Lemons in Belize

Citrus fruits are a major export of Belize and many varieties are farmed on  commercial scale for juicing, pulping, and shipping.   But, oddly enough,  not lemons.  It is very difficult to get lemons in Belize and they are a treasure to be prized when you come across them.  Imagine my pleasure in getting some lemons from Chris and Sue at White Rock Farm when we got all that lovely cheese. The lemons were small, juicy, and thin-skinned - and should be perfect for making Persian salt-preserved lemons.  Sue told me it was very easy to do and to just look up a recipe on line.  So that is what Becki and I did.

The results of our efforts - two pints of preserved lemons and some lemons to spare.

All you have to do is scrub the lemons, cut them into quarters that remain joined at the base, rub coarse salt into the cut surfaces, and cram them into canning jars so that their juice fills the space between the lemons.  No sterilizing, or heating, or cooking - just clean lemons plus salt pressed into a jar.  The hard part is waiting the 3 to 4 weeks before they are ready use in your Mediterranean and Middle Eastern recipes.

Yoga at Ray Caye

Friday had a slightly more relaxed start - breakfast became brunch as we eased our way into the day.  I made an omelette with eggs we had picked up the day before at White Rock Farm, owned by our friends Chris and Sue.  They have quite an enterprise at their farm these days - chickens, ducks, geese, Guinea fowl, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, all kinds of fruit trees and vegetables.  They make delicious cheeses from their milk herds and from cow's milk they get from their Mennonite neighbors.  We stopped at the farm, which is on the Hummingbird Highway just south of Belmopan, to pick up our pre-ordered selection of cheeses, cured meat, bangers, marmalade, rum butter, lemons, and eggs.

multi-hued chicken eggs

We finished up all the fruit left over from the previous day's breakfast along with the omelette, toasted English muffins, rum butter, marmalade, accompanied by Belize grown coffee.

Then we headed up to the Ray Caye dock, a 35 minute boat ride from our dock.  Our transport to Ray Caye was on the boat pictured below.

"Our DevOcean"

The trip to Ray Caye was a little more than an hour going at 25 knots per hour.  Another health check upon arrival and then the welcoming rum punch.

Becki already looks relaxed in this beautiful, stress-free place.

The wind started picking up, so we were not able to have our pre- and post-dinner yoga sessions on the platform over the sea.

The slide into the sea.

Solar panels cover the dock walkway.

We had our session in the breezy yoga studio.  The class was only 15 people this time instead of 19, so there was more room to spread out.

Waiting for the first session to start.

We had 2 sessions the first day, 4 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday morning before we departed.  That left a good chunk of Saturday open for a boating/snorkel trip.