California 2 Puerto Rico

I was moving dirt around the property today and walked passed the starfruit tree we planted 16 months or so ago. To my surprise, there were a bunch of little baby starfruits! Stefan and I noticed that the star fruit tree had flowered about a month ago, but we wern’t expecting to get starfruits so soon. What a nice surprise!

Look! Little Starfruits!

A green starfruit and the pretty pink blossoms the trees produce:

I wasn’t really that into starfruit when I lived in California, because the only starfruit you could get were fairly flavorless. But, when you can pick a starfruit off of a tree when it’s bright yellow and ripe, it’s SO delicious. You can eat the skin and there are no seeds or core, so it’s kind of a pick n go fruit. The taste is sweet, but not too sweet and the texture is sort of like a cross between a pear and an apple.

Another big plus is that the starfruit tree is actually really pretty. It has bright green leaves and pretty little pink flowers when it blooms. I’m glad we planted it in the front yard :).

More cool stuff about starfruit (or carambola): Starfruit is consider to be a “superfruit” because it is high in vitamin C, rich in antioxidants, while being low in sugar, acids and sodium. It also makes a great garnish as it makes perfect little star shapes when cut in slices.

Today is December 24th, 2008. It is the day before christmas (christmas eve in 3 hours) and Summer and I are chilling at the house listening to holiday music and doing little odds and ends. After a full and thorough house cleaning yesterday, the Granite Company showed up two hours late to install the new marble top we had custom cut for our master bath!

The installation of the marble took the crew of 5 about 2 hours to complete. They certainly weren’t the cleanest crew (maybe it just seemed that way because the house was so clean before they got there), but they got the job done and Summer and I are one step closer to having the vanities and Jacuzzi tub section of the Master Bedroom complete! We’ll dedicate an entire post to some photos.

I spent two hours this morning weed eating and hacking down weeds, bushes and small trees with the machete that harbor Pica Pica come winter time. I worked in and out of the downpours.

The weather outside is beautiful, but probably not to a tourist that is down visiting for a week. It is 79 degrees, the wind is gusting to around 15 mph and the rain squalls are moving through ever hour or so. We planted two Mango trees, two Canepa trees, 3 king palms and an avocado tree this week (in addition to the 10 or so citrus trees we planted last week) and they are all LOVING the rain. Historically, this time of the year is dry, but the last three weeks have brought us many afternoon showers and late night downpours.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Summer and I have been on a domestic tare lately. We’ve been cooking dinner and having leftovers at the house at least 5 days/nights a week. To change up our new ‘routine’ we decided to do some baking (as you can see by our christmas cookies).

I came up with the idea of making some home made bread so we researched a few recipes on line and I was off to the grocery store to buy supplies. I never knew that bread had so few ingredients.

We preheated the oven and added the yeast to warm water to resuscitate it and then mixed up our dough. We let it rise for about 30 minutes and then popped it in the oven. A few minutes later we had a delicious loaf of home made whole wheat bread. It was much denser than most bread but it was delicious. I am gonna try this same recipe again, but this time I am going to add a few nuts and cranberries…I’ll let you know how it turns out.

In the spirit of the Holiday, I put on our Christmas Tree bib like a cape and ran around the house like a mad man (it could have been the eggnog too).

I stopped for just a moment to point where I was going to hang some lights and Summer snapped a photo. My holiday alter ego is and will be in every Christmas themed post we make this year. Have fun looking!

Oh, then I went to the North Pole to be a tour guide of Santas village. Here’s a picture of me in action. You could probably use this picture of me to base your search of Where’s Stefan?

It could be just me (doubtful), but I loose control of myself when it comes to tasty snacks like homemade cupcakes, cake and CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!! Summer and I baked up some Christmas cookies this week. We didn’t get all fancy with generation old cookie recipes, we simply Googled Sugar Cookie Recipe and chose the one that looked best to us.

We borrowed a mixer from Mark and Robin, and then I went back to borrow cookie cutters and a rolling pin. This baking thing is all new to us. Summer made up the dough, then we rolled it out, cut the cookies and baked them for about 10 minutes.

While they were cooling off, Summer made different color icings and organized or decorating supplies. Once they were cool enough, we spread the icing and decorated the cookies all Christmas like. It was fun.

I don’t think I actually ate a meal the next day, I just snacked on the cookies until they were gone! By dinner time, I felt horrible! You gotta love the holiday season.

‘Tis the season, but it’s a far stretch from the Holiday weather all of my family and friends that are still in the North East are experiencing. Christmas in Puerto Rico would come and go without any one noticing if it weren’t for the invention of the calendar. There isn’t snow and it isn’t the least bit cold. In place of chestnuts roasting you smell mini-doughnuts on your way into the grocery store and the only smoke you smell is from a neighbor burning a pile of leaves, certainly not from a fire place. Man, I love this place.

Anywho….

I mentioned that I bought a Christmas tree from a refrigerator at Sam’s Club in Mayaguez. We unwrapped it the next night, put it in the stand that Summer bought at K-Mart (last one) and decided we should wait a day to trim it. Ya know, give the tree a chance to settle in it’s new home. Well, after about 15 minutes, Summer, Brian and I were decorating the tree with ornaments and lights. It’s so hard to wait. The pine smell was blowing through the house, Christmas music was playing (actually, it was reggae) and we decided to go for it!

Summer and I have been super busy these past two weeks with work, surfing and home projects. We have so much to update you guys on, it is going to take multiple posts. I have taken a bunch of pictures and will update the site today…want a sneak preview? Here’s what we have going on:

• Track Lighting in Living Room with Dimmers
• Track Lighting in Master Bedroom with Dimmers
• Marble Measured out for Master Bath (delivery and installation this Monday)
• Removed my office fan/light and added recessed lighting over my desk
• Over cabinet and work lighting added to kitchen and valences for the cabinets
• Fan/Light replaced out in upstairs guest bedroom
• All fans in house thoroughly cleaned
• Christmas Tree Trimmed and GLOWING!
• Shelves in hallway closet (not finished yet)
• King Palms that we transplanted from under the mango tree planted
• 9 Citrus Tree’s planted in our ‘future orchard’
• Sinks ordered and arrived for master bath (www.faucet.com)
• Garden Crop Rotation: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Lettuce, Basis, Cilantro, Bell Peppers)
• Upstairs interior doors purchased (I need to return these for doors that are only 80” tall, these are 84” tall which puts them about 2 inches bigger than the door jams)

I told you we have been busy. All the electrical work was done by our friend Brian from Florida. He took a vacation from being a paid electrician in Florida to be an unpaid electrician in Puerto Rico. He is such a machine…he dialed us in. I can’t tell you how much of a difference it is to have great lighting/dimmers in the house.

It’s official, Summer and I are tree huggers. We are spending the majority of our house work every week working in the yard on our garden, fighting back the Jungle (I have the upper hand for the first time since we moved in) and figuring out the layout of our land. If you don’t believe me, click on our Landscape Category and follow our landscaping efforts since day one!

On Saturday, we drove out to Mayaguez looking for new vessel sinks for the master bathroom and to find a lumber yard called H. Keller that sells Teak, Mahogany and other types of termite proof hardwoods. After 3 unsuccessful stops at random bath stores and finding H. Keller closed, Summer and I headed over to the Nursery in Cabo Rojo where I bought our first round of trees. Our goal, buy more fruit trees to fill in the side and back yard where I have gained control of the jungle and pica pica.

After Googling many of the plant names (in Spanish) to figure out exactly what we were getting/looking at, we chose eighteen (18) new baby trees to add to our property. They averaged out to be about $8 each (grafted fruit trees) but we did buy one expensive tree for $35, a Magnolia Tree. Summer was really excited when she found it (I had to do a Google image search to see what they look like mature) so we added it to our plant wagon (I love that they give you a Radio Flyer type wagon to fill up with plants while walking around the nursery) and filled up the backseat of the car with our agricultural addition to our family to save it from the 60mph wind the back of the pick-up would experience on the way home.

When we got home, we had just enough time to unload the truck to our backyard, set up the plants for watering and start day dreaming about how much food our property will be producing in five (5) years.

Here is a shot of our Saturday plant score:

Assorted grafted fruit trees and a Magnolia Tree

Directions to Cabo Rojo Nursery

If you would like to find the nursery, it might be a little tough if you’ve never been there before. It actually took us a couple of wrong turns before I found it and I’ve been there before! Here are some map screenshots for you to help you find your way. If you click on the photo, an enlarged version will pop up. I would advise finding it on Google Maps using our photos as a stepping stone.