mupitara

Do the river shrimps have a season?

I am not aware if the river shrimp have a season or not. If there is one, it is obviously not observed in the area.

Aisabe,
Papatara

Today was simply a continuation of yesterday. Same fresh brew at sun-up. Leftover piece of liver for breakfast (a bit dry, however). I followed that with another cup of coffee and a piece of bread with guayaba jam. Wow!

I picked today´s guayaba crop from our little tree. And, I came up with a little bit more fruit than yesterday. Kuka and I decided to go for another batch of guayaba jam while the harvest is at its peak.

I did make a few changes to the recipe. We used more lemons (six). And, we also added about six naranjillas. I figured that this would give the jam a bit more tartness. It did!

At mid-morning Kuka fixed me a glass of supa buña which is made from a slightly fermented mashed pijibaya. The mash is then mixed with water, strained, then sweetened to taste. A delicious native drink!

A young fellow showed up with a fresh tilapia (called kwirku or pigs by the miskitos).

Since we decided to make the jam, the lih mihta was put on hold till supper. Instead, Kuka prepared wari chicharonka (fried white-lipped peccary skins) over rice. It was simple, but, really outstanding fare!

Just after lunch the son of a lady who visited us yesterday and offered to sell us a young (live) guardatinaja came by. He sold us four pounds of guardatinaja meat. Kuka first checked it over to see if it was actually the young one from the previous day. It was not. As it turned out, the meat was fresh but entirely lacking marbling and quite tough. I was disappointed with this meal even though guardatinaja is usually one of my favorites.

We finished the jam by early afternoon and bottled seven quarts. Unfortunately, one of the jars broke during the sealing process. We may do another batch of jam tomorrow if things work out.

Our lih mihta got delayed once again until tomorrow. Kuka says that the flippers are still too tough. So, she´s going to cook them more and add the milk from two more coconuts for flavor!

Aisabe,
Papatara

Saturday turned out to be a day of rest from canning. Our little guayaba tree only produced about half of what it had produced on the previous two days.

I did eat lih mihta at mid-day. It was still a bit tough and dry, however. I´ll give it a go again tomorrow.

Drank my morning coffee with costeña tortillas (fried flour dough) with guayaba jam. Awesome!

Sunday produced a bumper crop of guayaba. After adding the harvest from Saturday, it was obvious that Kuka and I had plenty of work to do. We eventually ended up with 10 quarts of jam today!

Lih mihta was really delicious today!

We bought a bunch of pijibayas and prepared supa buña mash for tomorrow´s mid-morning brunch.

This afternoon I tried adding a spoonful of the guayaba jam to a cup of hot-brewed orange pekoe tea. I really liked it!

Tonight for a change of pace, I had Kuka add a can of green peas to our usual gallo pinto. I liked it. Everybody else ate theirs with no visual complaints!

We may get one more batch of jam on Tuesday before our tree and our brown sugar supply run out. Don´t know what to do for canning jars, though.

Aisabe,
Papatara

By combining yesterday´s guayaba crop with today´s, we managed to produce the largest batch of jam yet. Today we finished with 11 2/3 quarts!

We still have fruit on the tree. But, the brown sugar supply is pretty much gone. Besides, I plan to go to Managua for a few days.

Aisabe,
Papatara

Originally Posted by mupitara

We still have fruit on the tree. But, the brown sugar supply is pretty much gone. Besides, I plan to go to Managua for a few days.

Well, I thought that jam season for guayabas had ended with my trip to Managua. When I returned Wednesday evening, I commented that it was too bad that there weren´t quite enough ripe fruits left on our tree to bother with making another batch of jam. Kuka informed me that she had picked fruit the previous couple of days and had been reboiling them daily so we could produce a final batch.

Yesterday, I picked the remaining ripe fruits. We boiled them along with a few naranjuelas and lemons. We used the last four pounds of brown sugar plus an additional eight pounds of granulated sugar. We also added a cup of lemon juice that Kuka had acquired from friends on the river.

We ended up with eleven quarts of jam to end our season. Our total production was fifty quarts from one small tree in our yard!

On the bus ride to Rosita I discovered that there are thousands of guayaba trees which remain untouched during the harvest. Maybe next year we will buy bucketloads from the kids along the highway and cook guayaba jam in steel drums! ...Just a thought!

Aisabe,
Papatara