while just because I have been too tired! Despite rain and mud and puddles, we are charging through like little troopers trying to get things done. The last time I wrote, we had about 10 days of glorious, dry weather. Straight after that, we had heavy rains. As soon as the first night rain started Gnome exclaimed (in his sleep): “…the peanuts…the peanuts…we must harvest the peanuts…”

And so we did…the next day of course…not in the middle of the night! The following day happened to be a dryish, sunny day so we had the weather on our side. Panda helped out too and we managed to collect the peanut in about 4 hours. The peanuts were washed and laid out to dry in a sheltered area. Well, thank goodness we did the harvesting because after that we had torrential rain for days…we would have lost the crop if we waited! Here are some pictures:

Oooh Peanuts:

In the last week or so, we have had heavy evening rains and dry days. Because our coconut area is on higher ground, we have managed to clear up the place; I went through and collected fallen coconuts(400!!). I have placed them in a shaded area to allow them to sprout. Panda (he’s been a very helpful trooper) cut and removed dead fronds and laid them in mulch piles. Then Gnome went through and bush-hogged the place. With all this co-ordinated work, we cleaned up the coconut area in about 2 1/2 days which is a record time for us!!

Anyway, we are on a roll here and the next place to clean up is the back space with the sapodilla trees. This may prove difficult because the area is really wet and boggy; we will probably start by cleaning the fence line because the bush is encroaching on the territory. We are trying to get the sapodillas back on track since they have been neglected for about two years due to machinery failure. They used to look like this:

Oh, and we have had more machinery problems which have held a few projects back…this time it is the chainsaw which is giving the headaches. We took it to the Farmstore in town to get it fixed and got the usual palava:

“..not sure which part needs to be replaced…will order part but can’t find part in Belize…maybe try to get part in Guatemala?? Or States??? Anyway… might take until December to get part from States…do you want to Belize rig it?? “

Anyway, these were the conversations that we were having for the last 2 weeks. Don’t get me wrong…this is not a complaint…this is what happens in Belize and these are the things that we have to live with. Anyway, we have the chainsaw back (not fixed) and Gnome says he will take it apart and see what he can do. No guarantees of course. Arrrrgh….we have so many trees to cut down!!

Okay, so we will keep on going… 🙂 Here’s another picture of our peanuts. 🙂

Belize, Farming, Plants

Progress on the Farm.

September 1, 2018 Munchkin

Yeah! We have managed to keep the grass down this year which is definitely progress for us! This helps because we can actually look around to make plans for the farm. Despite the weather being on/off or sunny/rainy ie. can’t make up its mind, we are in good spirits because everything is proceeding at a reasonable pace. We have had a whole week cooped up inside the teeny house because of wet, boggy ground and coalescing ponds and I finally managed to get out today to take a few pictures.

Here is a giant toad that resides in the duck coop; seems to be quite happy to jump around with the ducks and sit in the dinner bowl.

We had a good harvest of Malabar Chestnut…the cultivated Chinese variety which tastes like chestnuts. Don’t get this one confused with the wild variety here in Belize, also known as provision fruit, that gives “edible” seeds; yes, edible in that it isn’t poisonous but inedible because it tastes like cardboard. Believe me, I’ve tried and I would definitely categorise the wild chestnuts as survival food! Anyway, I digress…I wanted to show you pictures of our harvest:

I think that you may only recognise these if you are Asian and you are used to buying packets of Chinese soup ingredients that only have Chinese writing on them. I am used to seeing these seeds in the dried form; the fresh form is very nutty and succulent. We like them so much that we have decided to plant another forty trees; they are especially good for growing in wet, swampy areas so they are perfect for many areas of our farm.

Oh and look! The peanuts are still going. This is Day 93; another 27 days to go. We have had a few occasions when we thought that the whole field would get flooded or washed away with the rains but it has managed to battle through. We are very pleased with the peanuts; the straw like stuff in between the rows are cut vetivir.

Last but not least, it is bamboo shoot time. I did not harvest last year because we were too busy. I said to Gnome this year that I was happy to harvest about five of them; that will make about 5 gallons which will last the whole year. For the first time, we are proceeding at a pace that allows us to catch the cycles on the farm. Usually, we are behind schedule and trying to catch up. Phew, it has taken 14 years to get to this stage…Ha-Ha!!

Another picture:

Looks like more rains are coming!!

Belize, Farming, Plants

Ready To Plant Peanut!

May 30, 2018 Munchkin

We prepared our area for planting peanut about 2 weeks ago, eagerly looking for seed peanut to plant. We were quite surprised that we couldn’t find any down here in Toledo . So we searched further afield, and asked our friends Graham and Joyce if they could find some in the Cayo region. Thank-you so much!! We got the seeds today and are ready to plant!!

We have a fifth of an acre all tilled up and mixed with lovely seaweed (courtesy of Panda) and lime. The area is protected from the geese with metal fencing right now. However, we have set up a bamboo fence and planted air potatoes at the base and once the plants get bushy, we will take away the metal fence.

The bamboo has been erected to grow air potatoes:

We will plant tomorrow…we are so excited. I think the peanuts are Spanish Red Variety.

Thank-you once again to Graham and Joyce for the peanuts!!

Amusing, Belize, Plants

Gnome Photography.

June 21, 2016 Munchkin

Munchkin.Unbelieving.Look

I’m flabbergasted…usually when Gnome takes pictures they are out of focus, poorly composed and just generally awful! Oh but look at these pictures:

And he even took a short video of Mimosa pudica:

So What Happened?

Gnome beamed a big wide grin and said,

“Oh I just read the GnomeWiki (TM) entry on how to take photographs!”

Gnome.Another.Glasses.Shot.Library

Belize, Food

Peanut Brittle Beef Cakes.

November 25, 2014 Munchkin

This recipe is great because it incoporates peanut candy bars bought in Belize. I have seen these everywhere in the country and they can be bought at any local super-market. They are so versatile because you can break the bars up into smaller pieces and put them in your home-cooked meals.

As well as being a good source of protein, it also adds crunch and texture to food. Moreover, the sugar in the bar caramelises once it is cooked adding more taste to the whole meal.

This is another recipe for the frustrated local ex-pat who tells me over and over again that there is nothing to cook in Belize! For the overseas reader, probably any peanut brittle/candy bar can be used in this recipe.

This is yummy mixed in with minced beef and formed into little cakes;

See my Peanut Brittle Beef Cakes Served with Lentils.

Casa Mascia Apothecary