Our Florida Christmas Tree

We broke our usual tradition this year with our Christmas tree.  My 5-year-old daughter is very into decorating and we were taking way too long to get a Christmas tree for her.  She was growing impatient.  Finding a tree was getting complicated… and expensive.  Our little town sold out of Christmas trees quickly so we needed to go on a tree hunt somewhere else.  We also needed to purchase a new tree base because our old one disappeared.

Then, our tree found us.  It was a big, beautiful citrus tree with six different kinds of citrus fruit grafted onto one tree.  It’s called a cocktail tree.  Grayson and I were in love with this lovely tree.  We both wanted it so badly, but it was pricey… about the same price as a cut Christmas tree and a new base for it.  We asked permission from the 5-year-old to substitute the cocktail tree for the Northern fir-tree.  She thought it was a great idea!

We brought the tree home, set it up in our usual Christmas tree spot, and spent the evening decorating.  A new tradition has been born.  We absolutely love our citrus Christmas tree.  I’m sure this idea is a contemptuous act to most die-hard Christmas traditionalists, but we live in Southwest Florida.  It still smells like Christmas around here, just more citrusy.  My kids are excited to plant the tree after Christmas and we’re already picking out the spot.  We’re definitely doing this again next year.

The six types of citrus grafted onto our cocktail tree. We made a Christmas tree ornament with them.

The kids are proud of our Christmas tree. Good... 'cause that's what it's all about.

Our new custom... a Florida Christmas tree.

The temperature was in the 80′s today, so we aren’t expecting snow.  It turned out to be a white Christmas though… Florida style.  We had a dump truck full of sand delivered for the kids.  They couldn’t be happier with their mountain of sand and cardboard sled.

Florida snow and sled.

We hope everyone has a joyful 2011 holiday season.

Come grow with us!

Fort Myers Beach Baskets

We have a gazillion palm fronds in Florida.  My son and I have been thinking about a way to use our old palm fronds to make a Seminole Indian thatch cover as a shady area for our goats.  So, on a recent outing to Fort Myers Beach, a man weaving baskets out of palm fronds immediately caught our eye.  We watched him quickly weave an awesome basket out of one frond.  We thought this was so cool and had to buy some.

Dave weaving a small basket at Fort Myers Beach.

He starts the basket with the middle of the frond.

Dave makes it look easy.  I seriously doubt it’s easy.  The finished baskets are beautiful.  Dave has a website and sells his baskets from it, but he’s half the price if you buy them from him at Fort Myers Beach.  We definitely had to have one… actually two.  The baskets start out green since they’re still freshly cut and then they dry out and turn brown.  It’s not a bad thing.  The dried baskets are lovely.  I’d been searching for the perfect basket and I found it.  Writing this post makes me want to go buy more from him.  Maybe I’ll get one of his hats too… any excuse to go to the beach. 

Boys watching Dave weave the baskets.

The basket is taking shape.

These are the two baskets I bought.

Dave says that cats go bonkers over the baskets.  He said he makes some just to donate to the cats at the Humane Society.  Check out his website at Coconut Baskets.com.

Koby bought his own basket with his own money.

Come grow with us!

Umbuzi Goat Dairy

Umbuzi is the name of the only licensed goat dairy in Florida.  It seems hard to believe, but it’s true.  Florida has lots of dairy goats.  Why is there only one commercial dairy? The huge investment in money, time and expertise may have something to do with it.  However, the folks at Umbuzi have put their hearts and souls into this operation.  It’s probably easier to move a mountain than to open a dairy from what I’ve heard.  Umbuzi has done it though and they’re hoping to start selling their products to the public by February 2012.

Umbuzi Dairy has a herd of over 70 Nubian goats.

Umbuzi Dairy will offer hard and soft cheeses, plus pasteurized milk.  They’ve just added yogurt to the list too because it’s the best yogurt ever.

They don’t have a finished website yet, but they’re working on it.  They can be found at  UmbuziFarm.com.

The goats at Umbuzi live in paradise. Isn't this pasture beautiful? The pink thing is for back scratching.

They created an incredibly clever way to milk lots of goats at the same time, then send them down the line and back out to pasture. It moves.

This is some of their equipment.

A commercial dairy requires perfection with temperatures, ph, and bacteria detection.

Umbuzi's friendly Nubian goats.

Pasture land at Umbuzi Goat Dairy in Southwest Florida.

Umbuzi is located in a rural area outside Ft.Myers, Florida.  They’re a family operated business with healthy animals and a beautiful dream.  Isn’t this the kind of food we all want?  Support for local business is a very good thing, no matter where you live.

Delicious goat cheese at Umbuzi Dairy. I just had to sneak a peek.

Come grow with us!

Chloe’s Baby

This definitely isn’t Rosemary’s Baby. The devil didn’t have anything to do with this one.  Well, maybe a little, because we haven’t been able to get a single thing done since she was born.  Our Nigerian dwarf goat, named Chloe, had a baby girl last night (a female goat is called a doe).  Nigerian dwarfs make the cutest babies.  If you don’t believe me, judge for yourself.

She isn't even 24 hours old yet.

Chloe's such an awesome mom!

Most dairy goat owners take the babies away from the mothers immediately.  It is especially important to do this if the mother has a common disease called CAE because it is easily passed to the baby once it’s born.  We’ve chosen to allow our Nigerian dwarfs to keep their babies for a short time (probably a month).  Our goats are CAE free which is one of the reasons we’re letting them stay together.  If you want to learn more about birthing goats, check out Fias Co Farms website.  I believe it’s one of the best for goat information online.  Nothing beats having friends with goats though.  We’re very thankful for ours.

No social issues for this baby goat.

Chloe can't stop licking and cuddling her baby.

Neither can we.

Lots of hugging...

... and more hugging.

The maternity ward.

The cream colored Nigerian dwarf is next to kid (give birth). Her due date is today!

Loring and her two LaManchas. They are a breed of goat with small ears and a BIG personality. They're my favorite breed. Everybody has their favorite breed.

 The 5-year-old in the tutu has named the new baby goat “Glitters”.  We laugh every time we say it.  I was hoping we could persuade her to find a different name, but I don’t think we’re going to win this one.  However,  the baby will be going to a new and wonderful home at Alva Island Farm  soon.  She’s planning to name the next babies… Puddins’ and Sprinkles.   Great.

Glitters.

Come grow with us!

We Love Jesus

This is one of those posts about a person so inspirational that I have to tell everybody.  His name is Jesus Salgueiro (it’s pronounced hay-soos) and he’s from Venezuela. He’s beat 3 major cancers 3 times,  including lung cancer and an inoperable brain cancer.  Hope Hospice was expecting him, but his partner and a friend decided against it.  How did he beat such deadly cancers 3 times?

First, he attributes his survival to leaving the first set of doctors that were treating him.  A second opinion can save your life.  His second opinion, Dr. Razier, saved his.

Secondly, he had more paintings to paint.  Jesus is an artist.  He usually paints hearts and angels, but he does whatever his heart and mind tell him to do.  He sees hearts in everything from a hole in a t-shirt to tree branches. He keeps track by taking pictures of them and has hundreds. I wonder if he follows the hearts or if they follow him because I don’t see ‘em.  He has also seen an angel.  She visited him in his hospital room and told him he wasn’t going to die from his brain tumor because he still has things to do.  His tumor reduced in size immediately afterward. Was it truly an angel or an overly hopeful imagination on cancer drugs? It doesn’t matter… he survived with minimal further treatment. He doesn’t care if anybody believes him because it’s his own incredible story.  It’s not my story to publish on the world-wide web, so I left out the details, but I think of this story all the time and feel joy.  I want to hear this story again and again.  People need stories like these.  I’ll ask him to forgive me later.

Jesus and friend.

One of Jesus' art studios. He's slowly turning every room of his house into more studio. Artists do that.

More studio.

Some of his work hanging in his living room.

His partner, Chef Art Smith, lost 120 pounds. Jesus turned his old trousers into a piece of art.

 My friend and I were having dinner at Chef Art Smith’s new restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia.  I was telling her all about Jesus and bragging about his hearts.  She points and says, “you mean… like those?” I turn around and look at the wall behind me and sure enough, it’s Jesus’ hearts.

Jesus' art hanging in the new restaurant, Southern Art in Atlanta, GA.

 Jesus’ depth of color and texture is mesmerizing.  Everybody loves his work.  My favorite pieces are his manhole covers.  He’s travelled the world and sketched manholes in hundreds of cities.  He’s got some exciting stories about these adventures.  I wish he’d make a book with all these sketches because they’re absolutely gorgeous and there’s so many.  I asked him if he’s worried about somebody copying him.  Even if they did, they would never be as good as Jesus’ originals.

Jesus telling the stories behind his manhole covers. Don't even think about touching a manhole cover in China!

Jesus has a great story on how he obtained this Chinese manhole cover.

I lost track on which city this cover is from... he has over 500.

Paris.

Beverly Hills.

Stacks and stacks of the most amazing works of art.

The colors are out of this world.

Check out the online gallery of some of his work on his website at Susejart.com.  Make sure your sound is turned on.  Oh, and keep your eyes peeled because his art is starting to pop up everywhere!  A little birdie told me that Lady Gaga just purchased a piece.

We love you, Jesus.

Come grow with us!

Wonderful Watermelons

We just harvested watermelons from our yard for the first time.  We’ve never grown them before.  For some reason, I avoided it and I’m not sure why.  We found them easy to grow and oh, so rewarding.

Our watermelon vine taking over.

I started a watermelon plant from a seed.  I did it on a whim and had no expectations for the poor plant.  The seedling grew, I hardened it off and transplanted it smack in the middle of one of my garden beds.  I had some good sized cherry tomato and basil plants in the same bed.  I truly didn’t believe the young watermelon plant would survive.  I gave the seedling sunshine and water, then ignored it.  It seemed stunted to me at first and I wasn’t surprised.  I kept thinking I should just throw the little plant out, but didn’t get around to it.  The next time I checked on it, it was growing wildly in every direction.

The die off can be seen in this photo.

I figured I’d just end up with a ton of vine to pull and no fruit.  The summer weather was really heating up with temps in the 90′s, lots of rain and 80 degree nights.  Watermelons like 80 degree daytime temperatures and 60 degree nights.  They prefer it hot and humid.  Even though watermelon plants need lots of water, too much wet weather can cause all kinds of problems. Our vine had millions of stink bugs on it.  We don’t grow ours for profit so we didn’t even try to fight them.

Can you see the watermelons?

The kids started noticing baby watermelons all over the vine.  They’re really cute.  I let them grow to maturity.  I wasn’t sure when to harvest them so I studied up.  I read that the stems should turn brown and wither and the bottoms of the melon should have a yellowish patch.  The stems never changed from their green color and the the vine started to die off, probably from blight.  I had healthy-looking and enormous watermelons all over the place and they were screaming “pick me”.  I figured I’d better harvest them whether they were ready or not. They looked pretty, but I still didn’t hold out much hope for them. I’ve bought plenty of watermelons at the supermarket that looked beautiful but were completely void of flavor.  

A baby watermelon. Awww...

I let Grayson be the taste-tester.  As we cut into them they burst open with a big pop. “Well, what does it taste like?”, I asked with eagerness.  He replied with gusto that it was the best watermelon he’d ever tasted in his life.  He’s a watermelon lover, so I trust his review.

Homegrown watermelon.

I harvested all the melons at once and ended up with lots of watermelons to give away.   I was asking everybody I knew if they wanted a watermelon.  We gave our goats lots of watermelon too and they went crazy over it.  Now there’s watermelon vines growing where we were leaving the fruit for them.  Good thing we have lots of honeybees!

So, how do you grow a seedless watermelon?  It’s quite interesting.  The seedless watermelon is called a triploid and it is grown next to a seeded variety called a diploid.  Click here for the rest of the story on growing seedless varieties.  We’ll stick to the heirloom varieties in our yard.

My grandmother used to cut up her watermelon and freeze it, then make smoothies with it.  Fresh watermelon juice with mint and salt is one of my all-time favorites.  Check out Mom-a-licious for a watermelon margarita recipe. Don’t forget about watermelon gazpacho.

Sweet melons!

Growing watermelons has now been added to our list of “must grow in our yard”.  We’re going to try some different varieties this time.  We’ll use crop rotation and grow them in a different area of a garden.

Come grow with us!

Homeschooling in Florida

Homeschooling is not for everybody, but it’s definitely for us.  The learning doesn’t stop when the bell rings and everything in our life is a potential science project.  We have a room in our home set up as a classroom and we re-decorate it a little bit every year to refresh it.  Grayson puts in a long work day 5 days a week, but he chooses his own schedule.  My 4-year-old loves to do her homework.

Our homeschooling classroom.

I am frequently asked if socialization is an issue.  The answer to that is a big… NO.  We get involved with clubs, community and volunteer stuff, and lots of sports.  I’m constantly telling Grayson that we can’t do it all.  Two clubs and two sports at a time is about all I can handle.  It’s still difficult to make time for friends and family because our schedule is booked solid all the time.  We have a list of things a mile long that we want to do.

People also ask if homeschooling is difficult for me.  The first year was a learning curve but I’ve found my groove.  There are times when it feels burdensome, but it is an absolute blessing most of the time.  If that changes, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.  For now, we feel so lucky!

We are members of a huge homeschooling association in Florida called The Florida Parent Educators Association.   They are incredibly helpful with so many homeschooling topics.  They also host an enormous (over 30,000 people) homeschooling convention in Orlando every year that is worth attending.  It answered many of my questions and surpassed my expectations.

A dog's eye preserved in a container of formaldehyde.

We love our home classroom.  The dog’s eye in the above photo is for educational purposes and sits on Grayson’s desk.  I’ve noticed that when he gets frustrated with something he’s studying, somebody inevitably makes a joke with the eye.  It provides instant comedic relief and a giggle.   Thank you, dad! Can we have a heart with heartworms wrapped around it too?

Come grow with us!

Hatching a Dinosaur Egg

We hatched some modern-day, baby dinosaurs out of their eggs this week … alligators!  It’s a fantastic experience, but it’s only legal at Gatorama in Palmdale, Florida (it’s the only place I know of in Florida, anyway).  Gatorama only offers this to the public for 11 days at the end of August.  We try to go every year, but sometimes we blink and miss it.

Alligators are a part of our life in SW Florida.  We have to be careful in our yard because they tend to lurk in the bushes at the edge of our riverbank.  We are always alert when walking around our yard.  It isn’t a frequent occurrence to see one in the yard, but it is very common to see them coasting around our yard.  It’s kinda like a moat that doesn’t quite go all the way around our castle.  So, forget the dogs, beware of the gators… it’s a dead-end.

Alligators are a threatened species in Florida, even though there seem to be a lot of them.  Apparently, only 2% survive into adulthood in the wild.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants a special license or permit to handle the gators.  It is illegal to harass or feed alligators in Florida.  If an alligator is fed, they lose their fear of humans, and then we’re really in trouble.

Alligator feeding at Gatorama... Yikes!

A little girl holding a young gator at last year's Swamp Cabbage Festival.

An alligator nest... and big moma's always near-by!

That's me helping a baby alligator out of the egg.

Loring & Grayson hatching baby gators.

Helping baby alligators into the world.

The baby gator is still attached to its egg with an umbilical cord.

Enormous alligator skulls.

The owner of Gatorama holding a baby gator.

Alligators are a part of our environment in Southwest Florida.  There’s a lot of water around here.  We try to stay a healthy distance from them.  However, if you ever find yourself face-to-face with a gator on land, you can toss something to the side of its snout and it will go for whatever you tossed to it.  It might buy you a few seconds.

Come grow with us!

An Eight Legged Summer

This summer seems to be the summer of the spider in Florida.  Yes, the sunshine state is home to many, many species of spiders throughout the year, but they seem to be everywhere this summer.  My friends and family have noticed that I’m unusually obsessed with the eight legged critters lately.  My son has become equally enamoured.  We’ve spent a lot of time taking photos of them and researching them online and in books.

We have a regal jumping spider that hides inside her thick, cottony web on our gate and she is very perturbed with us. We know her hiding spot and check on her several times a day. These spiders are considered to have the best eyesight of all bugs.  We have one living in our mailbox too.  I think I know why they’re called jumping spiders… because they make me jump!

A Regal Jumping Spider that lives on our gate. Can you see her in her web?

The highly venomous black and brown widows have also made their homes all around our yard.  I admire them for a second and then I quickly squish them.  There’s not enough room for both of us for obvious reasons.  I’ve run across several of them in my garden and I don’t let them out of my sight for a second, not even to get my camera.  Their egg sacs are a tell-tale sign that they are close-by.  The eggs look like mine bombs… round, light-colored and spiky.

Widow spider egg sacs in our macadamia nut tree.

A spider that we are seeing in every square foot of our yard (not really, it just seems that way) is the beautiful and intimidating orbweaver.

The tropical orbweaver weaves her massive web every single evening at dusk and then removes her entire web every morning at dawn.  It took us awhile to figure out what she was doing.  Since Grayson and I milk the goats late at night, we’ve gotten used to the nocturnal critters, (especially the skunk that the dog keeps bothering).  We analyze the spiders every night and try to get as close as we can to get a good look.  It’s never comfortable though.  All it takes is a quick tap on the arm and a “watch out!” to send me to the moon.  Either I get Grayson or he gets me but it always ends with a scream.  I know he’s going to do it too and it still scares me.  I think we freak these poor spiders out way more than they freak us out.

A big, beautiful and nocturnal tropical orbweaver.

A tropical orbweaver in her nighttime web, right next to my car.

The garden orbweavers build their webs every morning and take them down for the night.  Isn’t that amazing?  As the female gets older, she gets bigger and scarier looking.  They’re colorful and big and build elaborate webs.  They are as intimidating as a spider can be, in my opinion.  However,  they are not venomous to people and are rarely known to bite.

A colorful garden orbweaver.

A garden orbweaver on the riverbank. She is one of hundreds along the bank.

I was wrong.  The Golden Silk Orbweaver is as intimidating as a spider can be.  They tend to have huge, golden bodies and long spindly legs with tufts of black bristles… yikes.  Every Floridian knows this spider well.  They’re very common here. They look like they would be terribly venomous, but they’re not (to people).  I’ve been told they will bite, but a wasp sting will cause you more pain.  Fortunately, I don’t have first-hand knowledge of this.  However, I have had them land on me many times when trail riding with my horses as a kid.  The spiders would always want off me fast.  The frantic screaming must have scared them away.

We have a golden silk orbweaver living outside our back door now.  I keep holding my camera up close to her so I can get a photo, but she starts to bounce up and down on her web when she sees me.  Sooo, there’s no photo.  These spiders are often referred to as the Florida banana spider as well.  I found a great website that has lots of Golden Silk orbweaver photos and great information about them… click here.  The site says they always have banana spiders throughout their barn in the summers.  On one particular summer, they took notice that every spider packed up and disappeared a week before a major hurricane hit.  This might be a good reason to keep them around.  If the spiders are too much to handle though, they can easily be relocated without touching them.  Tear down their web and they will rebuild it somewhere else.

For a really fun bug blog, check out The Bug Lady.  My favorite post is the one about the Brazilian Armadeira spider… it tries to kill you.  It is also referred to as a banana spider, but this species is the most venomous spider in the world.

I hope I didn’t give you the heebie-jeebies with this post.  We all live with spiders, even in the big cities.  If it makes you feel any better, Florida’s Fabulous Spiders says that bees and wasps kill more people in the U.S. every year than spiders and snakes combined kill in ten years.

A garden orbweaver spider in our garden with her dinner... a lizard!

Come grow with us!

 

A Child’s Perspective

My 4-H kid wanted to try his hand at photography this past year so I gave him a camera and let him go.  He was 9-years-old when he took these shots and I was super curious to see what his photos would show.  I schooled him a little on how to use the camera and what to look for when he was picking his subject.  I begged him to make his photos interesting.  The rest was entirely up to him.

Grayson taking his shots for his 4-H photography contest.

Grayson didn’t use all these photos in the contest.  He did win several first place awards with a few of them though and I wanted to share some of our favorites with you.  Here goes…

Florida cattle.

A Southwest Florida cowboy and his horse.

Resting Florida cowboys.

The photos are all from a child’s perspective, but I have to add commentary to them.  I can’t help myself.

The following photo looks like an environmental nightmare.  However, the plant has a Department of Environmental Protection office right on their property.  When the smoke gets thick, they immediately take action to lessen it.  It was particularly thick when Grayson shot this photo.  There was hardly any smoke (and a boring photo) just a few minutes later.   Southern Garden Citrus has 3 million orange trees that absorb 613,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.  They use predator insects for pest control and only use chemical methods on particular trees when necessary.  Their orange groves provide habitat for lots of wildlife such as fish, birds and deer… and too many wild hogs.  They don’t discard any part of the orange.  The pulp, skin and oil are all used for products.  Florida is the 2nd largest producer of oranges in the world, (Brazil is 1st, but it’s a fact that Florida oranges are juicier).

Southern Gardens orange juice plant. The third largest in the nation.

Organic Florida farm. The sugarcane is planted as a wind break.

Organic Florida farm truck.

I hesitated to post the following photo.  All political views and solutions aside, this is how the food gets to most tables.  We have to grow more food.  Most countries consume more than they produce. According to an agent at the University of Florida IFAS office, there is expected to be 30-50 billion people on the planet by 2050.  Food will become a scarce commodity.  Out of the 7 billion people on the planet, 1 billion of them are starving right now.  How do we keep up with the food production? It would be detrimental to the U.S. to rely on foreign food production.

Grayson’s perspective is that this guy gets to garden and get paid for it. (I think I need to have Grayson pull more weeds).   The dust in this field on the day Grayson took this photo was unbearable.

A very hard job.

Sugar cane fields behind the U.S. Sugar Corporation in South Florida.

A controlled fire in the sugarcane fields of Clewiston, Florida. Planting begins in late August.

Sugarcane can live, and is productive, for 4-5 years on good mulch soils before it is replanted.  In Florida, rice is grown in rotation with sugarcane.  51% of sugar comes from cane and 49% comes from sugar beet.  Sugarcane used to be sprayed with nasty chemicals several times a year to control a pest called the cane borer.  However, a small wasp (called Cotesia) was brought in and it kills the sugar cane borer.  So, sugarcane is not sprayed with chemicals for pests anymore.  They do spray a fungicide though.  They’re working on new varieties that will not be as susceptible to disease and will have increased production… probably genetically modified, which I am against.

Florida is the nation’s largest producer of sugarcane with over 400,000 acres.  Did you know the average American eats (or drinks) 67 pounds of sugar a year?  Florida is also the #1 producer of sweet corn, watermelon, bell peppers and snap beans.

Morning on the Caloosahatchee River.

This is our six-toed urban farm cat. He uses those paws like hands.

Grayson's honeybees coming home.

Our Labradoodle and LaMancha (paws and hoofs).... best friends.

Come grow with us!

Ylang-Ylang

We tend to gravitate toward growing edibles in our yard.  If we’re going to take the time and money to feed, water, protect, nurture and whisper sweet nothings to our trees and plants, then we’d like to get something in return.  Vitamins and other nutrients are the goal from our edibles, but we’ll settle for flavor sometimes.

Our ylang-ylang tree (Cananga odorata) doesn’t give us any edible delights, but this tree gets a free pass in our yard anytime.  It provides us with the most extraordinary and divine flowers we’ve ever known.  Just one cut flower in the center of our table makes the house smell better than any store-bought “smell-good” ever could.  My husband couldn’t believe how great the house smelled when he came home the other day.  It was aromatherapy at its finest.

A highly aromatic ylang-ylang flower.

I planted two small ylang-ylang trees in our yard about four years ago.  I knew I was taking a risk by trying to grow them in our zone because they’re so sensitive to frost, but I had to try. We’ve had some unusually cold winters in our zone 9b over the past few years and it kept damaging the young ylang-ylang trees.  I didn’t cover them or help protect them from the cold in any way.  The trees survived though and would recover from the cold and frost each year.  By the time our Florida rainy season would start in the summer, the trees looked like they’d never seen a cold day.  It seems like we waited forever for them to flower.  We were wondering if they ever would.

It was such a wonderful surprise this summer to find the trees full of flowers.  To stand under the tree is intoxicating and heavenly.  It was definitely worth the wait and our family is in complete agreement about that!

A medium sized ylang-ylang tree in our yard.

Picking a ylang-ylang flower.

A close-up of a ylang-ylang flower.

A young ylang-ylang flower developing on the branch.

A cluster of ylang-ylang flowers.

The flowers are hard to spot on the tree.

Ylang-ylang flowers in different stages of developement on the branch.

The kids enjoying the scent of a ylang-ylang flower.

Click on TopTropicals.com for a more on this special tree…  their site has a wealth of information.

Come grow with us!

The Kaffir Lime Tree

Every time someone new visits our yard, we take them straight to our kaffir lime tree (Citrus hystrix) to introduce them.  We find that most people have never heard of it.  However, those that are familiar with it absolutely love this fabulous tree.

This is one of our kaffir lime trees. It needs pruning. The butterflies love this tree.

The first thing I do is pick a leaf off the tree, crush it and stick it right up to our guests nose and say, “smell this”.  The reaction is always the same… oh wow!  We never fail to send our guests home with a freezer bag full of the fresh leaves.  They freeze perfectly for later use.  They can frequently be found in the freezer section of most Asian markets in the U.S.

The kaffir lime leaf has a unique shape and flavor. Citrusy and aromatic.

It’s tough to describe the flavor and smell of the kaffir because it is unique.  It’s very pleasing though.  Most people love it right off the bat.  Personally, I don’t think I could live without it in my life.  Okay, that might be a tad dramatic, but you get my drift.  It’s exquisite.

I have a kaffir lime tree growing in my front yard and in the back.  My kids love to grab a leaf as they walk by the tree, crunch it up in their hand and hold it for awhile.  Sometimes they’ll bring some leaves in the house to throw in their glass of water or lemonade.  I do cook with the leaves quite a bit too, especially in my coconut milk, lemongrass chicken and Thai curries.  The leaves are used to flavor and are not usually eaten.  For some more kaffir lime leaf recipe ideas, check out ThaiTable.com.

It is the leaf of this citrus tree that is generally used for culinary reasons, not the fruit.  We’ve started using the fruit recently though and now we wonder why we didn’t start using it sooner.  The fruit tastes exactly like the leaf but it’s very sour (a little bitter maybe).    We think the kaffir lime makes a wonderful drink and we even add the zest to the drink.  I like to add a little of the zest to my yerba mate too.  I’m sure there are thousands of ways to use this incredible flavor.  I will not be letting them fall off the tree to rot anymore.

Funny looking, bumpy, and very sour kaffir lime.

A kaffir lime cut in half.

The kaffir lime tree grows well in zones 9, 10 and 11.   It is susceptible to frost damage.  My trees have been through a couple very cold Florida winters recently and only had minimal damage.  They recovered quickly from their frost bite.

Check out LifesDandies.com for more information on finding a kaffir lime tree in Florida.

I haven’t grown a kaffir lime tree in a container for myself, but I’m certain the tree would do well if it was taken care of properly.  It would need to be fed during its growth cycle and shouldn’t be overwatered.  My favorite book on growing edible trees in containers is Growing Tasty Tropical Plants*in any home, anywhere… by Laurelynn G. Martin and Byron E. Martin.  I love this book for its pictures because it inspires me and gives me great ideas. The book gives some information on how to grow tropicals inside, but I think it could use a lot more.  It still remains one of my favorites.

A female Eastern Black Swallowtail on our kaffir lime tree.

Have I talked you into growing a kaffir lime tree for yourself?  I hope so.

Come grow with us!

A Garden Tea Party Fit for a Princess

We don’t usually need a reason to have a little tea party, but this was a birthday tea party for my 4-year-old.  She invited her friends over for a Princess Tea Party and asked them to wear their favorite princess dress.

A gazebo was set up in the garden and decorated with sheer Ikea curtains and adorned with flowers and butterflies.

Each chair had a slip cover and a handmade garland with ribbons and flowers for each girl to take home.

The Frog Prince waited patiently on the table for his true love.

A handmade flower chandelier with big butterflies around it hung over the table.

Another view of the flower chandelier.

The table setting was definitely fit for a group of princesses.

We made traditional tea sandwiches for the moms and the girls.

We made the girls sandwiches into a variety of shapes.

Cupcakes and cookies.

A colorful fruit salad with persimmon, oranges, blueberries and pomegranate.

Princess candies.

Tea cups for the moms.

Water with lemons and rose petals from the garden... no insecticides.

Princess tea cart... each girl took her tea set home as a gift, along with a bunch of other gifts!

Each little girl was given a paper bag and a bin full of craft items to decorate their bag.  They used their bag to carry home an assortment of gifts such as a snow globe with their picture in it, a purse and a little ceramic tea set.

... and the Princesses!

They were all treated like real princesses for an afternoon.

They played on the ship playground and did several party games.

... and GiGi worked tirelessly to make the fairytale party come true. That's her lighting the birthday candles.

My mom brought the gazebo over to our house, decorated the gazebo, made the chandelier, made a table out of plywood, set the table, brought a ton of extras and stayed up until the early morning hours to finish it all for the party.  Mom, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Come grow with us!

Glorious Gardens of Prospect Plantation

I’ve seen my share of beautiful places and scenic gardens around the world.  As my memory fades, I try to remember something in particular about the place to lock it into my memory so I can hold onto it as long as possible.   On a recent adventure through a gorgeous plantation in Jamaica, I realized my children would be holding onto their memories of this garden for a long time to come… especially the cow itch my 4-year-old got on her backside.  She was such a brave little trooper- it stings!  I’ll be sure to show that picture at her wedding.

We are so lucky to have a close friend that lives in a charming old cottage deep in the woods of Prospect Plantation, just outside Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  We spent a weekend with her and explored the historic area until our legs cramped up.  The respite from television, phone and internet was a deep breath of fresh air.  We made friends with snails, cicadas, mongoose, hummingbirds, camels… and probably a few duppies. 

The fairytale cottage we stayed in.

... sneak peek inside the cottage.

Exploring new paths .

Gardens on the plantation at Prospect, Ocho Rios.

Canna lilies. Grayson's photo.

A hummingbird nest.

... magnificent view down the hill.

Leaf imprints on concrete pavers.

A tree planted by Charlie Chaplin.

Antique grind stone.

Sweet, sweet kissing camels. Just look at those lovely lips!

This Jamaican land snail was lovingly nicknamed "Snaily". This critter had personality and was much more entertaining than T.V.

Smiling for the camera.

Cicadas everywhere! Their wings shimmer like gold in the sun.

Kids peeking around the corner at the old Prospect Chapel.

Grayson peeking around the same corner long before his sister was born. We've been here before.

Dancing in the flowers.

Making memories and enjoying every precious moment of it.

I’m ending this post with another favorite song because it’s just so appropriate…  Sweet Jamaica, by Tony Rebel. 

Come grow with us!

Vital Jamaican Roots

Vendors dot the sides of most Jamaican roads and they sell such wonderful treasures!  They sell all sorts of things, but they almost always include tropical fruits, handcrafted items, herbs, and drinks.  I love it when I see the rum bottles of all colors.  The rum is long gone, but the bottles are filled with fresh juices and tonics that are special recipes.   Fresh, Jamaican noni juice  is quite a popular one.  My favorite is the Jamaican roots tonic.

A Jamaican vendor selling colorful footballs and coconuts.

A roadside vendor in Kingston.

Pineapples, tonics and bananas for sale.

A typical Jamaican variety of sellable items.

The Jamaican root tonic is mysterious.  I have questioned so many people about it over the years and found that only a few of them know anything about the roots drink.  Most of the time, the answer I get is just an eyebrow lift and a giggle.  The reason is that roots are generally known for being a potent aphrodisiac (a Jamaican Viagra).  However, I recently learned there are many root tonics in Jamaica.  My new favorite is a concoction made by Ms. Bernice at the Ocho Rios market.  She gave me a tonic for all-over vitality and energy.   She openly shared her recipe with me and sent me home with all kinds of interesting herbs and roots.  My son and I visited her at the market late in the day on a Saturday so she was the only vendor left.  It ended up being our lucky day because she spent hours talking to us.  We learned so much from her.

Ms. Bernice holding up her roots tonic in a rum bottle.

Ms. Bernice's Roots & Tings

A vendor stand at the Ocho Rios market.

These are some of the Jamaican roots from Ms. Bernice's market stand.

Ms. Bernice handed me a big bag full of roots and explained each one to us.  I kept telling my 10-year-old son to help me remember.  We remember her giving us chaney root, sarsparilla root, breadnut root, nickel, dandelion root, kola-nut (which is a seed also called bissy), molasses, honey, Jamaican peppermint (savory) and … I think that’s it.  Ms. Bernice said to boil all the ingredients in a huge pot and let it simmer for a couple of hours.  Cool, strain and bottle.  Apparently the root tonic gets better as it ages and does not need to be refrigerated.  I haven’t made my own roots yet (and not sure I will).  I’ve been enjoying Ms. Bernice’s bottle.  She told me to drink it with a glass of ice and so I have.  However, I live by the motto “everything in moderation”.

Roots, rock ... reggae.

Jamaica is absolutely alive with folk medicine.  They are tuned in to the nature around them and continue with century-old customs and traditions.  Many of their ways probably need more study.  An in-depth book that I recommend on the topic is called Jamaican Folk Medicine:  A Source of Healing, by Arvilla Payne-Jackson and Mervyn Alleyne.  Some other great books are Healing Herbs of Jamaica by Ivelyn Harris (7th Generation Maroon Herbalist) and Bush Doctor by Sylvester Ayre.  These books are part of my home library and I refer to them often. 

This post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning  Uptown Top Ranking by Althea and Donna... it rocks!

Come grow with us!

 

 

 

 

 

Goats in Jamaica

I’ve taken a long break from posting to my blog.  It wasn’t intentional.  I always have so much information that I want to share.  I think it’s a bit like exercising … when you stop, it’s tough to get started again.

Our garden is thriving, but we tend to spend most of our free time with our goats these days.  We milk twice a day and it’s a family affair.

We have 6 goats now .  Funny how it all started with 2 baby Nigerian dwarfs.  We added 4 larger breeds and one of them is giving us a gallon of milk a day.  Our 2 baby Nigerian dwarfs are not babies anymore.  They’re both over a year old and should be having their own babies in about 120 days.  It’s all very exciting to us.  We won’t keep any of the babies though.  Our herd must stay small.  My children disagree.

A recent trip to Jamaica provided us with some great photos that I just can’t keep to myself.  The first set is a series of pictures that I took while driving from Kingston to the country (outside Ocho Rios).  Every time someone in the car spotted a goat, they yelled “g-o-a-t”!  I tried my best to get a decent picture.  The numerous potholes, rain, kamikaze drivers, roadside cliffs and other surprises on the Jamaican roads gave me less than a second to get a shot.   We were very interested in the breeds we would find in Jamaica.

Jamaicans love curried goat. I don't think they realize how great the milk is.

A herd of goats came charging out an open gate. They stopped before running into the road.

This group was on a very curvy road. We saw this same herd walking down the side of the road on our way back.

My friend watched a Jamaican goat look both ways and cross the street at a cross-walk the other day.

... outside a rum bar.

I missed the shot of the herd walking in a single line along the road ... and facing traffic! I caught these two resting.

More goats in traffic. We're just so amazed at how street smart they are.

A Jamaican buck enjoying his smorgasbord of greens.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a link to one of my family’s all-time favorite songs, “Ram Goat Liver”, by Pluto.

Come grow with us!

 

Milk, Milk, Baby!

I’ve been writing this blog post in my head for nearly a month. 

Let me start by saying that I love milk… really love it.  However, I’ve heard that it can cause mucous in the body.  I’ve also heard that it’s not really that great for people to drink it.  I own (and read) the book, Don’t Drink Your Milk, by Frank A. Oski, M.D.  and have followed the theory that the Chinese (and other Asians) have less health problems than westerners because they avoid dairy. 

Dairy Cows.

I’ve eliminated milk and milk products from my diet for months at a time and felt a noticeable improvement in my well-being.  However, in my world, this dietary sacrifice never lasted and I welcomed the milk back… with a smile.  I missed it too much, no matter how terrible the former Physician-in-Chief of John Hopkins Children’s Center says it is for me.

A cow udder.

A recent phone call from a friend rocked my world.  She said that retail cow’s milk from the grocery store can give a baby goat Johnes disease (pronounced ‘yo-nees’).  My reply was, “That’s ridiculous.  Retail cow’s milk is ultra-pasteurized and ultra-dead, everybody knows that”.  Oh… I was so wrong.

I researched Johne’s disease which opened a can of worms.  Pasteurization does not kill everything, nor does ultra-pasteurization.   

There is a common bacteria called mycobacterium paratuberculosis that can survive pasteurization.  It is believed to cause Crohn’s disease in people, especially young people.  The scientists and public health authorities know that the bacteria is associated with Crohn’s disease, but don’t have  evidence that it directly causes Crohn’s.  There are theories that genetic and/or environmental factors may also contribute to the development of Crohn’s, but it is unknown.  There are millions of people suffering worldwide from this disease and the number is growing exponentially.  I wonder why there is little effort to find out if the bacteria (mycobacterium paratuberculosis) that is present in our food supply is causing people to develop Crohn’s disease? It seems obvious that the bacteria is causing life-threatening illnesses in people and animals.  If it isn’t… then it should be ruled out. In fact, more research is desperately needed.  Fifty percent of Crohn’s disease patients are children and there is no cure.

The bacteria (mycobacterium paratuberculosis) is also found in meat, cheese and water that is being sold to the general public for consumption in the U.S. and Europe. Are we at risk from the bacteria?  That remains to be seen.

Most of my research implies that many dairies are unaware of Johne’s disease in their herds.  It is almost impossible to detect in young livestock and probably too late when they show the deadly symptoms.  There are ways to manage the disease, but none of them are easy.  It is a 1.5 billion a year problem for the cattle industry.  A  survey conducted in 2007 showed that 68% of U.S. dairy herds were infected with mycobacterium paratuberculosis.  I wonder what it has grown to now?

Delicious milk. This is goat milk, which is white. Cow milk has a slight yellow tinge.

It seems that Johne’s disease is becoming more common in goats in Florida.  I recently tested our milking doe and was relieved by the negative results, although I have babies that are still too young to test.

... till the cows come home.

Are you concerned?  Good.  We need to know these things and we cannot ever stop asking questions.  Do you think it’s a conspiracy theory? I’m okay with that. Check out this report from the American Academy of Microbiology.  They believe that if MAP is associated with human disease and is in the U.S. food supply, this will be a public health concern to rival that of TB in the early part of the 20th Century.

Are you wondering if I buy cow’s milk for my family?  The answer is no, not anymore. Our children are in 4-H and goats are their project. We feel blessed and the goats are  part of our family (must be why they call them “kids”).  Hmmm… so you can’t keep a goat on your patio… what to do, what to do? You do have options: rice milk, almond milk, soy milk (choose non-GMO), oat milk or coconut milk. 

Grayson milking a Nigerian dwarf goat.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America is hosting a webcast called, “Pediatric Crohn’s: Finding the Right Path to Care” on May 19th at 8:00 p.m.

Come grow with us!

Baby Quail

We walked into our home the other day and immediately heard chirping noises.  We followed the sound to our new incubator that was loaded with quail eggs.  Baby quail were hatching out of their eggs all at the same time.  What a sight that was!

That’s a hatching baby quail.

We should have taken all the little quail eggs (41 total) out of the egg turner and placed the eggs on the wire mesh inside the incubator a couple of days before they were expected to hatch.  I didn’t.  Everything turned out okay though because we were able to take the babies and the automatic egg turner out.  We put the rest of the un-hatched eggs on the wire mesh.  It would be sad and irresponsible if one of the babies got caught in the automatic egg turner after hatching.

Our “Little Giant” incubator from Tractor Supply.

Coturnix quail eggs are supposed to hatch in 17-18 days.  Ours hatched in exactly 20 days.  We kept adding eggs into the incubator so they’re 3 days apart.  We expect more to hatch today and tomorrow.  We already see a couple of the little eggs rocking back and forth in the incubator.  I put a colored dot on top of each egg with a sharpie to tell us which date the eggs went in.

Quail eggs in the incubator with the automatic egg turner taken out.

After the first set of quail hatched, we let them dry in the incubator for about 30 minutes.  Then we put them all into a bin lined with paper towels and a 100-watt bulb over them.  I put a thermometer in the bin to keep their temperature at 99 degrees.  Each week I’ll lower their temperature. I’ll change their bedding from the paper towels to something less slippery in a few days too.  I haven’t figured out what I’ll switch to yet.  For some more information on raising baby quail check out raisequail.com.

Baby quail in their bin. I don’t recommend the shell as a watering container. I took it out right away. They could easily drown in it.

Our quail  aren’t good parents.  I’ve read it’s from the captivity.  So, after having our 12 quail for over a year, we decided we should get an incubator and hatch them ourselves.  We purchased the incubator and the automatic egg turner  (goes inside the incubator), from Tractor Supply.  It came with a good instruction manual. 

Our experiment turned out to be a success.  The babies are so incredibly cute.  The best part is that we were able to watch them hatch out of their eggs.  We were all yelling, “oh my God” and “get the camera!”.  It made the incubator worth every penny.

They love being in our hand this way. It must make them feel safe. How cute is that?

Come grow with us!

Ultrasound for Kids

We have a Nigerian dwarf goat (named Honey) that a friend loaned us to use as a family milker.  Her milk is so rich and creamy that we find ourselves hiding it from each other in our fridge.  It’s 6% butterfat.  It has no goaty flavor and no smell… just delicious!  Grayson does all the milking himself, two times a day.  He’s learning some serious skillz.  Honey loves all the special attention and treats she gets from being milked.  Whenever she sees Grayson she jumps up on her milk stand and waits for him.

We were told there was a chance that Honey could be pregnant.  We decided to take her down to the Verandah Pet Hospital to find out with an ultrasound.  Dr. Piper is a small animal vet and doesn’t treat goats (ruminants).  He made an exception for us… for the kids.  Goats are considered livestock and treated by large animal veterinarians.  Dr. Piper can’t deny that it turned out to be a fun experience though.  The children loved it! 

Grayson walking Honey outside Verandah Pet Hospital.

Waiting for their ultrasound.

Loring and Dr. Piper discussing where the baby goats come from.

The ultrasound didn’t find any baby goats.  That’s the ultrasound machine in the background in the above photo.  If she were pregnant, the ultrasound  would find the babies on her left side under the rumen.  Oh well, maybe next time.  Now we can milk her longer. 

Here’s a link to a YouTube of an ultrasound being done on a goat.  It can be difficult to tell if a goat is pregnant.  This is a link from Fiasco Farms (my absolute favorite online site for goat information) for more information about goat pregnancy.

Dr. Smith works at Verandah Pet Hospital part time. Isn't she beautiful?

Come grow with us!

Catching a Swarm of Bees

I caught a swarm of bees a few days ago.  It’s strange, but I think the bees called me over to them somehow.  They beckoned me with their minds.  I was unloading my truck and decided to stop what I was doing to go look at our macadamia nut tree.  I walked around it and smelled the wonderful blooms on it.  Then I noticed something dark up in the tree… a cluster of honeybees.

Blooms on our macadamia nut tree.

A swarm of bees in our tree. They’re surrounding their queen.

I believe the swarm is from one of my other hives, but I’m not sure.  They probably outgrew their box and made themselves a new queen since their boxes are healthy and full of brood and honey.  They could have gathered a group together with a new queen and took off to find a new home.  I should have split the hive myself to prevent them from doing this because they were crowded, but I didn’t.  This beekeeping practice is called a split.  Honeybees will make pointy honeycomb on the bottom of the foundation in their boxes when they’ve made up their minds to leave.  These are called swarm cells.  A beekeeper can pull them off to deter the bees from leaving, but it doesn’t always work.  There are several methods of swarm prevention.

I didn’t have a box big enough to put the swarm in so I called a fellow beekeeper.  She gave me an empty bee box to put them in.  (Thanks, Penelope!) I threw on my beekeeping jacket with a veil and lit a smoker.  I held the box up with one hand under the swarm and cut the branch off with big garden sheers with the other hand.  This was tricky, but where there’s a will, there is a way.  The idea is to get the queen into the box so the bees will stay.  If the queen flies off, her swarm will go with her.  I was lucky that the swarm was on a low branch.

Penelope gave me a queen cage to put the queen in if I could catch her.  It would be set into the box between the foundation.  The toothpicks would help the cage stay between the foundation. There’s a little bit of marshmallow stuffed into the end.  The honeybees would eat through the marshmallow over a couple of days to let their queen out.  This process would up the odds that the honeybees would stay in their new box. 

A queen cage.

I couldn’t catch the queen.  I couldn’t even find her.  The bees started getting frustrated with me since I was taking so long so I just gently put the top on their box and walked away.  Within a few minutes, every single bee had made its way into the box.

Every one of these bees went into the box because their queen was in there.

It’s been a few days now and the honey bees are still in their box.  I opened them up and they’re making beautiful white comb.  My instincts tell me they’re not going anywhere and have found their new home. 

New home for honeybee swarm.

Soon I will re-queen them to keep them gentle.  This is an important step for beekeeping in Southwest Florida.  The practice of capturing a swarm of honeybees is not supported in Southwest Florida because we’re in Africanized honey bee territory.  I felt very comfortable catching my swarm though and I didn’t have a nervous bone in my body.  I really wanted that swarm.  Beekeepers develop emotional attachments to their honeybees.

The Beekeepers Association of Southwest Florida is holding another class for beginning beekeeping on June 17, 2011.  Click here for more information about them.  Click here for their blog.

Come grow with us!