Tortoise and the Bear and Other Rainy Day Stories

Only in Puerto Rico...is every day like living in a movie. I have seen cows in pick-ups, goats, roosters in the front seats of cars, horses and owners full speed on the main highway, horses without owners on the highway, milk cows in trucks, cars stuffed with cut grass, meat cows attached to tow balls on vans on the main highway (2) going 5mph at night...but today it was goats, horses, and then a flatbed truck with a BEAR and a TORTOISE heading to the zoo I assume. Couldn't really photograph the scene since I was driving...

Since it was going to be rainy all day I figured I'd make a food run to all-the-places-I-could-think-of-in-the-west that might have some of the ingredients I need to make "raw" recipes. First stop was Naturo Centro in Mayaguez, then the Ann Wigmore center in Aquada (hopefully for a spiral slicer - nope), Superfoods in Rincon and home. This was a few hours since I got caught in Aguada in the middle of a funeral procession - cars with speakers on top blasting out crap and a parade style car decked out in flowers - they do death kind of over-the-top here. Sometimes wailing people walking in the streets behind...  Back to the food. I found nutritional yeast and Sriracha hot sauce...

Raw cashews (should have gotten more since they will be gone in 2 recipes), two kinds of dates...

liquid smoke that you add to young coconut and dehydrate to make a crispy bacon like texture, oat grouts and carob powder, silken tofu (for desserts and sauces - can't eat too much soy though), and seaweeds for rolls and crunchy stuff.

Other goodies for cooked stuff (don't think we will go all raw) - corn pasta and sun dried tomatoes and green chiles!

I got back and it was cold and windy and rainy. The cats were huddled together and stinky - I just washed all the cushion covers and their beds yesterday during the hot morning hours... Rip was snoozing on his own.

6 of them took over the couch...

Tuca picked the basket...

Princess takes a stretch...

The house is like frickin Dr. Doolittle's with chickens all over. 3 of them have babies trailing around. There are 4 roosters (about 3 too many).

This hen has been sitting on in a ridiculous spot that became a waterfall and is due any time now. More babies if they really hatch.

When the rain let up I discovered more coconuts while I did a quick yard tour. Gifts from above that I now need to process - 3 more to add to the pile.

The pile gets bigger and bigger and I really need to crack them open, food process them and dehydrate them.

While I was sleeping the Pitaya bloomed again - and the one a few miles away in the trees had spent blooms on them as well.

It was raining so hard last night I didn't check so I didn't get to see the flowers.

I did a quick-peek harvest of parcha, a papaya, guineos (bananas), mangos (the "good" ones aren't ripe yet), and a few carambola. I know what I'll be doing tonight and tomorrow. I'll dehydrate stuff tomorrow if there is sun and make purees tonight.

The sky was very very black.

Then the mail guy called with a couple packages! One I was expecting and the other a total surprise! I got an early birthday package!!! With my very favorite only-chocolate-that-matters kind of chocolate bars - World Market Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt. Enough bars to give me a heart attack. Also our favorite rice noodles...and a book Jeff has been listening to on tape (I much prefer reading but then again I am not in the car 3 hours a day) called Blind Descent which is about caving of course. Glad we canceled the cave trip scheduled for today!

The other package was caving stuff! I can not find women's size 6 work boots here. I took a risk and ordered a couple different kinds (one expensive and the other less expensive) hoping one would fit at least and I lucked out and they both fit! Currently I am down to one pair since the sole separated on the other pair and won't even work taped up! Panic set in since I can't go caving without good boots! I haven't wanted to use my only boots in the yard! The other thing is neoprene pants that fit really well and will be perfect for caving but probably won't last. They are only 1.5mm which means they will get torn up pretty easily. The nice thing is that they have a drawstring waist, are form fitting, provide a little padding and warmth. In caves stuff falls down when it gets heavy and wet and muddy, things get torn up easily and it is easy to get cold in wet caves. I wear a 2mm full wetsuit usually which keeps me cleaner (it is one piece), is flexible and gives padding but sometimes the pants will be nice if the cave isn't very wet. Looks like Jeff ordered another dry bag which we really needed.

Well, that's enough procrastinating....I've got fruit to process before I go out tomorrow and REALLY harvest things!

While Jeff Visits his Family in Atlanta his Other family Carries On

Sometimes Stripes just needs time to himself. He sleeps on top of the scuba shed.

He can relax and zonk out away from the others.

Ever since Bepo was attacked by whoever it was she hasn't really roamed much farther than this...the balcony with quick access into the house. Pollo is keeping her company.

I am always afraid she (or some of the others) will roll off and it is a long drop.

When we drive up in the car or truck there are usually many little faces looking down on us.

So...who is this new orange and white one? Don't know. Chicken and Blanco were both on the driveway lounging with it so I guess it isn't a problem cat.

Rip took over Bepo's chair and was in a deep sleep before I nudged him awake.

Princess likes to sit near me at night.

Mini is pretty anti-social and hates the new little guy. Bitch.

Red eye didn't work in this photo. He can't resist the camera strap!

I was cleaning the bookshelf (everything is moldy) and Tuca decided the ladder gave her "hand" as they say on Seinfeld.

Rip LOVES the strap and won't sit still. He still has his wild baby teeth and has another month before we can get him neutered.

Mars was stuck in the same log Blanco was stuck in when she was little. She has grown up ok.

An intruder cat pushed in the screen here and our cats have made it in to a pilates studio pulling themselves along with their outstretched paws. I put reinforcing mesh to help keep out bugs until we can replace things. Chicken is taking a break after a good workout.

Rip is just loving that strap!

Blanco is quite stately (kind of funky with the red-eye thing though).

While I was in St. Croix he apparently got bitten or something, had an abscess, tore it open with his claw and when I got home half his face was hanging off and Jeff says he just noticed it. I took him to the vet in the morning and got it cleaned up, got antibiotics and just finished up the last ones yesterday. It is healing nicely but was very scary looking.

Tuca taking a snooze in the blue cat pillow. Sometimes 2 or 3 of them pile in there.

The face of an angel!

My first "raw" meal was a Wild Rice salad. The rice isn't cooked, just soaked for a day or so. Fresh corn, tomatoes, culantro, garlic, sea salt and a touch of olive oil. Food has a lot more flavor when you don't cook it. I am very excited to be trying to not cook! Raw food is perfect for this climate and we'll see how it goes! The recipe is Ani Phyo's. Check out her website!

The Best Thing About St. Croix (besides new friends) - Raw Food!!!!!

As a reader of this blog you have heard me whine about food quite a bit - especially the lack of choices here in Puerto Rico. I have never been a big fan of meat, especially beef, and beef is the only decent meat here. All other meats (unless it is frozen chicken breasts) have bones and tendons and sinew and skin and tattoos and other gross things attached. Fresh fish? Nope. So going to St. Croix was an opportunity to have a few more choices than Puerto Rico although having been there before I was not expecting much. I was, however, elated to find a Raw/Live Vegetarian Food Restaurant called Lalita! This was a true find and I had a juice drink there one day and had two dinners there which were both superb. I had met a couple local vegetarian people at the airport (one was the nice gal distributing the free rum samples) and they had told me about it.

One of the appetizers was a "pizza." First I have to add a little about "raw" food. Raw food is not cooked. They use a lot of nut pastes made by soaking nuts and macerating them in the food processor and they make a lot of cookies and "baked" goods by dehydrating components that are held together by sugars (agave nectar, honey etc). I think some things at this restaurant were cooked - the bread and tortillas used for sandwiches and maybe this wafer for the pizza? When I suggested the restaurant the people I suggested it to were great sports...but didn't realize it was a raw food restaurant, they thought it was just vegetarian! One of the guys, "Kellog" (his code name) was a little disappointed when I told him his lasagna wouldn't have melted cheese and noodles! He was a great sport and ate there AGAIN, and then AGAIN when his wife joined him on the last day of class! So this "pizza" had a wonton-like crust with basil pesto, Parmesan cheese, tomato, spices and bell pepper puree. It was alright but not my favorite of our choices.

Another thing we tried was the Pad Thai. Since rice noodles are only soaked it counts as raw I suppose but I don't even care about raw or cooked really. I was ecstatic to have yummy, flavorful, and beautiful food! This is the most excited I have been about food in a long time! The white ribbon on top is made of young coconut meat - something we have LOTS of in the yard. The baby greens and reds are things I want to grow hydroponically and I don't know what the sauce was but I figure it is fish sauce, hot peppers, sugar, lime juice and other typical Thai spices.

CJ ordered the watermelon gazpacho which was really yummy and beautiful. There was mango, watermelon, tomato, onion, cilantro and I don't know what else but very flavorful.

I had the beet ravioli. They used a mandolin I suppose to slice the beets. I don't know if they were raw or not - maybe they were tender because of the thinness? Inside was a cashew paste and the sauces were pureed bell pepper. There was pistachio dust on top. Very tasty.

Greg had this spinach soup that had Dr. Seuss-like swirls of pureed bell pepper. Very tasty flavorings.

This is the lasagna and side salad. The "noodles" are shaved zucchini and there was corn, ricotta, some kind of green (spinach?), sun dried tomatoes and other stuff. Kind of a deconstructed lasagna really.

Another appetizer we had were these rolls that had seaweed, avocado, carrot, other veggies and instead of rice - grated jicama! I love the crunch of jicama! Like I said, this was the most excited I have been about food in a long time. For dessert we shared a few things - mango cheesecake, a silky chocolate torte that was killer (very very rich), cookies-n-cream (non dairy non-soy ice cream and a broken up cookie (dehydrated nuts, sugars, and other stuff). All were amazingly delicious!

Besides the raw place I went with Ricardo and Stephen to a sushi sashimi place called Dashi. It was very good and had some nice combinations besides the normal yellow tail (can't get enough of it) and smoked eel (gotta have it). It was Ricardo's first time eating sushi/sashimi and he enjoyed it with only a teeny tiny bit of wasabi.  So I managed to corrupt a few people and get them to try new things with great success. Now I am super excited about getting a raw food cookbook so I can start trying to eat like this at least once a week. I know I can get nuts here and possibly some of the other main ingredients. Instead of growing veggies with fish I will probably go hydroponic and look forward to designing a covered area for that and possibly a few special chickens?

Aquaponics/St. Croix Trip

The aquaponics course was on St. Croix - the island Jeff and I almost (and thankfully didn't) moved to. This is the first time I had been "off-island" in 2 1/2 years and I was ready for a short change of routine. I stayed at the dorm and was fortunate to not have a roommate and to have a room that had screened windows on both ends for ventilation. Because of that I could turn the fan off at night and still have a little breeze! I didn't rent a car since I figured it would just sit there from 9-5. I planned to join other people in taxis which we were misguidedly told were around $20. They didn't tell us that was PER PERSON for a jaunt into town. There was a cheaper option - the public system - that worked great for $2.50 but didn't go everywhere and didn't operate after dark (you know, when you need it after dinner in town) I was super lucky to have joined up with a really great group of people for the week - they were fun, smart, like-minded and also didn't really need to spend all day listening to someone read to us all day. We decided to ditch out of a few of the lectures that were about things we already knew about or things we were not going to do (biofloc). CJ had a car and rounded up a nice little group of folks (me included) to go off on island excursions. The first thing on most peoples' minds was the beach! The beaches and diving are really nice on St. Croix. Puerto Rico has some nice beaches and others that are ok but St. Croix beaches are cleaner and whiter. Diving in St. Croix is wonderful also, but the weather was a little rough the whole week so diving was a no go.

The beach trips involved playing in the water, drinking drinks and going to Turtles Deli for lunch. When Jeff and I visited 6 years ago our favorite place was Turtles because of the great sandwiches and nice little beach. The beaches are all on the Fredriksted end of the island where it is mainly beach bars. We ate at a place that I thought would be crappy but turned out to be pretty good - I had pork wontons with a really good ginger tamarind sauce and we shared other stuff too. CJ wanted to drive around the island so we did that for a bit and it made me homesick - the roads are just like our jungle roads. We even went down a road that only one car would fit on and encountered a burned out car - just like home - time to back it up and out and end the little trip on the back roads! The water was clear and you could see turtle grass, reef and turquoise water.

On the other end of the island the water was quite rough and as it turns out, our trip to Buck Island as the class finale had to be cancelled (and they had no alternative). I arranged an alternative activity that I'll blog about later.

I don't know if you could get to this beach and I definitely don't think I'd swim in this area but it was really pretty.

Back in Fredriksted for a couple nights we were there a guy was bringing his horses out into the water for a bath. They would get out and roll in the sand just like dogs do...feet up in the air with a head toss!

We visited Pt Udall and the monument there.

Another day we went to the Arboretum. I always enjoy arboretums because it gives me ideas for the one I am making on our property. It was really fun to know what most of the stuff was and to be able to point out highly scented flowers or odd fruits. This sausage tree is one I don't have but it is high on cool factor with the odd, prehistoric fruits hanging off it. Then we came across a cannonball tree which we do have in the yard.

The cannonball tree flowers smell really nice and are almost orchid-like. The girls did a jewelry run into Christiansted - CJ got a bracelet and a nice ring and I got a hurricane ring (Sonjas). Erika picked up some things for her son. The girls only trip was fun and started off with a fresh fruit drink. I had cacao and banana and almond and spiralena looked tasty too. It was really nice to be somewhere else for a week (somewhere that was still warm and slow). It was really nice to have intelligent conversations in English with people interested in the same things. In Puerto Rico I know enough Spanish to follow along but can't formulate specifics about permaculture or general philosophies about food and living because I don't know the words nor do I have much human contact (except weekends when we are diving and/or caving with folks who speak both spanish and english). I had a sore throat the whole week. It reconfirmed how lucky we are to have ended up in Puerto Rico instead of St. Croix. St Croix had lots of smokers and drinkers and if you are there for more than a week it would be excruciatingly boring. In Puerto Rico most of the smokers are tourists (we know where to avoid going), there are tons of outdoor lakes, hikes, caves, mangroves, waterfalls, forests etc to explore. Work is hard to find but compared to St. Croix is a lot more likely. Puerto Rico also has good tasting water. Water was horrible and scarce in St. Croix so I actually bought a couple gallons. I have to say that St. Croix food options were much improved over our previous trip or I am used to eating such awful crap that marginal food seemed wonderful! The overall assessment though was that it was a nice trip full of very interesting people and conversations. If you are planning a Carribean vacation though skip St. Croix, only go to Puerto Rico if you know someone there (they don't understand tourism and even for locals doing basic things is difficult).