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:

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.

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!!

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.

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!!”

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