INCREDIBLE INEDIBLES

Having been rather busy these past couple of days, I've been unable to complete anything of sufficient merit to share, so in the meantime, here is my version of a broadcast test card.....a little bit of eye candy from the garden and surrounding areas. 

PUPPIES + SEEDLINGS = A WASTE OF TIME?

Purple Tomatoes post puppy invasion

George manages to trap himself 

When a picture paints a thousand words.....what is the point of even trying to verbalise the sense of frustration and anxiety that one feels when you happen upon a scene of carnage such as this?

These pictures actually depict two different events - the first being George's near death experience. The second, something that became a regular occurrence in our garden for the early part of this year when the puppies, George and Ilsa, Doberman/Rott crossbreeds arrived. They were 12 weeks old and weighed about 10lbs each. Today, a few weeks post their first birthday, not much has changed as far as the seedlings are concerned, only now George weighs in excess of 110lbs and the damage is more rapid and infinitely more devastating. I have no doubt that others with home farms who have had their crops devoured by rabbits, sheep, goats or deer or trampled by cows, horses or even elephants will think this trivial and me pathetic.  They do say that we are only sent what we can deal with, and as a city girl trying to learn - small, bite-sized lessons are by far the easiest to swallow. After a while one takes things less to heart and can visualize the now popular war-time poster with the words "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" and know that these things are sent to try us and after each such event, we will be stronger and ever more determined........or so "they" say. 

MARGARITA TIME?

Our newest addition, a small lime tree, is sitting patiently in the early morning sun on the verandah waiting for the next Full Moon.

Already heavily ladened with three good sized limes, this little tree purchased from the local Agriculture Department, has burst into the most heavenly scented flowers, some of which have quickly (in just a matter of days) transformed into clusters of fruit buds. I am almost frightened to plant her (it looks like a her to me), for fear that the trauma of being moved may disturb the developing fruit. Then there is the question of whether these clusters of fruit buds need to be thinned in order to produce better quality limes?  I will have to consult the Citrus Guru (my father).

He has already informed me that the fruit, which I assumed to be fully mature and begging to be picked (based on their size), will not be ready for some weeks yet.  Apparently, I will know they have reached perfection when they  become less dense to the touch, their skin will lose its dimples and become almost totally smooth and shiny - only then will they be juicy and full flavoured.  Clearly in all things garden related, patience is a virtue and Margarita Time will have to wait, for this little tree at least.  

MAN-GO....MAN-GONE

As we enter into November, I am taking every opportunity to make the most of the remaining weeks of what seems to have been a bumper 2011 avocado season.  I, like many others, will be sorry to see these wonderful, nutrition-rich beauties vanish for our daily menu.  And as if this was not woeful enough, the timing coincides with the end of our own mango trees fruiting; Julie, Palwee, Long, Pont (and a purple variety that none of us know the name of), have given up the last of their bounty for this year and are now busy erupting with new shoots of acid and lime green and deep coppery reds (these vary by variety).  The speed of growth is quite phenomenal - seemingly to grow several inches every day - and all over the island mango trees are bursting into flower and for some, next year's crop is already making an appearance as tiny, grape-sized specimens.  Sadly, I'm not a huge fan of freezing, drying or bottling this particular fruit, preferring to enjoy it simply and naked (the fruit, not me, though they're so juicy and sticky, that at times it seems that eating them naked would possibly be THE most sensible thing to do).

2011 has also brought a superb crop of cucumbers and the biggest challenge has been to use them all before they spoil. It's worth noting that the best specimens seem to grow on patches of land, recently cleared and burnt and left to settle for a week or two.  Eaten freshly picked, with a knife in hand and a tiny pile of ground sea-salt for dipping, is by far the best way to enjoy these, in my view; though thankfully, the results of my first efforts of bottling, pickling and even fermenting have proved to be most successful and produced some truly wonderful new taste sensations. Making the most of my father's seemingly endless supply of enormous home-grown limes, I've experimented with a range of marinades of sea salt, lime juice, rice vinegar, garlic, spring onions (scallions), fresh coriander (cilantro) and dried red chillies and used this to bottle some of these fabulously crisp cucumbers cut into thick spears. These (sealed in glass jars) last for several weeks in the fridge and make a superb accompaniment to a variety of hot and cold dishes and perfect with a hunk of good mature cheddar cheese and fresh crusty bread.  Finely sliced and blended with shredded, crunchy white cabbage and imported New Zealand Braeburn apples, they also make a rather delicious alternative twist on Korean Kimchee.  Hot, sweet and sour and packing a punch from a combination of fresh scotch bonnet peppers, dried red chillies and fresh garlic.  Equally, the addition of some chargrilled aubergines (egg plant) drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, adds yet another dimension - the possibilities seem endless.  

With further thoughts of bottling and pickling in mind, I am watching with interest as a new wild, self-seeded lime tree has burst into life.  I'm not sure how it came to be there, but it is now well established just beside the main driveway to the house.  Hopefully, it will go on to produce masses of small, juicy fruit, known here simply as "local lime", which are the perfect size for making traditional Indian style lime pickle. In the meantime, I will beg my Indian friends for their mother's, aunt's or grandmother's secret recipes!  If anyone has a particularly good recipe that they would like to share, I would be very happy to hear from them.  And so, the experimenting will continue as I try to find new ways of using and saving all that the garden provides.  Of course, sharing and bartering is prolific here and exchanging produce with family and friends is a great way to make the most of one's harvest; there is of course the added bonus that in the process one may even manage to save seeds from varieties that one has not previously grown.

* MAN-GO.... MAN-GONE! one of those silly family sayings that we use, never really knowing how, or when, it found it's way into our vocabulary.  I'm sure that every family has them....sometimes many years after the original occasion has long since been forgotten.

OUR VERY LAST SUGAR APPLE OF THE SEASON - PERFECT FOR TODAY'S DESSERT

A SINGLE CHERRY ON THE NEW CHERRY TREE

WEST INDIAN CHERRY - ALSO KNOWN AS ACEROLA

FOR PLEASURE AND PAIN

Whilst friends in the north are busy gathering in their harvests, preparing gardens for winter and eagarly awaiting the arrival of seed catalogues, which they will mull over in front of the fire with a steaming cuppa, we in the tropics have no such defined rest period.

Moon phases, anticipated hurricanes and the possibility of drought aside, we soldier on all year round.

A bonus - we can continue to plant and grow in a seemingly endless cycle of mango season,  avocado season, citrus season and so on, with the few stalwarts like bananas, which continue to produce ceaselessly - green gold indeed (as they came to be known in the boom days of St Lucian banana growing, before changes in EU trading agreements with Andean and Central American growers pulled the proverbial rug from under them - but that's a whole other story for another time).

What to grow within limited space, and within limited time available each day to spend nurturing seedlings and saplings? For one downside of living within the Tropic of Cancer, are the comparatively shorter days to my fellow gardeners living beyond. We have pretty much equal day and night, both summer and winter with a slight variation of about one hour between the seasons. No gardening well into evening for me, as I did in my previous gardens, especially in the North of England during the summer months.

Local Lucian folk grow produce for nourishment, pleasure and even pain.  I have vivid memories of my own Grandmother, who sadly passed away at the grand old age of 103 in 2003 (fulfilling her personal quest to outlive the Queen Mother, albeit by a slim margin), and her arrray of "special ingredients" that she kept in her kitchen - a veritable nature's pharmacy.  Dried ginger root for tummy ache and period pain; cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves for colds and toothache;  bay leaves, rosemary, lavender for headaches, dizziness and fainting; and pawpaw (papaya) seeds for diarrhea .....and so the list goes on and on.  The one item that I cannot recall what it was used for (or perhaps never knew) was the ever present dried skin from pomegranates that hung on a hook beside the dried citrus peel - perhaps someone out there knows and could enlighten me? 

The practice of making use of such items has come full circle and we see these ingredients, alongside echinachea, aloe vera, noni and of course coconut water, which now enjoys the status of 'magic elixir', join mainsteam products on the shelves of supermarkets and pharmacies all over the world, readily available and accepted by the masses as the norm. However, when I was growing up, it all sounded rather weird and slightly bonkers, though we could not argue with the fact that these remedies seemed to work rather better than any doctor's medicine.

So, my Physic Garden already includes ginger, rosemary, basil, sage, aloe vera and mint and the pomegranate trees are planted.  I will continue to search for other magical ingredients as I go along - all in the quest for growing produce to bring pleasure and alleviate pain.

Which brings me to my final point.  This week, I engaged two gentlemen from the country to come and slash and burn the all-pervading elephant grass in the lower garden that will become the vegetable plot.

 

"You got rosemary" said the younger of the two, as we passed the herbs.

"Yes", said I, "it's very good for headaches and cooking too".

"It makes good poison" he says, in matter-of-fact way.

"Poison" says I, "poison for what?"

"To poison people" he says, and continues to walk on down the garden..........