After a long hot dry season, the rains have finally come and it didn’t take long for everything to green back up again. The weather is very nice with the temps ranging from around 90º down to 75º. For the most part, we have had cloud cover for the past few weeks with a rain shower every other day or so. The rains only last for less than an hour and that’s just perfect for all the plants and the garden. The rainy season (now until November) is a great time to visit Belize. Yes, there might be some rain, but everything is at its greenest. Usually the rains are overnight and will not slow you down or stop you from doing anything, unless of course there’s a big storm coming in.

With the first rains of the season come the annual floodfly invasion. After the first good rain when the dry season is over the termites take to the air looking to set up new colonies. They will usually start around dusk and gather towards a light source. There are millions of them and they leave wings behind everywhere. This year when they first started, we were sitting in the garage having a cold beer when they hit. We shut the garage and headed to the house to shut the doors and turn off any lights we had on. Kelley ended up making dinner with a flashlight that night and that really helped to slow them down from getting in the house. The next morning the porch and inside the garage were covered in wings. You just about have to use a vacuum or a water hose to clean them as a broom will just make the wings airborne. We will keep finding wings around here till the end of the year. Hopefully, this was the one big invasion and it won’t happen again till next year. Well, it happened again the next week, so lots more wings to clean up.

We recently planted some bush beans and yellow squash. Last time we planted beans the birds came and ate all the seedlings and I had to replant them three times. I saw Ruben had some old fertilizer bags on a stick down on our farm lot to help scare away the birds. So I thought I would give that a try. I put a bag on a stick and sliced the bottom into two inch strips so it could blow in the breeze, a little spray paint for a face and I had a very basic scarecrow. I assume it’s working because we have only lost a few seedlings and the rest are getting too big for the birds.

I have mentioned before about all the health benefits you get from moringa. Usually, we will dry the leaves from our tree and then they will get added to soups and other foods. We have eaten the seeds before after they were dried, but this time we tried them a little differently. We picked the seed pods when they were green, about 18″ long and then Kelley cut them into 4″ pieces. After that, she sautéed them in oil and seasoning. You eat them like you would an edamame, by scraping the seeds out in your mouth. They seem to have a flavor of asparagus or artichoke. There are a ton of health benefits you get from moringa, in fact, it is called the miracle tree. They sell moringa supplements everywhere, check them out, it might just be what you are looking for. Or you can come on down here and try some fresh for yourself.

With the rains we have been having the past few weeks everything is growing like crazy. Our star fruit tree is a shade of purple because of all the blossoms. The cocoa trees are blossomed out like never before and our dragonfruit is blooming like crazy. It should be a great year for dragonfruit and we can’t wait, because they are one of our favorite things from the garden.

Ruben brought down a small sampling of stuff that was ready from our farm lot. The green chilies didn’t do as well as they did last year, but there are still quite a few on the plants. The rest of the corn will be ready next week and there could be at least a thousand ears or more. He also had a few different types of melon plants that are doing well. The Roma tomatoes are definitely the star of the crop this year. All his plants are getting huge and are loaded with tomatoes. I know that we will be freezing a bunch of corn and canning tomatoes in the near future.

Not too long ago we planted some okra and they are producing well. In the past, we have planted rows and rows of okra and that was way too much, so this time we only planted a dozen or so plants. Every other day Kelley is picking a small handful which is just perfect for us. One of my favorite ways to eat it is breaded and fried. Kelley will coat them in cornmeal and some homemade cayenne pepper sauce, then individually freeze them on a cookie sheet. That way we can pull out just what we need and throw them in the fryer.

The other night we invited Amanda over and cooked up something a little different. Amanda brought over some bone marrow that we roasted on the grill and then spread it on some toasted sourdough bread. Kelley also fried up some okra and rocky mountain oysters to go along with it. This was the first time for Amanda having rocky mountain oysters and she was a little hesitant at first, but I think she really liked them. If you have never had roasted bone marrow spread on some toasted sourdough bread, you’re really missing out.

With the rains and cooler weather there are a lot more critters moving around. Kelley saw a bright green three foot long iguana next to the BBQ, but didn’t have a camera with her. Plus there are a lot of interesting insects around right now. The other day I saw this guy sitting on one of our plants. He caught my eye because he was about five inches long. He waited for me to go get a camera before he “Haha” buggered off.

Then this one here was on the garage and it looked like someone painted some yellow dots on him. We are constantly seeing insects that we have never seen before and some of them are really colorful and beautiful.

We finally got around to recoating the porch. After a lot of pressure washing and a couple days of sanding, it was as good as it was going to get. I managed to get two good coats on it in between the rain showers. The whole house needs it, but it isn’t as bad as the porch. They told us that the house would need to be recoated every 2-3 years. It has now been six years, where the hell did time go?

From now until October is a great time to visit Belize. Most of the tourists are gone, lobster season is open, the weather is mild and a lot of places offer off-season discounts. Sure you might encounter a little rain, but then again maybe not. Plus come this August, Jim Dalton, Nick Scropos and The Jons with other special guests will bring their great music down to Belize. Once again the shows will be in San Pedro out on Ambergris. This year there are three or four great shows including Jim’s legendary Baracho Sunday, which is always a great time. Picture yourself taking a morning swim in the warm Caribbean waters, eating lobster for lunch, hitting a few beach bars for happy hour and then finishing the day off with some great music. It doesn’t get any better than that, maybe we’ll see you there.