Carmeta’s Corner
This space was created to discuss and exchange ideas about promoting good nutrition, food security and related matters – Blogmaster
This space was created to discuss and exchange ideas about promoting good nutrition, food security and related matters – Blogmaster
Stop packing so many birds in one coop! You torture the birds and don’t expect them to die?
My cousin reduces the number of birds she keeps in the coop during the hot season.
Another cousin of mine spent a short time working for a large chicken farmer. Short because he could not stomach what he saw. When he told me what he saw, I stopped buying their chicken. I now buy from my other cousin ONLY. She raises chickens in a humane manner. I also buy her eggs only.
Chickens should at least enjoy the short life they have.
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@Dame Bajan
They should all come to Canada
++++++++++++++++
There are good farmers and there are bad/indifferent farmers, even in Canada. I would not give a blanket pass to farmers in Canada that employ migrant foreign workers. Several years ago, I also visited a farm with migrant workers and I was appalled at their living conditions and more recently farm workers were complaining that they couldn’t get time off to be tested for COVID at the height of the crisis where farm labourers were among those that perished from COVID
It seems as if nothing has changed since my last visit.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/migrant-farm-workers-housing-conditions-new-report-1.6060423
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https://www.nationnews.com/2021/09/20/met-office-monitoring-two-systems-202109201931151836/
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo.php?basin=atlc&fdays=5
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@Sarge
This is the first I have heard of this. That report is chilling. In Southern Ontario you have large factory farms. In Eastern Ontario, where I am, we have small family owned and run farms. They supply the Farm Boys, sell at the farm gate and have stalls around the City. They also have pick your own and that is how I met the Jamaicans with the car and blasting reggae music. I went to pick strawberries and they were weeding the raspberries at that time.
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Well yesterday I arvested my sweet potatoes. I started these slips froma Honduran potato. Was surprised by the harvest. Some of these critters are huge like you get at home and we only have four months. I am going to weigh some and see if some are two pounds.
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Use agro-tech for food security, region told – Use agro-tech for food security, region told:
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/10/07/use-agro-tech-for-food-security-region-told/
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It wont hurt Jamaica much. When I go to the markets there I don’t see imported fruits and vegetables. They even export ground provision, mangoes, ackees, cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, june plums, an assortment of island drinks, etc. They make their own cheese which you can buy in Canada too.
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Source: Nation
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@Dame Bajans
The sweet potato harvest is very good too. Some indeed near 2 pounds. We started harvesting last week
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Progress.
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/10/22/mobile-facilities-agricultural-workers/
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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Jamaica can now export pineapples to Barbados
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/11/03/jamaica-can-now-export-pineapples-barbados/
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That’s good! But we can grow some here as well.
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Another foolish question I have – why do Bajans buy pigeon peas? I have four trees that require no real attention and I need help picking the peas. A bumble bees just whizzed past my ear and chased me inside. I will try again later.
I will soon make a list of things the country Bajan should not buy.
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Donna, I grow the short pigeon peas up here, The yield is not huge and I have to start them in the house in February. I find they like poor and rocky soil. I plant 3 peas to a hole.
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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I’ve grated the pumpkin, sweet potato and coconut. I’ve bought the cornflour, butter and raisins. I have some sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg on hand. The banana leaves are ready.
So whether November 30th is Independence Day or Republic Day, for me it will be as usual conkie making day. Shall I make 50, 100, 150, 200? Who knows.
And “no” I won’t put eggs or milk in my conkies. To do such is an abomination.
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@David
Is there something missing from this story? Yuh can’t steal 15,000 lbs of watermelon with a knapsack, the thieves must have been armed with a truck or two and that would mean they would be easily detectable if people cared.
Here’s the genius Herbie Hancock explaining how he arrived at the seminal hit “Watermelon Man”
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@Sargeant
There is a racket, known to all and sundry.
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If you know they use the moonlight you should set up watch on the moonlight nights when your crop is about ready. You don’t have any fellow farmers who would watch with you?
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Got some much needed rain yesterday and the day before.
Plants looking good now.
Bought a small greenhouse to grow seedlings. Numerous different seeds hatched almost immediately and looking like they came from a plant nursery.
I am more determined to buy a bigger one now for the troublesome plants.
Next project is the drip irrigation system.
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I brought up last years pumpkins. I had four left. I cut one last night and had some with breadfruit, cassava, brussel sprouts and bok choi all cooked in some ham water which I boiled in the morning. It was not dried out and was still sweet. Today, I will be grating it for conkies tomorrow. The coconut and leaves are in the freezer as well as the butter. when I move my ass, I will be going downstairs and bringing them up to thaw. Don’t know how many I will make. Depend on how good the banana leaves are. If any mixture left over, I will stick it in a pan, bake it and call it corn pone.
I made lo mai gai last week, so my two steamers are upstairs already. That is chinese sticky rice, stuffed with chicken, sausage, bacon, salted duck’ s egg yolk, wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed for two hours. Retirement is so much fun. All the time on your hands in winter when there is no gardening to spend in the kitchen.
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@Dame
You made cookies this year?
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“Next project is the drip irrigation system.”
Good idea, you can use the rain water from your tanks.
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@David;
I make conkies every year. I will be making mine tomorrow. I make for my son, my little sister and my Chinese friend. I give two to the lady down the street who looks after the place when I am travelling and two to a Scottish friend down the other end of the street. If I am in a good mood, I give two to a Guyanese friend who is a ‘boss liar’ but have a good heart. (I try not to judge but I never repeat anything she tells me.)
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Good stuff Bajan. A reminder a conkie is not a conkie without raisins.
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An hour ago I took my grated pumpkin, coconut and sweet potato from the freezer. I should have taken them out last night but after going to the fireworks at Checker Hall I was too tired/too sleepy and forgot. I will begin making them in a hour or so. Will give Little Susie and the grands who are here right now a conkie making lesson.
Yes. I will add raisins to about half of them. The grands don’t like raisins, but I do.
P.S. A cousin grew the pumpkin, I grew the sweet potatoes, a friend grew the coconut. Since I typically make them only about once per year I CHOOSE to grate by hand.
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@Dame Bajans November 29, 2021 11:48 AM “Retirement is so much fun. ”
I second that.
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Making some fishcakes for the youth now, then conkies, so see wunna tonight.
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I my closest friends sell all the Barbadian delicacies including local juices and I tend to support them. Every time I intend to make my own somebody asks, “The usual?”
This year I’m already booked to purchase Christmas lunch as well with all the traditional goodies except jug jug. I think I’ll try making that.
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I finished making my conkies this afternoon. made a batch this morning, went for a shingles shot and came back and made the second batch. Boy they tasted so good. Had one when they were still hot. Delicious. My friend came by and I gave him one with his beer, he loved it so much he asked for and took home three.
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If I am hosting the family I have my Xmas dinner catered by one of the major hotels. It is no fun cooking all day, labouring over hot stove and hotter oven then to lose your appetite and be so tired you dont enjoy the evening. Dont tell them to bring something. One will bring a salad, another a sheet of pone and another some sorrel, leaving me all the hardwork.
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This is sacrilegious during difficult times, perpetuated by a civilized society.
Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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A few weeks ago I had a showdown with a neighbour who has a vicious dog and another slightly more sensible dog behind a flimsy fence that makes many people afraid to pass.
He quite rightly said that he was within the law and pointed out that his dogs were behind a fence and were also licenced. I pointed out that the issue was the flimsiness of the fence.
Whenever you pass one dog in particular races up to the fence which is just a couple of metres from the road, barking ferociously as though he would love to tear you for threads. The other dog joins in but not as ferociously. I usually walk with my son’s martial arts bamboo. Still, my heart skips a beat whenever I pass and I always check for lifting of the fence. So far the lift is not enough for the huge dog to get under. He is apparently not smart enough to dig under the fence as some dogs do.
That afternoon I grew frustrated and after checking the fence, I decided to stand in the road and let the dog bark himself to death. And so it was that after 20 minutes time, within which the dog’s non-stop barking had cause him great distress the owner ran outside telling ME that if I had caused his dog to bark himself to death then I would have had to replace his EXPENSIVE dog.
So apparently, he has the absolute right to keep a vicious dog behind a flimsy fence once it is on his property but I, a taxpayer, had no right to simply stand in the street outside his house.
He, a boy half my age, and a recent addition to the neighbourhood felt that he had the right to tell me that I come AT HIM to “tease” his dog and should go back where I came from. Where I came from is a place that a good cricketer could probably hit with a cricket ball!
So… when I informed him of my rights and that I was sorry the dog was still standing, he thought it smart to threaten to let the dogs out and pay “the few hundred dollars” in fines for the expected attack.
Of course the Mad Woman looked for a nice flat and easy to grip but heavy rock and instructed him that she was ready.
Eventually he relented, shut to RH up, said he en business wid me nuh more and took his dogs to tie them in the back.
My parting shot was, ” You did last what you should have done first. And futhermore he should take the few hundred dollars he was expecting to pay for my mauling and pay to train the dog to let passersby pass in peace and to install a better fence.
Many dog owners in Barbados are not responsible and the laws are not strict enough to make them so.
P.S. The medium sized friendly puppy who strayed unto my property remains unlicenced because I could get no answer at the Six Rds Polyclinic and now my father tells me that payments are only being accepted at BLACK ROCK.
I am not paying a taxi $140 to Black Rock and back to pay the Government $5 for a dog I saved from the street.
Madness!
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Blue economy brown.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/12/23/fish-a-rarity-this-season-fisherfolk-say/
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I buy dolphin from Costco in Toronto. ( imported from Ecuador )
https://cfi-la.org/en/experiences/1/mahi-mahi
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@Hants.
Me too. I bought it last week @ $17.99 for a kilo. Had some tonight and have a steak for breakfast tomorrow.
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Merry Christmas to all the people who visit this corner. Watch the calories today. Moderation, moderation, moderation.
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Oopppss!!! too late. But today I spent a couple of hours in the field working it off and will do so again on Wednesday and Friday.
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Source: Nation
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Future agriculture in Barbados could include greenhouses if cultivable land is not available.
https://www.greenhousecanada.com/greenhouses-can-grow-lettuce-and-generate-solar-power-study/
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Blasted fools! That is why I grow my own. There is not a day that I don’t reap a few different vegetables. And it’s not even that hard.
But one does not even need land to grow crops. Technology for agriculture is amazing these days.
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I have been planting cassava and yellow sweet potatoes. We are still getting a little rain, mostly at nights or foreday morning.
Still harvesting sweet potatoes, and peppers 4 different kinds, two hot and two sweet. Peppers seem to prefer the slightly cooler weather. The avocados are all gone. I picked the last few on December 19 just in time to add to the Christmas table. I will shortly have the tree trimmed before it starts to flower again in the northern spring.
The neighbors are as usual being very kind. Over the past few days I have received gifts of mangoes, paw-paw, breadfruit and both green and yellow bananas.
Life sweet.
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Source: Nation
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I guess every little bit helps.
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Started some goji berries last week and they are all up. Will soak some sorrel seeds later this week and start them indoors. So far, I have not been successful in harvesting any but I will continue trying.
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One pigeon pea has burst through and one sorrel as well. come May I want to see them one foot tall to transplant.
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Keep up the good work Dame Bajans
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Source: Nation
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Nice rain today. Heavy for the month of February. 2inches at Harrison Point. ! inch at the airport.
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My tiny seedlings sure appreciated that rain. My good soil drainage ensured that they were not flooded. Everybody has shot up in the air in the course of just a couple of hours and turned an amazing shade of green.
What is it about water straight from the sky?
I will never cease to be amazed by its effect.
Got my barrels full too but that does not seem to work nearly as well. I guess it’s like chilled Banks beer from the bottle as opposed to in a beer mug with ice. One hits the spot better than the other.
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Everything in the herb garden chives, parsley, leaf garlic, sweet basil, rosemary, spinach appreciating the rain.
Will take a look at the root crops, peppers and pumpkins on Monday.
I still have dried and frozen cassava left from last season. Okras, sweet potatoes and yams too. A few pork chops from a neighboring farmer too.
But not nearly enough to take me through a war.
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Free breadfruits so plentiful right now that I can’t keep up even if I eat breadfruit every day.
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Source: Nation
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Good to see you ladies are humming along with your gardens. I have some slips about 6 inches and rooting. Will do later this week. Have started three types of tomatoes this weekend, should be up in two weeks. Bajan spinach slow, slow, slow. Two more pigeon peas are up and my pimento pepper from last year is putting out new leaves. I sold ten curry plants to Indians last week and made $200. I gave my Indian friend 11 plants last summer as I did not have enough sunny windows to raise them all through the winter. I told her to give them to her friends, but knowing her, she probably sold them. I gave her the smallest and weakest of course.
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@Cuhdear Bajan February 26, 2022 6:23 PM “Will take a look at the root crops, peppers and pumpkins on Monday.”
The root crops doing fine except that the monkeys have pulled up a few plantings of cassava.
Only 3 pumpkins because this is not really pumpkin season, but those 3 are doing fine. I was worried about the birds, both domestic and wild pecking them, worried about the monkeys too, so I tied an onion bag ($1. each) around each pumpkin and that seems to be deterring the pests. And it looks as though I can recycle the bags if the sun and rain does not deteriorate them over the next few weeks. The peppers have responded to the recent rains by putting out plenty of new blossoms. So things are mostly good this week. I got 2 hours of exercise, fresh air and sunshine this morning. That’s good too.
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Source: Nation
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It is about time they got rid of some of those monkeys. They can export them to St. Kitts where they eat them.
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Or they can give every monkey loving visitor a free male/female pair to take home with them.
If visitors love the monkeys so much they should be all gone to their happy, loving new homes by year end.
And our farmers can live happy ever after.
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@Dame+Bajans March 4, 2022 3:48 PM “They can export them to St. Kitts where they eat them.”
Probably not advisable to eat a primate.. It is believed that HIV crossed over from other primates to us.
And we dealing with Covid, which is also believed to be a zoonotic.
Maybe we can shoot the male monkeys with darts filled with a medicine which makes them impotent.
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@Cuhdear
Maybe we can shoot the male monkeys with darts filled with a medicine which makes them impotent.
++++++++
Trust you to go to the extreme and deprive the poor monkeys of any enjoyment since we apply humanlike traits (anthropomorphism) to some animals. Why not some product to make them sterile as is done with some species? Sometime ago I read that some laboratory in Canada used to import monkeys from Barbados via Air Canada for product testing until an animal welfare outfit heard of it and threatened to boycott AC if it continued the practice. AC no longer transport monkeys to Canada.
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I think that it was Connaught labs in Downsview.
But honestly the monkeys are competing with farmers for food, and it is just not cute anymore. If the monkeys were “back home” hyenas, leopards, tigers, lions and other big cats would be a natural population control.
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In the absence of natural predators
We the people have to be the predators.
And of course predators kill.
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Health Canada used to have a basement at Tunneys Pasture filled with monkeys that they used for testing and experiments. Dont know if it still exists. the Canadian bloke who owns the wildlife reserve used to sell them as I understand it.
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my seedlings are coming along nicely. placed some under the grow lamp. planted about ten bajan spinach seeds and seven are up. will have to give some away. still have spinach in the freezer from last year’s crop.
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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This morning while watching a nutrition show the guest (in Costa Rica) produced a cashew like the ones we grew up with and it reminded me that I haven’t seen one of them in years, along with “fat porks” those were the exotic fruits of our youth.
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@Sargeant
These fruits are still around, people trek to East Coast to pick although they don’t seem as plentiful. You can add sea grapes as well.
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My Rasta hawker located at lower Swan Street sells all those local fruits. There used to be a cashew and fat pork walk on Springfield land in Cattlewash. One year I tried going up the cart road to get some and was met with a ton of new houses, some with pools and the road blocked. I tried the sea side but the ground is sandy and I kept slipping down. Last time I checked it was all bush up the sea side.
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The best places to shop for local fruit and vegetables used to be from hawkers on Roebuck street, Swan street and James street. Also Eagle Hall / Harbour roadcorner.
You all know you can drive throught the eastern parishes and ask where you can buy local fruit.
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Last time I was home I picked fat porks at the park at Silver Sands beach.
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Found pests on my potato slips and some tomatoes yesterday. Had to run for the neem oil and make a spray. I also found some white flies on the basil. Woe am I.
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White flies on basil???? Nothing bothers my basil.
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This is indoors. I brought it in last fall. The white fly is a small jumping insect the size of a grain of sand. The aphids are eating the tender leaves at the tops of the plants. I already had a problem with gnats. I think the white flies spread from the tulsi (Hindu Holy basil). I have been selling plants for $5 on Facebook marketplace. The Hindus use it in their religious ceremonies. I sold two yesterday.
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Transplanted my bajan spinach seedlings today. Baked the potting soil first to kill any pest eggs or dormant pests. Dont want anymore infestations.
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Planted yams this morning, And it rained all day. Still raining.
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Picked my first asparagus yesterday. Wow!
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It appears that my organic pest repellant is working. Cucumber and cabbage leaves attack halted. Gotta order some more.
Finally got some full-sized sweet peppers to grow. I believe I was overwatering. Finally got some full-sized pomegranates. Plenty of sweet mangoes on my tree. Sour sops too. Reaping celery, tomatoes, eggplants, hot peppers, broad leaf thyme, parsley, kale, okras, basil, chives, garlic chives, bunching onions, spinach. watercress and lemongrass.
Beets, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, sugar baby, cantalope, honey dew melons coming on nicely. So too cassava, dill and beans.
Sweet potatoes just planted. Radishes and turnips too. Pumpkins and squash as well. And chinese cabbage. Corn in need of help. I should have researched. They need deep watering.
I have finally conquered oregano. Straight into the soil, no pampering in a seed tray.
Coriander, thyme, marjoram, onions, zucchini, ginger, turmeric still to be conquered.
The pineapple did not produce. Special medium seems necessary.
Broccoli and cauliflower need cooler weather. No sense planting them now.
Plenty of beets and pigeon peas in the freezer still.
Good food easy so!
It is only commercial farming that is hard. Not kitchen gardens.
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Forgot the sage.
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The birds and I have come up with a system. They peck the high ones that I cannot reach and I pick the low ones. When the high ones drop I leave them on the ground for an hour or two for them to finish off. When they stop eating I put the remnants in the composter.
Due to our agreement, my sweet peppers and tomatoes remain untouched. As soon as the rains come in I will plant even more spinach so that there will be plenty of the seeds for the birds to enjoy after the mangoes are gone.
I have given many mangoes and this morning my lazy ass finally decided to do my own mango drink thereby reducing both my grocery bill and Barbados’ food inport bill by just a little.
Due to our agreement, my sweet peppers and tomatoes remain untouched.
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Mangoes was the topic. Delete last sentence. Worked hard last night and this morning. Excuse the errors and omissions.
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“The birds and I have come up with a system. They peck the high ones that I cannot reach and I pick the low ones.”
You could hire me as a scarecrow and pay me with mangos.
——x——
Letter from America
Mangos can cost as much as $2.00 each and though they may look good on the surface, but when you cut them the inside can be ugly and nasty. I am wondering where my grocer buy mangos from.
Avocados are the same. They look good when you cut them open, but if you leave them exposed to the air for some time they not only turn brown but start to develop something like strings.
They say “you can never go back” but I am hoping that I can go back to the time where I can suck on a mango and not cut it open and examine it first or eat and avocado and not wonder what it turns to after I ate it.
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They say “you can never go back”. I am hoping that I can go back to the time where I can suck on a mango and not have cut it open and examine it first or I can eat an avocado and not wonder what it turns into after I ate it.
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We had hurricane weather this weekend. Thank goodness I waited to plant most of my stuff. All I have in so far are thyme, parsley, coriander, celery, bok choi and english potatoes. I planted my peas and three kinds of beans but they are not up yet so no damage. Caught a rat by the compostors. Found the burrow and flooded both ends, nothing came out. Spoke to the neighbor and she caught one, so could be the partner. Put paper in the holes last night and it was still there this morning but they could have another ‘house’ in the vicinity. Wil set the traps again tonight. City says to remove bird feeders ( joke). But I have stopped adding compost for the time being. My neighbour also caught the raccoon I saw in my yard. Will plant the ginger shoots tomorrow and my spinach.
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@ Dame+Bajans,
Glad to hear you surived the “derecho”.
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Hants, I was out of power until 7 yesterday morning. My friend got his back this morning at three am. There are still 200,000 in the city without power. 700 hydro poles down. Two trees on my street, a large maple toppled over from the roots and across the street my Chinese friend’s was struck by lightning and had another branch snapped. The city is a mess, lots of the traffic lights are still out and people are not treating the intersections as four way stops. People on septics and wells are in worse condition. The gas stations ran out of gas yesterday and you could not get a bag of ice anywhere in the city.
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Well, my pumpkins, brussel sprouts, zuccinis and cucumbers are in. My okras, sweet potatoes, beans, bok choi and mustard greens are in. I am halfway there.
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Planted some more sweet potatoes today.
Planted some okras too. Will plant some more tomorrow, because I had to run inside from a short sharp shower.
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@TheOGazerts May 20, 2022 5:45 PM “They say “you can never go back”. I am hoping that I can go back to the time where I can suck on a mango and not have cut it open and examine it first.”
This is the time of year that you have to beg your relatives, friends and neighbors NOT to give you any more delicious tree ripened mangoes. Just working my way through a set of Julies that a neighbor gave me on Saturday. Another good thing about mango season is that the monkeys are enjoying the mangoes too so they are leaving the other food crops alone.I mean who wants to dig and eat a muddy sweet potato or carrot when so many ripe delicious mangoes are right there.
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