The Just Dance Crew is our new innovative Public Health Tech project that uses 3D animation to promote physical activity and exercise in children by teaching them to perform short dancercise (dance + exercise) routines. We’re using animation because research has shown that children engage more with animated characters and we’re focusing on dance because it is a fun way to get children active. Additionally, research shows that dance has a number of health benefits: it’s an excellent form of exercise, improves fitness, leads to weight loss, strengthens bones and muscles, is beneficial to mental health and improves social skills.
The routines will be 1-5 minutes long and will focus on cardiovascular exercise; muscle and bone strengthening; and flexibility and relaxation exercises. The routines can fit into both the school and home environment. At school, the videos can be used during devotional, at breaks and over lunchtime. While at home, children and parents can use the videos during their leisure time and the whole family can get involved creating a fun, family experience.
Current Progress and Next Steps
So far we have created two demo animations focusing on a simple muscle strengthening exercise – squats – as a proof of concept and towards the end of 2020, we’ll be working with the Ministry of Education to develop more animations as part of a pilot project to test the effectiveness of this approach.
After the pilot, we will conduct a thorough analysis of the project and our plan is to then use the evaluation of the pilot to inform our next phase which will be to create a comprehensive collection of animations and develop an online learning platform to disseminate the videos.
We will also create educational material, guides and lesson plans for both teachers and parents to ensure the videos are used effectively. The videos will be easily accessed by teachers, to use in the classroom, or parents, through the internet or they can be downloaded and saved on to any device. Through the learning platform teachers, parents and guardians will be able to evaluate children’s progress with respect to their technique, consistency and their recall of the benefits of different types of exercise.
The Impact of Our Project
We hope that through this project, we can tackle childhood obesity in our local (St Kitts and Nevis) and regional (the Caribbean) area.
Childhood obesity is a challenge in the Caribbean with 1 in 3 children being overweight or obese. The rate of childhood obesity in the Caribbean is higher than the global average and is on the rise. Being obese and overweight in childhood is linked to several conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and it negatively impacts a child’s mental health.
Childhood obesity is also a significant challenge in St Kitts and Nevis. A PAHO report revealed that 33% of secondary school children in the twin-island state were overweight and 14% were obese. In 2017, a UNICEF report published that 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese. Being overweight and obese puts children at an increased risk of developing NCDs which are becoming an epidemic in the Federation with 83% of deaths being due to NCDs.
To combat childhood obesity, we must ensure that children adopt a healthy lifestyle and one approach is to get more children participating in exercise or physical activity. This is a priority as the Ministry of Health has reported that 58.4% of teenagers in St Kitts and Nevis are physically inactive.
We believe our project offers a simple, inexpensive and fun option for schools to get children active and teach important aspects of PE.
More Information
You can view the demo videos below and you can download our PowerPoint presentation below which provides more details about this project.
If you have any questions, about this new initiative, please don’t hesitate to send us an email
The squat challenge: How many squats can you do, properly, in 60 seconds? Let us know 🙂
Back in January we had the pleasure of joining Go Venture SKN’s first hike of the year which was to the summit of Mount Liamuiga. This was such a wonderful experience, personally and physically (great exercise!), so we thought we’d share it.
About Mount Liamuiga
To give you a bit of background, Mount Liamuiga is a 3,792-foot volcano found in the north-western region of the beautiful Caribbean island of St Kitts. The peak of Mount Liamuiga is the highest point in St Kitts and it has a steep-walled, 1-km wide crater.
The last confirmed eruption of the volcano was 1800 years ago, reports of eruptions in 1692 and 1843 have yet to be confirmed. So, it’s pretty much considered a dormant volcano except for some active fumaroles in the crater and two periods of earthquake swarms from 1988 to 1989 and 1999 to 2000.
Our Hike
We have had our eye on the great Mount Liamuiga for some time, contemplating a hike up to its peak and then down into its crater. We’d heard stories of how challenging the hike is, so that had deterred us until this opportunity arose and we thought “How difficult can it really be?” – we certainly found out!
The Go Ventures SKN team (our guides for this hike) was great, we loved their positive energy and great customer service throughout the process starting with keeping us informed in the lead up to the day of the hike and giving us a quick check-in call the day before to brief us on what to expect (it usually rains at the peak) and what to bring (snacks, drinks, water resistant clothing etc).
Climbing up Mount Liamuiga
It was a fairly early start on the day of the hike (7:15am meeting time) and after a warm welcome, an introduction and driving up to the starting point, we began the hike at about 8am.
Our hike up to the peak was amazing, I can’t provide you with a description that would do justice to the beautiful scenery we encountered as we made our way through the lush rain-forest that covers the slopes leading up to the top of the mountain.
As I looked around, I marvelled at the intricate arrangement of trees and plants – roots were beautifully intertwined, smaller plants were happily sharing living space and creeping along huge imposing trees and unusual root structures led from tree to tree.
I was surprised to learn that the rain-forest wasn’t home to many insects or animals. I was expecting to dodge spiders and other creepy crawlies, and possibly spot some interesting animals along the way. Not at all. Our Go Ventures SKN guides explained that you rarely see any signs of insects (just a few snails sleeping under leaves) and the monkeys that are found in large numbers all over the island don’t venture out to the mountains. So, it was pretty uneventful from that point of view, thank goodness!
It Was Tough!
The hike was tough with a capital T!
After about an hour I was absolutely exhausted, and we weren’t even half way to the top of the mountain. I didn’t think I would make it. The hiking trail is rocky and there was a lot of climbing, as in holding on to rocks and trees and climbing up (or in my case being pushed up by my husband!). I had envisioned a nicely landscaped path that would gradually lead us up the mountain. This was not the case and to be honest, I am glad it wasn’t a nicely landscaped path. This was much better, I got an excellent workout and it was fun, even though at times I was ready to quit because I was so tired and my heart was pounding.
As we climbed further and further up the mountain, the temperature steadily dropped and by the time we got to the top of the mountain (over 2 hours after we started), it was freezing cold and raining heavily. Thank goodness we came prepared with our raincoats.
Climbing down Mount Liamuiga
Sadly, the rain was so heavy and the cloud cover at the summit so thick that we couldn’t go down into the crater for safety reasons. We tried to wait it out, but alas the rain and cloud wouldn’t let up. So, we braved the rain as much as we could, had our packed lunch, took in the fresh air and as much of the view as we could whilst in the midst of quite dense cloud cover and then proceeded to make our way back down the mountain.
The hike back down was just as tough and made all the more challenging by the rain, so it was quite slippery. I had a few close calls but managed to make it back down in one piece and still smiling. I loved it!
All in all, the hike took us 5 hours. This included quite a few breaks and a 30-minute stop at the top of the mountain. By the end of the hike we were muddy, wet and exhausted but I was feeling invigorated and inspired by my encounter with nature.
Some Lessons Learnt
Nature is such a great teacher. As I was making may way up and down Mount Liamuiga, I reflected on the wisdom this old mountain had to offer. Lessons that speak to our wellbeing.
We can be so focused on getting to our destination that we forget to enjoy the journey
Focusing on the journey ahead
About an hour or so into the hike, I was one determined lady. I was going to get to the top of the mountain even if it killed me. This meant I was laser focused on that objective and had stopped looking around to truly appreciate the journey up the mountain. It wasn’t until one of the Go Ventures team members said: “Turn around and look at that view” did I realise that I was missing the best part of the hike – the beauty, the unusual trees and the artwork created by the way in which all the vegetation was connected. It was at that moment that I stopped focusing so much on getting to the top and started to really take in the scenery and appreciate the beauty all around me.
Life can be like that too. We can be so focused on getting to the top of our careers or achieving a particular goal that we don’t enjoy our experiences in their entirety . Oftentimes, when we get to our destination it is often too late to really appreciate the journey or we’re so focused on moving on to the next goal that we forget to take a moment to bask in our success or take time out to enjoy the important things in the journey of life, like our family and friends.
The need for real connection in communities
Saying hello from Mount Liamuiga
One thing Mount Liamuiga kept teaching me with every footstep is the need for real human connection in our communities.
In this fast-paced world we live in, it’s hard to form a real community that is connected, where there is genuine interest and concern about each other. This means people can become very isolated and lonely and miss out on forming important friendships and relationships.
As I looked at the rain-forest community, I could see the connections that make the rain-forest a thriving eco-system. Trees and plants are interconnected. Larger plants provide support to smaller plants helping them reach the sunlight, plants with deep root systems provide much-needed grounding to those that need it and root systems talk to each other daily – there is constant contact and checking-in. No one is left behind or alone.
This made me think that it’s important for us to make time for face-to-face interactions so that we can begin build genuine relationships within our community, making our communities stronger.
The importance of silence
One thing that struck me, particularly on the way back down the mountain, when the guides had switched off the music, was how quiet the rain-forest was. It was a bit eerie at first. I was expecting to hear signs of life, but nope, it was extremely quiet. It was hard to believe that despite the rain-forest being packed with trees, plants and sleeping snails, it was really quiet. It got me thinking that I am not used to being still. I am used to so much noise. If it’s not the TV, it’s music, podcasts and radio. If it’s not that then it’s my inner noise – constant worrying, inner thoughts, thinking, planning and endless restlessness.
The two hours of peace and quiet during the hike started to feel like bliss. Time to clear my mind and reflect. I didn’t realise how mentally tired I was, and the silence gave my mind a much-needed break. Mentally I never felt better than in those moments of silence. It had been a tough few months and this moment of peace had been the medicine I needed to usher in a sense of peace.
A short video of our hike to Mount Liamuiga
We All Need a Nature Break
This hike was a wonderful experience .The beauty of our surroundings, being at one with nature, getting some good exercise and the positive vibes from Go Ventures SKN made this a memorable experience. This hike highlighted the importance of the great outdoors in improving our mental wellbeing and giving us the opportunity to recover from the pressures of modern-day life.
Find Out More
Do you live in St Kitts or will you be visiting St Kitts soon? Then we highly recommend that you give the Go Ventures SKN team a call and book a hike with them. You can visit their Facebook page to find dates for their next hikes.
If you want to find out more about the wellbeing benefits of the outdoors, then check out a guest blog post from Capital Garden Services about gardening and wellbeing here
So far, this blog series has mostly discussed the benefits that gardening can have on your physical health. However, getting green fingered can also have a hugely positive effect on your mental health and wellbeing. This month’s post is brought to you by the folks at Capitial Garden Services and focuses on the mental health benefits of gardening which they illustrate very effectively in their infographic here.
The famed biologist, E.O. Wilson, once quipped that “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” He coined the term Biophilia to describe human kind’s innate need to connect with the natural world, positing that this is why we tend to find it soothing to spend time in the great outdoors.
Numerous studies have highlighted various mental health and therapeutic benefits of gardening. For example, gardening has been found to energise the body and mind. The process of tending to plants has also been proven to help people develop nurturing skills. It has even been found to improve sleep quality. These outdoor activities can help to reduce stress by providing a much-needed refuge from the stresses of the fast-paced modern world.
In particular, gardening is a perfect opportunity to practice mindfulness. By completing tasks that connect you with the natural world, you can engage all of your senses to appreciate the various sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of your surroundings. There are a few things you can do to put a mindful spin on common gardening jobs. For example, before getting started take a few moments pause to breathe and meditate. It’s also a good idea to incorporate elements into your garden design that stimulate the various senses, for example wind chimes or scented flowers.
To learn more, take a look at the infographic below from the team at Capital Garden Services which offers some great insights on why gardening is good for your mental wellbeing and provides several tips on how to garden for good mental health.
Infographic
Check out Capital Garden Services infographic on gardening for good mental health below.
Hello all and welcome back to our gardening and health blog series. We’ve had a fantastic year exploring the great outdoors and the health benefits of gardening. This blog post is the second of our two-part blog on fruit trees. Our final blog in this series, coming up next month (hopefully!), will focus on herbs.
Last time, we discussed our mango and sour orange trees and today we’re going to discuss two more trees that we have growing in our (Abi Begho’s) garden in St Kitts – soursop and guava. These are trees that we inherited from the previous owner of our house and we were so pleased to have these growing nicely on our property. They have given us much joy allowing us an easy and fun way to introduce a few more fruits into our diet.
Soursop
Some background
Soursop is a fruit known by a few names – custard apple, guanabana and Brazilian paw paw. It is a green, prickly fruit with a white flesh that forms on the graviola tree. It can be used to make a juice, ice-cream, sorbet, syrups and sweets.
It contains vitamin C, dietary fibre, iron, vitamin B, B2, magnesium and potassium.
Soursop has received a lot of attention over the past few years due to its anti-cancer properties in laboratory settings. Studies have shown that either soursop extract or pulp can inhibit the growth or cause the death of some cancer cell lines. Whilst this is promising a lot more work is needed to determine if the extract can be used as a cancer treatment. Studies haven’t been conducted in humans and a recent review explained that “further studies are required to verify the exact properties and mechanisms of action” (i.e. we need to completely understand how the extract affects cancer cells). Therefore, patients should not use soursop capsules, at this time, as a treatment for cancer, as these have not been validated through research.
In addition, studies have found that soursop has a number of health benefits: anti-convulsant, anti-parasitic, anti-arthritic, anti-malarial, anti-diabetic and hepatoprotective (protects the liver). Historically the leaves, pulp and juice have been used in the Caribbean, South America and Africa for a number of ailments.
Our Soursop Experience
Soursop is a fruit that really grew on us; the more we ate it, the more we liked it.
We eat the white flesh, but we mostly make a lovely juice with it and tend to keep our juice recipe very simple. You can find lots of recipes online, so we won’t go into detail, but our juice just contains soursop, water and a bit of nutmeg, this is how we make it most of the time. For a more creamy, sweet and indulgent version we add some condensed milk and serve it with ice.
In terms of caring for the tree, it’s pretty low maintenance, our tree produces a lot of soursop and after a certain point the fruits start to ripen really quickly so if we don’t pay attention and check on the tree regularly the soursops spoil (I threw away 4 today ☹), and sometimes birds and bugs get to them before we get a chance to pick them. So you definitely have to keep an eye on them.
Guava
Guava is a lovely, fragrant fruit that is found in the tropical regions of the Americas and in the Caribbean. There are many variations including the Redland, Supreme and Red Indian. We haven’t yet been able to identify what variation our guava tree is, but ours has a strong sweet fragrance, white flesh and many small seeds.
Guavas can be eaten in a variety of ways. It can be eaten as is (skin and all), cooked to form stewed guavas and it can be used to make jam, pies, cakes, ice-cream and more.
We haven’t been very creative yet with our guavas and simply just pick them from the tree and eat them as they are. We mostly slice them up and have them with breakfast. Once we get a large number of guavas, we keep losing most of them to the birds, we are going to experiment and try making guava tart (BVI style), guava jam and guava juice.
Guava is high in vitamin C and contains potassium, vitamin B-6, vitamin A and dietary fibre, making it a healthy, tasty addition to our diet.
Conclusion
Having lived in London for over 10 years and not being able to appreciate the joy of having a garden, being in the Caribbean and being able to explore the great outdoors has been such a pleasant change for us. Being able to spend more time outdoors and have access to fresh untainted fruits has been a blessing enabling us to change our lifestyle and have a more plant-based diet. We love it!
Previous Blogs
If you missed the previous blogs in this series you can read through them here:
Deep, G. et al. (2016). Graviola inhibits hypoxia-induced NADPH oxidase activity in prostate cancer cells reducing their proliferation and clonogenicity. Scientific Reports, 16 (6).
Ioannis, P. et al. (2015). Graviola: A Systematic Review on Its Anticancer Properties. American Journal of Cancer Prevention. 3 (6), pp 128-131.
Morton, J. 1987. Guava. p. 356–363. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL.
Paul, J. et al. (2013). Anti cancer activity on Graviola, an exciting medicinal plant extract vs various cancer cell lines and a detailed computational study on its potent anti-cancerous leads. Current Topics In Medicinal Chemistry, 13 (14).
Last week was Caribbean Wellness Week and on Friday we celebrated the last day of this week with the grand finale at the Marriott in Frigate Bay.
This event was organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Marriott Resort and we were delighted to have been invited to have an information table.
The event started with free health checks at 2:30pm where members of public and Marriott staff were able to get their blood pressure, blood glucose, BMI and cholesterol levels measured as well as have an HIV test conducted. Also, attendees had the opportunity to visit information tables, one of which we hosted.
Then, at 4pm it was party time! The chairs were cleared away, the music was turned on and soca-cise began. This was a fun, fast-paced aerobics session with a Caribbean twist. Instructors led the audience through a 2-hour routine that got our heart rates up and worked every part of our bodies. It was a fun session and the 2 hours flew by and before we knew it the session was over ☹, proving that exercise doesn’t have to feel like torture to be effective.
We had a great time on Friday and would like to thank the Ministry of Health for the opportunity to be a part of this event. We’d also like to say a big thank you to everyone who visited our information table, it was lovely meeting you all.
We look forward to Caribbean Wellness Week next year and for more information about Caribbean Wellness Day and Week vist CARPHA or PAHO’s websites.
On 8th September we were up at 4AM for the St Kitts Caribbean Wellness Day Walk. It was hard waking up at that time, way before the sun was up, but it was worth it.
This walk was months in the making and started as an idea, back in June, at the first planning meeting of Caribbean Wellness Week. The planning meeting brought together the Ministry of Health and its partners all working towards a common goal of improving the health of the nation.
So, on 8th September, feeling pretty sleepy, we drove to the meeting point at the Caribbean Cinemas parking lot and joined about 50 other people to recognise Caribbean Wellness Day and the importance of physical activity.
The walk was led by Elite Fitness, a local gym, who started off the morning with a warm-up and then we hit the streets of Basseterre for a lovely walk. The route took us through town, all the way down Cayon Street and then we turned left onto Wellington Road and continued to the airport roundabout and then turned onto the bypass road and made our way back to the cinema where we finished off with a cool-down session.
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We walked a total of 7.49KM which took us an hour and 20 minutes and with the inclines in two locations, the route provided us all with a great workout.
We had a great time and it was a so nice to see the diversity of people in attendance – old, young, male, female and all shapes and sizes.
This event not only celebrated Caribbean Wellness Day, but it was the launch of Caribbean Wellness Week which runs until Friday 14th September. Look out for all the events being organised this week. Highlights include the a Health Fest on Thursday 13th September, National Sneaker Day on 14th September where everyone is encouraged to wear their sneakers to work and the grand finale at the Marriott, a soca-cise party starting from 4pm with free health checks from 2:30pm.
Come out, get active and let’s make sure that we create a healthier nation!
Our gardening and health series is back and Abi Begho, in this two-part blog, focuses on fruit trees. In this article she discusses her sour orange and mango trees.
I have really been enjoying my gardening journey, it has been fulfilling and rewarding in so many ways. I’ve grown enough okras and tomatoes to keep us going for months, overcome the challenges of growing peppers and delved into the world of sweet potatoes. This has given me a new-found love of the outdoors and provided an outlet to relieve stress, unwind and relax. I can’t begin to express the significant impact that just five minutes in the garden has on improving my mood and lifting the heaviness of a bad day. It’s been fabulous.
In my previous blogs I have covered vegetables and fruits that I have grown from seeds or cuttings, but in today’s blog I want to focus on the lovely fruit trees that we inherited from the previous owners of our house.
We moved to St Kitts about ten months ago and when we moved into our new house we were just so happy about the fruit trees that came with it, and we have thoroughly enjoyed exploring each one of them, and they are:
Sour orange
Mango
Soursop
Guava
Today I am going to focus on our sour orange and mango trees.
Sour Orange
A sour orange from our tree
You may know sour orange by another name, such as bitter orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange or marmalade orange.
It originated in south-east Asia and was believed to have been taken to Arabia in the 9th century and then made its way to many countries in the years to follow. An interesting fact about its journey around the world is: it was the first orange to arrive in the Americas.
Sour oranges, to me, taste like a cross between an orange and a lime. They are too sour to eat on their own but that hasn’t stopped them from being used in many recipes – its juice and peel are the key ingredients in marmalade, its oil is used as flavouring, its fruit is used in the preparation of liqueur and the dried peel is oftentimes used as a seasoning. And, just about every part of the plant itself (the flower, leaf, fruit, juice and peel) has been used for medicinal purposes but caution is needed as bitter orange supplements have been found to be “possibly unsafe”, especially if taken in combination with caffeine which can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, fainting etc.
Our Sour Orange Experience
Sour Orange: From Garden to Glass 🙂
When we arrived, our sour orange tree was laden with fruit and continued to produce fruit for a couple of months and then stopped for several months and now, about 8 months later, copious amounts of fruit are starting to appear again.
For us, we have kept it very simple with our sour oranges and have used them to make a refreshing juice, very similar to lemonade but with more of an orangy-lime flavour (delicious!). The trick to making the juice is getting your proportions of sour orange juice, water and sugar just right. After several tries, I think I mastered it. I found that the juice from two medium sour oranges mixed with 1L of water and sweetened with 1-2 tablespoons of sugar makes the perfect drink, we couldn’t get enough of it and were so sad when we had used up all our fruit. We can’t wait to make some more juice when the current batch of oranges ripen.
Mango
Mango overload!
When we first saw the mango tree in our garden it looked like it was on its last legs – the leaves were brown and dropping, in what seemed like large numbers. We kept looking at the tree and thinking: ‘is it going to survive?’, but then a few months later there was a re-birth. We noticed new leaves, and the tree started to look really healthy. Then, in March, we were so excited when we noticed lots of little flowers and it was at that point that we knew we were going to be inundated with mangoes. And, sure enough, a few months later, in May, our tree was absolutely covered with young mangoes (yay!) and in June we had so many mangoes we honestly didn’t know what to do with them. We started giving bags of them away and we’ve also frozen bags, and bags, of mangoes, and still they keep coming, so we’re probably going to run out of space in our freezer soon.
Making a strawberry, mango and banana smoothie
So far, apart from eating the mangoes as is, we’ve made a lot of smoothies. We’ve tried the simple, so almond milk, banana and mango (nice), then moved on to adding pineapple (very nice) and then added some spinach (not as nice). We then tried mango, strawberry, banana and almond milk and that was delicious, the best so far.
I continued experimenting with recipes and made a mango tart/pie (same concept as a French lemon tart, but I used almond milk to make it a bit healthier) and it was absolutely delicious. All I can say is thank God for the internet, I pretty much combined three recipes to get what I had pictured in my mind (I wanted a mango pie with a key-lime pie/lemon tart consistency) and it turned out much better than I expected. I highly recommend it.
Next I would like to make dried mangoes because I have liked buying them in the past as a quick and easy snack. I’m also contemplating making mango ice-cream as I found a very straightforward recipe online. I will let you know how it all goes!
At the moment I have to admit that I am getting a bit tired of mangoes – we have waaay too many and as I type I have about 10 more that dropped overnight that I need to get from the garden. This is truely mango overload!
Freshly baked mango tarts
Mangoes are very well-known so I won’t say much more about them except that I have discovered so many creative, simple recipes that we wouldn’t have come across had we not had an abundance of mangoes to experiment with. So, if you’re looking for something tasty, healthy and tropical then mangoes are a great option as they are very versatile.
Next Time
Our fruit trees have really been a blessing and we’re enjoying experimenting with various recipes. It has been fun. In my next blog I’ll tell you about the final two trees, our soursop and guava trees.
See you next time and happy gardening!
Previous Blogs
If you missed the previous blogs in this series you can read through them here:
Are you a gardener? Are you new to gardening or an experienced gardener? We’d love to hear your story and experiences with gardening and how its impacted your health and wellbeing. You can email us at info@lakehealthandwellbeing.com with your experience and we’ll include it in this blog series.
Hi folks, it’s Abi here and I am back with another blog about my gardening experience and today I’d like to focus on my lovely peppers. To avoid repetition, I won’t go into the details of how I grew my peppers as I used the exact same technique I used when growing my tomatoes which you can read here. What I thought I would do is focus on what I learnt from growing peppers, some of the challenges I encountered and how I overcame these.
Over the past 8 months or so I have been trying to grow four types of peppers – sweet peppers (or bell peppers), Scotch bonnets, Jalapeno peppers and Caribbean seasoning peppers (very similar to Scotch bonnets, but without the heat). Growing these peppers has been a huge challenge and I suppose I was lulled into a false sense of security as I started my gardening journey with tomatoes and okras which have been a breeze in comparison to peppers. If I had to score myself on my pepper assignment I would have to give myself a big fat D, I have failed miserably. I have only had some success (after several attempts) with sweet peppers and it looks like my third attempt at Scotch bonnets may (I don’t want to speak too soon) have produced some results. Here are some of the challenges that I encountered that led me to give myself a big fat D.
Germination Was a Struggle
My bell peppers finally making an appearance after many months 🙂
Whilst reading up on how to grow peppers, I did learn that germination of peppers does take a lot longer than tomatoes, up to a month. So, I was prepared for that. On my first attempt I planted 24 bell pepper seeds and 24 Scotch bonnet seeds in my seed starting tray (egg containers!), and patiently waited. I watered my soil regularly and with no sign of seedlings at 3 weeks, I wasn’t worried, I thought: ‘well, I have read that it can take up to a month so no problem.’ I waited. After a month, nothing happened, but I was still optimistic and continued to wait patiently. At 6 weeks, I started to get worried and then after two months, I gave up and started again. This time I added Jalapeno and Caribbean seasoning peppers to my pepper collection and sadly I got the same results (I gave up after 6 weeks). I was disappointed. I couldn’t figure out what was going wrong, so after 4 months and 2 attempts I took a trip down to the St Kitts Agricultural Department to get some advice. They were lovely, really helpful and friendly. They explained it could be the seeds and that peppers can be a bit “particular” and I should keep trying. They did say maybe I should cheat and buy some of their young pepper plants which were growing well in their nursery and so I did, I cheated. I bought a row of pepper plants and transplanted them into the garden, thinking perfect I have a head start, but I had challenges with their growth too – I don’t think peppers like me.
I still wanted to try to grow peppers from seed so I tried again and again with the seeds and finally I was able to get my bell peppers and some hot peppers to germinate (yay!). These are going well, but slowly.
Peppers Are Slow
My Scotch bonnet, small and no signs of any peppers whatsoever 🙁
Having cheated and bought some seedlings and then finally had some success with my own seeds, I have quite a few pepper plants growing in my garden. Starting my gardening journey with tomatoes spoilt me because they grew relatively fast and I was expecting the same for my peppers, but pepper plants, or I should say my pepper plants, were sloooow! They really are taking their own time (but it may be my growing technique as I am a newbie!). If you’re going to grow peppers, you’ll need some patience. As I sit here now I do have some really cute bell peppers developing and I have harvested about two (Very tasty!), but the Scotch bonnet is growing extremely slowly. So, with all the attempts and buying of seedlings it has taken me about 5 months to get my first bell pepper.
They Need Lots of Water
I live in the Caribbean and it has been really hot over the past few months and some of the challenges with the slow growth could be because they weren’t getting enough water (I am not sure). I may have underestimated the amount of water that they needed. I am always worried about watering too much and my plants dying of root rot, so I suppose I am a little conservative when it comes to watering. A couple of months ago, we had a guest over and they were looking at my garden and she felt I needed to give my plants a lot more water. So, she took over for a few days and soaked my peppers. I was really worried thinking they might drown. After about a week, my peppers seemed to perk up and looked a lot happier. Since then I can’t say they have grown any faster but they certainly look a lot healthier.
My Peppers Were Bugged!
Just as I was having some success with my bell peppers and feeling really good about them, I ventured out into the garden one morning and found that my largest pepper plant had lost ALL its leaves. I was shocked. How did that happen in just one night or morning? I looked around and spotted the culprit. A sneaky little green worm, which I later learned was a hornworm, ate my pepper leaves for breakfast. It was so greedy! It didn’t leave anything, all the leaves were gone. I was so upset and I thought that was it for that pepper plant. To my surprise and joy, about a week later my pepper plant started making a come-back, some new leaves were growing happily. I’ll see how it goes, I have my fingers crossed that this plant will survive.
Now, everyday I check my garden for hornworms and I have spotted a few which I have swiftly thrown over the wall!
It Has Been Fun
Although I haven’t been so lucky with my peppers it has been a lot of fun and a nice challenge. It has also been very rewarding too. When I noticed my first pepper, I was elated and when I picked my first pepper I was so proud of myself for persisting, it really was worth it. Although the bell pepper was a lot smaller than I expected, it tasted lovely.
A Great Learning Experience
I have learnt a lot about peppers over the past few months. Through my reading I have learnt that there are thousands of types of peppers (Wikipedia says about 50,000!!), which came as a real shock to me, I was only aware of five different types of peppers before I started looking into them. This means there is a type of pepper for every taste bud (sweet, hot, fruity, woody and smoky) and peppers come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours (red, green, orange, yellow, purple and more).
When we look at the history of peppers, they are native to Mexico, Central America and South America. They made their way to Spain in 1493 and from there spread to other countries.
Peppers are also quite nutrient rich, their nutrient content is dependent on the type of pepper, but most peppers contain vitamin A, C, K, B6, dietary fibre, thiamine, niacin, folate, magnesium, copper, potassium and manganese.
I have also learnt some personal lessons about the importance of patience, persistence and hard work (they really gave me a good workout).
I’m really looking forward to picking more bell peppers and watching my Scotch bonnets develop. I’ll keep you posted.
If you missed my previous blogs you can read them using the links below:
Welcome back to our gardening and health blog series where we’ve been taking you on a personal journey as we explore the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening for ourselves. Today, Abi Begho is back and this time she’s sharing her experience of growing okra and why she thinks okras are the stars of the show.
Growing okra plants has been fantastic. So far, they have been the star of the show! They seem to absolutely love the hot climate here in St Kitts and have really thrived producing lots and lots of okra pods. We have had so much okra that we ran out of okra recipes and weren’t sure what to do with them – we have made gumbo (multiple times), crispy okra (a few variations), stewed okra and tomatoes (many times), Nigerian okra stew, okra in scrambled eggs (!) and okra in various salads. It’s been a fun experience.
Let’s Start at the Beginning: What is Okra?
Okra also called okro, ochro and ladies fingers is a popular vegetable in West Africa, India and the Southern States of the US. It is a very hardy plant being heat and drought tolerant and as you guessed, it is a tropical plant and doesn’t do well in cold temperatures.
It belongs to the mallow family of plants making it a close relation to the hibiscus (it was hard to believe this until I saw the okra flower myself), cotton and cacao, just to name a few of its cousins.
There are many varieties of okra, I read somewhere there are thousands (who knew! I am learning so much from gardening). Some of the popular varieties of okra are Clemson Spineless, Red Burgundy, Burgundy, Emerald and Cajun Delight.
Okra is a healthy, tasty addition to your diet containing vitamin B, vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and calcium. It is also very high in fibre.
How I Got Started Growing Okra
We love okra so it was one of the first things on my list of things to grow in our garden.
Having read that there are so many varieties of okra, I was a bit confused and unsure about what variety of okra to grow. So I consulted with my trusty friend, YouTube, and the consensus was that Clemson Spineless was a good variety to start with. So, I headed to the shop and bought a packet of seeds and planted several of them in a container.
I was shocked by how quickly the seeds germinated. I expected them to germinate in 5-7 days, but just three days later I had little seedlings growing happily in my container. I left them for a week or so and then transplanted them into the garden, being careful with the roots, as they are very delicate, and left them to do their thing. I just watered them every now and again and made sure they were in a nice sunny spot and I watched them grow.
Buds, Flowers and Okra Pods
About a month after I planted the seeds I noticed my very first okra buds. I literally squealed with delight when I saw them, it was so unexpected as was my squeal – my husband thought I was being attacked or something! Then three weeks later, the most beautiful okra flower appeared and then promptly disappeared within a couple of hours – if you blink you miss the beauty (Okra flowers only open for a few hours and then they close up in preparation for okra pod formation). Two days after the flower appeared a tiny little okra pod had formed and then, voila, two days after that I had picked my first okra – yay!
Below you can see the progression from okra bud to okra pod.
In total I have 9 okra plants and for months they were serious okra producing machines! Like I mentioned earlier, we had so much okra we didn’t know what to do with them. It was great! And, I just have to mention how perfect the okras have been. I have never ever seen such good-looking okras and we used to buy okra all the time in the UK. Every okra I picked was beautifully formed, no defects and very tasty.
As I type the okra plants are 5 months old and sadly they are looking a bit tired, okra pod production has slowed down, their leaves have dropped and the plants don’t look as healthy as they did a few months ago. I think they are coming to the end of their lifespan or maybe they have some kind of fungal disease as I read they are supposed to keep producing for a really long time. So, I have bought some new seeds and will be planting these soon.
Final Thoughts
I have really enjoyed growing (and eating!) okra. It has been pretty straightforward as okras are very low maintenance and, as I mentioned previously, very hardy, so they have given me no problems whatsoever.
If you live in a warm climate I highly recommend you try growing okra and if you live in a cold country, you can still jump on board and grow them during the summer months.
WelI… that’s it for now. In my next blog I’ll be discussing my lovely little bell peppers. See you then and happy gardening!
If you want purchase some okra seeds, I recommend the Clemson Spineless, which is what I grew and had great success with. You can order some seeds from Amazon below
If you missed our previous blogs you can read them using the links below
We are so happy to announce the publication of our new fact sheet on fibroids and exercise. This is the first in our new series of fibroids fact sheets which aim to cover a range of topics that you have told us are important to you.
This fact sheet series is a direct result of the findings of our small research project where we explored the needs of women with fibroids. From this work we discovered that there were significant gaps in the information and support available to women and we are on a mission to fill those gaps. We have worked towards this by:
Our fibroids and exercise fact sheet discusses how exercise can help alleviate the symptoms of fibroids and provides readers with simple tips on how to get active without aggravating their current symptoms. We hope that this resource will provide women with useful information that empowers them to take control of their health and take positive steps towards improving their health and wellbeing. You can download the fact sheet in the download section below.
Coming soon….
The next fact sheet in the series will be published soon and this will focus on fibroids and mental wellbeing. This fact sheet will aim to help women identify, understand and address the emotions that may be associated with having fibroids.
