Crooked Tree
The month of May was an exciting time for Crooked Tree. The first week of May a Cashew Festival is celebrated by Crooked Tree Village. Before I came to Belize, I only new about the cashew nut, which I assumed grew on a tree like other nuts. However, a cashew has a fleshy fruit, and the nut hangs outside of the fruit.Belizeans also call it the "devil's fruit" because the raw shell contains a poisonous oil that causes skin irritation. Cashew belongs to the family Anacardiaceae, which includes Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac.
The ripe fruit or cashew apple is yellow to orange-red in color and can be eaten raw. Its surprisingly juicy and a bit tart. There are many ways to prepare cashew- cashew wine, cashew jam, stewed cashews, cashew syrup, cashew fudge, cashew nuts, cashew...
During May, Belize also experiences dry season, evident in Crooked Tree by the cracking mud flats surrounding the shrunken lagoon and vultures feeding on dead fish that have washed to shore (mostly tilapia, which are non-native to Belize). This caused quite a stir in the news.(News 5 story) Fish kill around Crooked Tree has residents concerned
When the lagoon shrinks the fish also become more concentrated, which attracts a large amount of wading birds. I joined a group of birding enthusiasts for a day at Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. The amount of Wood Storks flying overhead reminded me of a fall day in Minnesota with flocks of Canada Geese filling the morning sky. Scanning through the birds with our binoculars we saw Jabirus, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and many more. "Find me a Great Blue Heron," said the man who was compiling our trip list. It was like Where's Waldo except we couldn't be sure that the bird was even existed in our field of view. I was happy to spot it first.
When the lagoon shrinks the fish also become more concentrated, which attracts a large amount of wading birds. I joined a group of birding enthusiasts for a day at Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. The amount of Wood Storks flying overhead reminded me of a fall day in Minnesota with flocks of Canada Geese filling the morning sky. Scanning through the birds with our binoculars we saw Jabirus, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and many more. "Find me a Great Blue Heron," said the man who was compiling our trip list. It was like Where's Waldo except we couldn't be sure that the bird was even existed in our field of view. I was happy to spot it first.
2 comments:
It's really itchy when you touch the fruit! It's the same in India too, people use some oil on their hands when they harvest the fruits/Nuts
In the Indian culture, when the seeds are harvested, I believe the locals use some kind of oil, but yep, it will make you break out and then it's supposed to be horribly itchy - natures way of saying, well, hello there!
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