What's Next?
May 29, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
I know this doesn't come as much of a surprise, but I haven't been all that on top of blogging these past several months. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what the next six months or so will bring here on TBL either. In a little over a week I'll be leaving to spend the rest of the pregnancy back in the states. And once our baby girl is born, it will probably be another 3ish months before she and I return to San Sal. It's kind daunting to think about being away from our home and Zipper for so long (Tom will join us for an extended stay in August), but given the circumstances it's also very exciting.
I guess what I'm saying is, there's probably going to be some serious down time on the site for a while... but stay tuned, because eventually This Bahamian (Baby's) Life will be back with a vengeance! It'll be more pictures of a baby on a beach than you can stand.
With that, I'd better get back to eating my okra. What's that? I haven't shared my favorite bit of Bahamian prenatal lore with you? You're probably familiar with the slimy, gooey texture of cooked okra. Well, a woman who eats plenty of okra during pregnancy will have a baby that slides/glides/shoots right out during labor. Sounds good to me!
The Three Amigos (or Stooges?)
April 25, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
Last week my parents and Aunt Jody came down for their spring break. Great weather and good times were enjoyed by all!
From the beginning, they seemed very happy to be here.
We did some hiking ...
... made the standard visit to the lighthouse ...
... and spent plenty of time relaxing at several of San Sal's finest beaches.
But of course, sometimes the beach is made for playing instead!
Humpty and Dumpty
March 19, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
I'll let you decide who's who...
Moment of Truth
March 16, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
The vegetable garden has been a bit of a disappointment this year. Actually, that's not enitrely true. The garden was awesome from about September through January. Plants were hearty and green, and we harvested beautiful arugula, broccoli, cucumbers, radishes, green beans, and hot peppers.
Then in January, forces began conspiring against the garden. First, there were the ravaging winds that beat everything down and stripped away much of the healthy greenness, especially for the tomatoes. We were still able to get a decent harvest from the tomatoes and bell peppers, but sadly not what it could have been. Second, a drought that continues through today began. To help conserve our water suppy, I've had to seriously cut back on the amount of watering I do. Obviously, not great for already wind-stressed plants. And third, I had morning sickness. Not going to get into the details, but let's just say it left me less than inspired to go out and dig in the dirt.
But despite those evil forces, a few things have persevered. There are green onions, strawberries, some Swiss chard, and a varity of herbs that are still hanging in there. And my two sickly-looking watermelon plants managed to produce one melon each! However, for anyone who has ever grown watermelons, you know that the tricky part is knowing when a melon is ripe. If you have a whole field full of them, you can just chop one open every so often to see how thy're coming along, but when you only have two watermelons, each is precious. I can tell you from past experience, slicing into a prized melon and finding it completely upripe (completely white throughout) is totally demoralizing.
So I've been babying my watermelons, checking for all the tell-tale signs of ripeness ... peeking at their undersides for a creamy golden patch (mine were green all over), gently thumping them for that distinctive ripe sound (difficult to distinguish if you don't really know what you're listening for), and carefully lifting them to see if they "feel heavier than they look". Finally, when the stem on the larger of the two started to brown, I decided to bite the bullet and pick it. But I was still so afraid of disappointment, I left it in the fridge for 3 days.
Then last night I finally worked up the courage to slice it open. Tom was the official photographer.
Here I am nervously thumping the melon one final time. Sounds ripe? Right??
Here goes!
Ooooooo ... is that a glimmer of color I spy?
It is! It's red!! Hooray!
Success. Sweet, succulent, drip-down-your-chin success.
No News is Good News
February 24, 2011 Posted by: ERIN
I know, I know ... posting has been a little light around here. I used to try to post at least once a week, but lately I've been happy if we manage once a month. Perhaps these things just have a natural ebb and flow, and it's best not to force them. Yeah, we'll go with that.
But seriously, we have been pretty busy. We had the January rush of winter-break groups, I took a trip to Baltimore, Tom's mom came for a visit, and I started a new position here at the field station.
Oh, and we found out we're expecting a baby in August. Surprise!
As you can imagine, we're pretty darn excited. I'll finally be a real Bahama Mama! The plan is to travel back and forth to Baltimore for my doctor's visits, and then for me to move there in early June and Tom to join us in August for the birth. (We'd like to thank my sister Meredith and her family in advance for generously opening their home to us!)
For now, I'll leave you with this cute picture of Tom and his mom taken during her visit last week. Thanks for coming, Lupe!
December Post, Just Under The Wire
December 31, 2010 Posted by: ERIN
Meredith, Joe, Louisa, and Celia came down to spend Christmas with us this year! In no particular order, here's how we spent our time together:
As you can see, it was a great visit. The night before they left, I told Louisa that I would be sad to see her go, but she said not to worry because Zipper would take care of me. (Insert heart melting here.) Those girls are so cute I can barely stand it!
Tom on Permaculture
November 9, 2010 Posted by: TOM
One of our many side projects has been to create gardens to help supply the cafeteria at the field station. This falls under some definition of "sustainability" (whatever that means now), with locally produced produce and all that good stuff. Erin does the nice and pretty gardens that you so often see here--she feeds the two of us throughout the year with her work AND is able to donate a significant amount of tomatoes, sweet peppers, arugula, and radishes to the cafeteria. She spends a great deal of time starting plants indoors from seed, weeding, setting up cages and trellises, mulching, watering, and planning what crops should be where and when, etc.
I've been taking a slightly different approach and try to maximize production while limiting my effort--although the guys who work with me have commented that I would probably kill anyone who messes with my bananas. At the moment I've got five or so "crops" going. In no particular order, here they are:
Bananas-My inspiration for growing bananas came from seeing them around the island and in Nassau growing in a variety of locations off of grey water. Water often is a very limited resource here (not as bad at the field station due to our catchment basin) and so it is important to minimize waste ("hey, that water you used to wash vegetables is perfectly suited for now watering my bananas!"). By the cafeteria I diverted the pipe from a "soak away" sink that is used primarily for rinsing off items (potatoes, carrots, lettuce, hands, etc.) to water an area where I planted bananas. I did a similar thing with the wash water from the linen room. Starting with about 12 banana suckers (each plant sends up a number of suckers to replace it; after each plant fruits it dies; you can cut off the suckers and plant them in new places), I now have around 30 plants in various stages of development. Most of the suckers came from friends and are of the same type of short, sweet banana, one of the suckers (which is spreading prolifically) we pulled from the "wild" and it has more plantain like bananas. I planted the suckers in February and six of them have already "shot" (i.e. flowered and now fruited, it takes about 3 months for them to ripen; it can take anywhere from 9 to 18 months for suckers to grow up and shoot). Throughout the year I mulch around the bananas, but for the most part I leave them be.
Papayas-I started growing papayas accidentally. We cleared an area that had been a tangle mess of bush, and before I had a chance to do much with the space papayas started to grow. We had some "wild" plants nearby, so my best guess is that birds spread the seeds. My first thought was to let them be and see what happens. Papayas are a pretty hardy crop, so they fit perfectly with my minimal effort style of growing. I have now become a bit more interested in the plants and have begun to practice a bit of "chop and drop" agriculture. I've read about this online while researching permaculture, the basic idea behind "chop and drop" is that plants contain most of what other plants need to grow, if you chop down the weeds and/or other plants around your crop of interest the best thing you can do is to leave them piled up around your crops where they can decay and fertilize. We've already had a few papayas from these plants, and while neither Erin or myself are big fans of papaya in general, it is quite nice to eat fresh fruit just off the tree.
Basil-Erin already grows quite a bit for her cooking and making of wonderful pestos, however, I wanted to make some available for the cafeteria. Outside one doorway I've built a stone raised bed garden for the kitchen staff to use. Inspired by a garden I saw at a hotel in Eleuthera I decided to plant some basil and let it continually self seed (often people will pinch off the flowers and prevent basil from going to seed; I decided to just let it go and have even helped disperse the seeds). From an initial plant which Erin gave me I now have several small plants going. I water and weed occasionally, but for the most part the plants are growing on their own.
Hot Peppers-I love hot peppers (Erin does NOT, though she does grow a variety for me) and the Bahamas is home to a number of its own varieties. For a number of years I've had some local hot peppers growing with mixed success. In the raised beds I built near the cafeteria I planted some seeds from one of my earlier plants along with some plants from one of the women in the cafeteria. One of the great things about hot peppers is that they actually grow for a number of years in the right climate (such as ours) and require minimal attention once they are going. They also look amazing when full of peppers in various stages of ripening from green to yellow to orange to red. Some of the plants have caught on nicely and just today I had a rather large harvest from two of the plants. In the past I've played around with making my own pepper sauce (something Tabascoian). I've started freezing my harvest and combined with some of the cayannes Erin grew for me last year, I intend to make a large batch of pepper sauce which I'll make available for all in the cafeteria.
Pigeon Peas-The pigeon pea is a great multipurpose crop. In the Bahamas pigeon peas are featured in the classic dish peas 'n rice. We buy a large number of pigeon peas annually for the cafeteria (peas 'n rice is on the menu), which seems silly given that they grow quite well on San Salvador. After a little research on the pigeon pea I learned that they are a useful crop for compost and mulch (they fix nitrogen), are quite tolerant of drought and poor soil, grow for three to five years, produce at least twice a year, and really require very little effort. Additionally. the peas can be stored for a long time once dry. Sounded like a great crop for me, plus apparently chickens love them-I have visions of raising my own egg laying chickens (Erin wants to as well, its just a matter now of finding the chickens). I knew that the step-father of one of the kitchen staff grew peas and so I asked her if I could get some seeds. She brought me quite a few the next day. I've since done my initial planting and have several pigeon peas growing (starting in September). Word on the street is they start slow and then grow very fast after a few months (must be the long tap root). I planted them in some areas of poor soil, with good sunlight and occasionally good water. I've also been mulching around them with more "chop and drop".
That's all for now, but I do have a few water/garden related schemes in the works, if all goes well I'll report on them in a few months time.
Cotton Flowers, Who Knew?
October 25, 2010 Posted by: ERIN
A couple days ago Tom and I were in a corner of the field station that I don't often frequent, and I was startled to come across these very pretty flowers. They're a deep pink when they first emerge from their bud, and then fade to a pale yellow, almost white as they open. Were they some kind of rose? Or hibiscus?? But then Tom pointed out that they're on the cotton plants that I have definitely seen before. Of course! I've admired the cotton many times during its "harvestable" phase, when it's heavy with little clumps of stringy, white fibers, but never when it was in flower. And I had no idea the blooms were so delightful.
I've heard that there are species of cotton that are native to this region, but there are also species that are artifacts of the Loyalist cotton plantations that existed in The Bahamas in the 1800s. I don't know which these plants are. There were plantations on San Sal, so who knows?
And just so you're aware, I went to great lengths to bring you these pictures. See that tiny guy hanging out on the flower?
While he was using the lovely cotton flowers to distract me, all his fire ant buddies were stealthily crawling up my feet and ankles. The lousy, little jerks got me good.
Yay, cotton flowers! Boo, fire ants!
Glossary of Bahamianisms That I Enjoy
October 22, 2010 Posted by: ERIN
Part of living in a foreign land is learning and incorporating the local vernacular. Here's a selection of terms we've picked up over the last few years ...
CARRY
Bahamian Definition: to bring with, to take; specifically in reference to transporting a person or thing by car
Example 1: I carried Tom to the airport so he could catch his flight.
Example 2: Will you carry these letters to the post office for me?
Personal Anecdote: The first time Alexis asked me to "carry her home" I was downright confused. The thought of me piggy-backing her a mile and a half down the road actually crossed my mind. Luckily, she just needed a ride.
MOMMY
BahaDef: informal term for mother
Example: Mommy made dinner last night.
Anecdote: Of course, this is also common in the U.S., but the thing that makes it stand out in the Bahamas is that people of ALL ages refer to their mother this way. It took me quite a while not to crack a smile when a tough, burly, grown man would talk about his "mommy".
TINGUM
BahaDef: thingy; used to refer to a thing or person whose name one cannot recall
Example: Hand me that tingum!
Anecdote: Tom really loves this word. He began using it immediately. He uses it even when he hasn't forgotten the name of what he's referring to.
GOOD NIGHT
BahaDef: expressing good wishes upon meeting during the evening
Example: Good night! It's so nice to see you. How are things?
Anecdote: The major difference here is that Bahamians say "good night" when greeting each other in the evening, not when parting. I really, really love this usage. I mean, we say "good morning" and "good afternoon" and "good evening" when greeting someone. So why not "good night"? It just seems classy. Tom laughs at me because I work it in whenever I can.
PEPPER
BahaDef: spicy, in reference to food
Example 1: This conch salad is too pepper for me.
Example 2: Tom likes his food on the pepper side.
Anecdote: The main things to remember here is that it's an adjective.
FRESH
BahaDef: bland, in reference to food; specifically used to describe a dish that needs salt
Example: Please pass the salt ... this sauce is fresh.
Anecdote: This is another one that really confused me at first. I didn't understand why someone would criticize food for being "fresh", when to me "fresh" food is a good thing. I've hypothosized that the usage comes from fresh water being the opposite of salt water. I'm a budding linguist, no?
JOKEY
BahaDef: silly, goofy, funny, or foolish in an over-the-top manner
Example: Jim Carey is so jokey in the Ace Ventura movies.
Anecdote: The teenagers throw this one around a lot. Where an American teen might declare something to be "lame", a Bahamian may describe it as "jokey". The tricky part is that is doesn't always mean silly in a bad, annoying, or embarassing way. Sometimes it can just mean ridiculously funny.
MONKEY FOOT
BahaDef: an exclamation expressing anger, surprise, or frustration
Example: Monkey foot!
Anecdote: This term is basically used to swear-but-not-swear, similar to "shoot" and "darn". I use it liberally.
HAIL
BahaDef: to greet; ranging from a drive-by honk or wave to stopping in for a sit-down chat
Example 1: I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd come by and hail you.
Example 2: Pedro didn't see me hailing him for the car as I drove by.
Anecdote: I saved my most favorite for last. I think I like it so much because it has that old-timey vibe. It's disrespectful not to hail someone you know when you see them. And there's a lot of hailing that goes on when cars pass each other on the road. Zipper runs into the bedroom to hail me every morning after he and Tom get back from their early morning walk. It's such a great word!
So to review, if someone were to say...
"Good night. If you're on your way to hail my mommy, would you carry this tingum to her? Monkey foot! I hope I didn't make it too pepper or fresh for her. And don't be jokey when you drop it off. She hates that."
... it could be translated as...
"Hey. If you're going to stop by my mom's house, would you bring her this soup? Shoot! I hope I didn't make it too spicy or bland for her. And don't try to be funny when you drop it off. She hates that."
Hail ya later!
New Growth in the Veggie Patch
October 18, 2010 Posted by: ERIN
