Saturdays are busy around here. Lilo, our neighbor and gardener rolls up the driveway on his motorbike about 7 am. Usually, M and I are drinking our coffee and invite Lilo up to the deck for a cup. We catch up on what's happening around the 'hood. Lilo is 1 of 9 brothers, who with their father Don Amado, own most of the land around us. Lilo and M discuss what the priorities of the day are for harvesting, planting, cutting or clearing. Then off they go to work.
Around 10:30 am, I concoct a smoothie from whatever fruits and veggies on hand. The first few weeks, the mixtures were rather traditional with pineapple, banana and papaya, along with fresh turmeric from the garden and store bought yoghurt. Then I started adding my homemade goat's milk yoghurt flavored with cinnamon. My experimentation with yoghurt making has had varied results. I let a 750 ml bottle of goat milk stand on the counter until it is room temperature, then I drop a couple of tablespoons of plain store bought yoghurt in the bottle. I let that stand at room temperature for about 24 hours. Sometimes the yoghurt thickens to a consistency of Kefir. A few times, it was just runny and lumpy. But everything tastes better mixed with ground cinnamon!
As plantains ripen to black, the interior fruit sweetens to a banana-like consistency. Chunks of sweetened ripe plantain makes the mixture very creamy and smooth. We usually have a bunch of ripened plantains, so I peel, chunk and toss into a ziplock bag, then freeze them. We've harvested 3 large bunches of plantains since our arrival and I'm learning all kinds of things to do with plantains.
One morning, I discovered that we were practically fruit-less. We did have a red beet, several carrots, and a couple of oranges. I threw those in the Vitamix with lots of fresh ginger, turmeric and the cinnamon flavored homemade yoghurt. The texture was a little gritty, but the flavor was great.
Lilo, M and I will sit on the deck and enjoy the cool breezes that sweep up from the Golfo while drinking our smoothies. Then, it is back to work. Around noon, M and I put on our hiking boots, don our hats and gather up our re-usable shopping bags, along with an empty liter bottle and an egg carton. It is time to go "shopping."
Every Saturday, Victor & Allian drive from the mountains with a truckload of fruits and vegetables. They drive to a couple of neighborhoods like ours and make home deliveries. They used to drive right up to our house, however, we have a very steep driveway and we thought it better that we meet them up at Roy's house. Roy and Jossiline always buy several items. It gives us a chance to chat with Roy and his kids: Kimberly, Brian and Sofia. And pet their 2 adorable dogs, Ponki & Siri.
Jorge who has a vibrant small finca next to Roy, comes over to buy oranges. Along with a myriad of other animals, Jorge has a very productive milk goat. She produces almost 5 liters a day! Every Saturday, Jorge fills up our empty liter bottle with fresh, raw goat milk. It is sweet with just a hint of grass flavor. We drink it with our tea and coffee. And have had great success in making goat cheese.
Along with the goat milk, Jorge gives us a dozen eggs each week. He has regular chickens that lay a medium size egg with a pale green shell. There are ducks, geese and even turkeys. I've only seen the turkey Tom one time. He is massive like a waddling medicine ball decorated with feathers. I had to hiss and stomp at him to get him to back off.
The duck eggs are huge and the yolks are a rich burnt orange. Just this week, he gave us these tiny, spotted eggs. He tells us the names of the breeds in Spanish. I have to ask a few times to understand and then I usually forget the word. Another gift from Jorge is Ronpopé. This is a combination of goat's milk, sweet grain, sugar and rum. It is the consistency of egg nog and is so tasty and smooth that I have to be careful not to drink the whole bottle at one go.
Once we've collected up all our goodies, we trundle a couple hundred meters down the driveway to our house.
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