Here are two of the students watching some yeast hydrate. Much of the wine currently made here is made using standard bread yeast, as it is the only type of yeast easily available in Jamaica. To help make better, consistent wine, I hope to import cheap but specialized yeast strains for better wine, like the ones we are using here.
Here I am with food prep student Damian. We're topping off a batch of banana wine, adding some cool water so the mixture will not be so hot as to kill the yeast (below 104 degrees). Little things like this are just simple instructions to follow, but I've been finding the students are getting increasingly curious as to the reasons behind this and other small aspects of winemaking. I do my best to answer as many questions as I can, and will be reading some more to help myself understand the microbiology and chemistry of winemaking, but frequently I am forced to answer "well, I don't know, but we can go online right now and find out!" I think even this is one of those "good problems", because I'm subtly introducing the students to the concept of independent research to answer their questions, and this will be necessary for future food preservation techniques, especially once I leave.
Pineapple and Passion Fruit Chutney. It was amazing and incredibly simple to make. I'm running into another problem where everything I make to research different food preservation recipes is immediately "sampled" to death, and before I can even ask what people thought of it to improve the recipe it's all gone.But enough of work, time for some shopping.
Here's a small shop by another volunteer's house. Because lots of these shops carry their items behind the counter to hold more inventory, the customer cannot always see what is for sale. I think this is a nifty solution to that problem. Of course the common method of walking in, shouting "Oy, yu av marina fi sell?" (Do you have any sleeveless undershirts for sale?) is still the method I use, as I find it's most effective.
Lots of the department and wholesale stores get inventory directly from China, which leads to some interesting items. My pressure cooker has instructions in very broken English, so I must remember to "keep safety cap topside for prevent dangerous". Here we have a cool communist executive day planner.
My market. Every Saturday it is jam packed with vendors, locals, and a few Peace Corps volunteers. I guess it might have at one brief moment been open air, but the maze of tarps quickly formed a nice canopy to keep you and the produce from drying out too quickly in the sun.
Mobile carts are the preferred way to go for many venders who only stay for a day or two a week.
Gratuitous adorable picture of Joline, who is showing me her latest artwork. Later she tricked me into helping her make an "O" for her after the yarn began to unravel, and I spent a good 15 minutes working on it just to have her tell me I didn't do a good job. (The "O" was for a 4 letter word beginning with "L". She was amazed when I correctly guessed the word. Again, adorable.
And now it's time for goodnight, Portland. I still need to find a good place away from mosquitoes to set up my hammock in my new apartment. Life is just about 90% perfect right now, and that might just push it a little higher.
