verkagj-Belize Farm Journal

[verkagj]

DON'T EAT THE PAPAYAS!

Papayas and sugarcane are the main commercial farm crops in Northern Belize. Fruta Bomba, AKA Brooks Tropicals out of Florida have thousands of acres under lease to grow papayas. They are the main employer in this area. But why do I say not to eat the papayas?

GMO - Roundup Ready! The fruit is saturated with chemicals. They spray constantly using various insecticides and herbicides which include Paraquat (Agent Orange).
The tree seedlings are modified to grow at an alarming rate and produce over 100 papayas from each tree.

I bought a barrel from the company that imports the chemicals. It had been washed out and was marked only that it was not fit for potable water storage. I washed it out and where I dumped it, nothing has grown for over a year.

Since it is a Monsanto Roundup Ready plant, Fruta Bomba is very secretive and secure about them. There are guards for every field and guys on 4-wheelers ride around all night. They burn all the irrigation pipes and trees when a field is done. The plants are counted to make sure that field workers do not take any of them.

The government of Belize is now backing them on anything they want to do or where they want to plant because they threatened to move operations to Guatamala. There would be hundreds of people out of a job if they leave.

Since papayas have a thin skin, I don't think that washing or peeling would rid it of all the chemicals. So we don't eat any of them unless it grew from a tree in someone's back yard that I know. I'll have to grow my own.

 

[bonbean01]

I don't eat those things anyway...when we lived in Florida we planted two trees...grew quickly, produced quickly...tasted like dirty socks, yanked those trees out and planted Lime trees instead.

Hate all that monkeying around with GMO and heavy chemicals in the food supply, but seems to be getting more and more popular these days.

 

[alsea1]

Wow.
Thats good to know about the chemical fruit. Yukkers.

Belize needs to wake up and stop them from poisoning Belize.

 

[verkagj]

In a small 3rd world country, money to politicians is what is the norm. (I guess not much different from the US in reality). The entire country is about the size of Vermont with 350,000 people.
Darn. Pouring rain here. We need the rain as the goat yards are pretty barren right now. But I just had hubby run the bush hog and gathered up the chop for the goats to eat. They don't like hay but when that's all there is to eat they'll get used to it. Now it will be bedding when it dries out.
I usually tether them this time of year but with the babies I can't do that. End of the month, the boys will be ready to find new homes. I'd love to keep them all 'cause they're all so sweet but don't have enough to feed them all. Can' t afford to fence in any more field right now. I want to get moved into the house before I die.

More about us...
Jim and I married in 2006, at 56 yrs old. We decided that we couldn't afford to ever retire so we were looking for a better place to live. We came to Belize for a month to look around and both said yes, this is the place. We chose the Corozal area in Northern Belize because it is close to Chetumal, Mexico for shopping and medical care. We live 7 miles from town, off grid on 15 acres. We put solar panels on the travel trailer before we brought it down so we do have power. The house will have a 48V system so Jim can use his welder, etc. Right now there is 1 bank of panels for the house set up temporarily.
We did have a power outage one time. The system was down and showing an error code. When he looked up the code, it had to do with being tied in with the electric grid which we don't have. So he took the charge controller apart and there was a gecko between two poles and shorted out the system. Geckos get into everything. They're good at eating bugs but can be a nuisance also.

Belize has an official language...English. That is sort of English. The area we live in is full of people who speak a sort of Spanish. More of a street slang mixed with some English. There is a lot of Chinese spoken and the Mennonite areas speak German. There is also Mayan still spoken. Ketchi and Mopan Mayan and they are very different languages. Also Garifuna which is a form of Creole in some areas. And of course, there is British English which has influenced the version of English spoken since Belize used to be British Honduras. I think it's interesting to watch some of the shop keepers go between Chinese, English and Spanish without hesitating. Much smarter than me for sure. :/

 

[Pearce Pastures]

This is just so interesting to read. What an adventure! Love shopping and the undies story. Wow on the papaya. So cool that you live off grid! Don't suppose you have any pictures?

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Thanks for the info about the papyas!!! I do remember reading something about that before!
I didn't realize there were Mennonites there there, but I guess why wouldn't there be!
You have a very interesting journal!!!
I look forward to reading more!

 

[verkagj]

Forage Score!
Our neighbor farmer just harvested his dry bean crop yesterday. I asked him what he does with the plants, he said he was going to burn them in the field. Husband went over and brought back a pickup load. One goat loves them, one thinks their OK, other one walked away. But they're good to put into the pen at night after they have their grain dinner.

More progress on the concrete block workshop under the house. Holes are drilled for the rebar for 2 more sections. 4 courses of blocks will go up tomorrow. Our concrete helper only works half days, two days a week. I need to check to make sure we have enough blocks.

Made coffee ice cream yesterday. YUM! Today is garlic-red wine vinegar cheese since I'm waiting on my culture to get here. A little restaurant said they would make lasagna if I brought her some sort of cheese that would work.

The neighbor farmer also wants the twin buck kids. Two more weeks and they'll be gone. I'd love to keep the single buck and make him a wether but I'm trying hard not to have more animals than I have fenced forage for.

Tried to get a photobucket account but had no luck getting the new account page to load up. Some internet days are better than others. Since we're on mobile broadband that uses a cell phone chip, we're competing with all the smart phone devices. And we're on the fringe for coverage. So I'll keep trying. I want to share the photos of the goats to see if anyone can tell me what breed they are.

Warm but breezy out so I'm heading out to the garden or where the garden should be and try to find it. Stuff grows real fast where you don't want it to.

 

[verkagj]

Phew! I'm exhausted. Yesterday I was out of it, major headache, eyes hurt so I could hardly blink, everything hurt. Thank You Fruta Bomba. They were spraying for 2 days. I get sick every time they do a major spray. Probably the combination of herbicide and insecticides.

And then there were ants...I've been battling ants for a while now. They are little crazy ants and are every where. Cupboards, in between stacked towels. everywhere. I found some gel type stuff and put it out. It worked for a little while and the ants returning then steered clear of the bait. But I was able to track them to another one of their abodes. They were in every box in the bathroom. The extra toothpaste still in the box, under, around. It was nasty. So I spent most of the day eradicating ants and disinfecting the bathroom supplies. Yuck!

On the goat front...they all love the bean plants now. I have to keep them tethered in their pen while they eat them or they just chase each other around and scatter the beans in the pen. If you saw them, you would think that they were starved. They eat dry bean plants non-stop for almost an hour and that is after they have browsed all day and have eaten a bowl of grain. I have to stay out with them until at least 2 of them are done or it's chaos.

We went out this morning and cut some jack bean vines and other leafy stuff along with palm fronds to put out in the browse yard. I had to stay out there until they were done munching. Leah has gotten really mean to the others since she kidded. No matter how many piles of chop get put out, she thinks it's all for her and her kids. She even has a new sound that almost sounds like a growl when others come near. She's been put in time out several times for being mean.

A week or so ago, I made Halloumi cheese. It is a brined cheese that is good for grilling or frying. Tried some of it last night. Taste is good but the curds weren't as done as they should have been and it melted a bit. I'll try it again. Tastes like real good Mozzarella sticks. Wish my culture order would get here soon so I can go back to making Chevre.

We were out of bananas for a couple of days. Yes, a country that grows bananas and there were no bananas at the market. Most of the bananas grown are for Frye exported to Europe. We get the leftovers. I can't complain though, 8 bananas for $1BZ ($.50US). The goats get a banana every morning after they get milked and there was a lot of stomping and grumbling of "where's my banana?" They got raisins instead. I just cut our first hand of bananas. You cut them off the plant when the flower is drying up. They are still green. You hang them up until they are ready to eat. These are little, finger bananas. Not sure which type, regular or the apple flavor ones. We'll see soon.

I just tried to post this and I have no Internet connection. At least the post was still here. It has been doing this for the last couple of days. I guess too much traffic on the system and we get dropped.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Cheap cheap cheap bananas!

I don't know how you live with your internet. I would die. I simply could not do it. You're a better person then me. Oh and I hope you feel better.

 

[verkagj]

Will the sun ever shine again? This is the 4th day in a row of overcast or overcast with rain. We need the rain but so many days in a row makes a mess of the marl roads. You would think you were driving on ice.
Not good for solar power either. We've had to run the generator a lot because we have a little freezer and a regular refrigerator so we can't go without. I had mixed up a batch of orange sherbet mix and can't use the ice cream maker so it's jello cream now. Throw a bit of Cool Whip on it and we'll eat it anyway.
The neighbor who is buying the twin bucks can over and paid for one of them. She only speaks Spanish so it took me a bit to figure out she was saying that she wanted to pay me some while she had the money. She'll pay the rest when they get paid for the 2 pigs that just went to the market.

I wasn't here to watch but hubby was since he went over to help fix the car to transport the pork to market. I love the pork here but not sure I want to eat it anymore after hearing the process. They slit the throats with a machete. Then dragged them out onto a piece of zinc to gut them out. Threw all the offal into a pot of boiling water. Don't have any idea what they do with that stuff and don't want to know. They used a machete and a claw hammer to split the pig in half, cut off the trotters and the head which don't go to the market. The pig halves then went into the back of the car and off to Belize City which is a 2 hr drive. No ice or covering on them.

Machetes are used for everything here. I saw a guy using a machete for "cutting" up an old car roof into pieces. I've tried to use one to cut stuff for the goats. No matter how hard I chop, I don't cut through anything. The workers we use can chop through trees with them. I guess it's an acquired skill.

I goofed off yesterday and went to lunch/shopping with a group of ladies so I have to catch up on chores today. The dishes don't do themselves. I'm reconsidering the plan for the kitchen in the house. Electric dishwasher maybe? I wonder if they make a propane model?

Need to call the chiropractor for an appointment. I know my back and neck are out of alignment and now my fingers are tingling like when you hid your funny bone. I can't bend my right index finger which made milking this morning very painful. The chiropractor is retired from the US and charges only $20 US a visit. Doesn't have to carry expensive insurance and no paperwork to worry about.

Greetings from the not so sunny tropics.