Of left overs...

When we work on the farm, things just don't go to waste. Since there is land, we just throw the seeds and it grow... and ended up with 1001 plants in the tiny farm hehehe... and just to mention a few...




Coconut on the slope...





Pineapple planted when we bought several fruits the other day





Snake Skin fruit (salak madu), the slim and sweet type from Thailand




Sugar cane from the roadside stall, we saved one bag before they throw it away...

UBIs, other than stela

Other than stela, also common tubes are tapioca and yam. We are also trying planting roots of "ubi besar"a.k.a. "ubi nasi", "ubi kxxxx" a.k.a "kemili" and "ubi itek" a.k.a "ubi tokrok" (sorry, no pics yet). I particularly like yam best, with its variants of "keladi maras", "keladi telur" a.k.a. "susu", "keladi rakit" , "keladi pinang" and whatnots...

Keladi telur, among the first plant in the farm...

Keladi maras (purple) and pinang, I think, (green)

Looking at this pic, I am thinking of budu again...

Particularly like the lights play of this shot...

Chillies, Other Spices and Herbs Pt II

Here are the other spices and herbs...

The red ginger, or "halia bara". Most of the time used as medicine. Mother in confinement usually take the ginger raw, as "ulam". The only time we use for cooking is in the "buah molong" (pengat tepung pulut) - quiet strange, but it gives the pengat a beautiful aroma...

This is not a banana tree ya... (the one in the back ground is), but a tumeric...

The common serai...

Chillies, Other Spices and Herbs Pt I

We are very fond of "cili padi". Must not run out of supply at home, otherwise how to cook "singgang ikang aya" or prepare "budu", not to mention "masak lemak cili padi" (Pahang version)?. Other chili i.e. the abundant Thailand's "cili kerawit" and the new glossy red small chili simply don't taste the same. We planted few trees, the rest grow on wild as we cleared the land - normally it favor the odd place - on a steep slope... The Chillies grows well during summer, however stunted during monsoon. Too much rain is no good for chillies. I hope it will survive a couple of months more. As traditional as a kebun can be, we also planted other spices and herbs like lemon grass (including serai wangi), tumeric, ginger (white and red), basil, curry leaves, "kantan" and of course, galangal!

"Lada Burung" is actually what it is called here. Why's the name? Somebody's theory is that the tree is spread by birds (via its droppings hehehe)

Budu and singgang tongkol anyone?

Ripening...






The white type, given by a cousin. He said this type is priced a little lower than the red type...

Not least, big chilli - hope it will turn red soon...

Favorite Subject - Mushrooms and Other Fungi

The farm reminded me of my childhood days when everyday was an adventure. I was always fascinated with mushrooms. Beside its unique shape, color and textures, it certainly is delicious! I cannot resist but to squad down and take a closer look at them. Mushrooms particularly in season in late summer and most of autumn (just like in England, I read!). There are other mushrooms that grow all year round. Until now, I found some of more common fungi like "kulat sisir", "kulat bintang", "kulat txxx lembu", "kulat bxxxxx lembu", "kulat telinga kera" and "kulat Pak Pandir". I am looking forward for summer when it get more interesting with wide variety of mushrooms most of it are edible - I will save that for Fungi Part II. As for now...

"Kulat sisir (edible) - Very common, growing on decaying tree trunk. This one grow on a half burned tree trunk - giving it the dramatic color contrast of black and white.

The more interesting perspective of the "kulat" where the drama unfolded, where crawlies busy feeding...

"Kulat txxx Lembu". The name derived from its favorite growing place i.e. on or around cow dung - not this one though...

Look at the textures...

"Kulat liat" (edible) - sweet and chewy... Came in 2 variant - white and gray, just like the commercial oyster mushroom.

"Kulat Cawan" (edible) - less common and normally grow single or in pair only.

"Kulat Bintang" (white) The "glow in the dark" mushroom

...and Kulat Telinga Kera" - (brown, edible) - good for soup.

I don't know this one... In fact I found this one first time. Interestingly, it only has one short thread like root despite its puffy body.

A la Stonehenge...

This is the latest sub-project in the farm. It is called woodhenge... I bought the fence pole from local carpenter who log the "tembusu" tree in the local jungle. The "Tembusu" wood is said to last more than 10 years, fungi and white ant resistant, the very reason why it was choosen... I used the left over fence poles for the project. I can see Capt Syed smiling if he read this post. If only I had visited his dragon fruit farm in Miri...

The stonehenge...

The "woodhenge", look closer...

...and you will see the dragon fruit sapling... hihihi. Bought at Pasar Tani Stadium at RM2/ea

Rambutan & Pulasan

The "must have" in any farm... I bought some saplings from Balok Pasar Malam as well as Taman Pertanian. The popular varieties like "anak sekolah", "gula batu" and the latest rage "rambutan laici". Rambutan is not as 'manja' as durian. All grow well and healthy and quite rapid progress... Planted about the same time with durian. The trees are said to bear fruit in 2 years time, in 2010 inshaallah! Somehow, it is not as interesting as durian though...




Sorry la, can't tell which is which - all look the same... Notice the brinjal in the back ground?



















Another unknown tree - be it red or yellow fruit? Only time will tell, kalu panjang umur la, hehehe...



















Another one on the hill slope...




















This one looks a little different - must be a pulasan la, you think?

Okra and Pest Control

After the Okra post the other day, Cik Ros asked me about the secret of pest free looking okra. I did mentioned earlier the intent to keep the farm 'organic'. It is a huge challenge as 2/3 of the farm is surrounded by the 'wilderness'. We have more than we can handle pests, from the kelulut bug, a wide variety of grasshoppers, caterpillars to the white ants and God knows what...

The solution came by chance, or rather we just take what is thrown at us, and work around it. I don't think we can fight the system, so we join them, as much as possible. The pests somehow do not disturb the okra, I can't tell why for sure. However, my theory is that the pests are "well fed" with other plants i.e. the spinach and sawi. Just 'redho' and accept that the spinach and sawi are meant for the pests, while we enjoy the bountiful harvest of okra, tomato, chili and others. Now is that nature justice or what?

So Cik Ros, want to try out the solution? Just throw some spinach seeds around... Who knows it works for you too? hehheheheh

Berebut-rebut nak tumbuh... Alhamdulillah...


















Now, I too wonder why ah????














"...lalu Dia menjadikan mereka seperti daun-daun yang dimakan (ulat)." Al-Fiil 105:5.
They are not sparing any...












...but one!














Don't mistaken the sawi for other thing ya...














Must be "finger licking good" ah?!! hahahah

Galangal - spice or steamed?

Galangal or "Lengkuas" is a common spice in Malay cooking. For the reason, we have planted some in the farm as one of the "must-have" plants. Interestingly, there is another, more rare plant that share the same name. However, it is a root "ubi" rather than root spice! I trust that not many of you are aware of the existance of "Ubi Lengkuas". The root looks similar to the common lengkuas (hence the namesake), but the taste is totally different. While common "lengkuas" is bitter and hot, the "ubi" is sweet and tasty with a distict starchy character of an "ubi". The only way to take it is steamed.

And while the common "lengkuas"'s leaves color is dark green, the "ubi"'s is maroon, and looks more like an ornamental garden plant. I have last seen the "ubi" during my childhood time (whoa!... that was longgg time ago!). Until about 6 months ago, when I visited a cousin's garden that I saw the plant again. I asked for the sapling and she gladly obliged.

The story is not without drama - after growing very well for about 3 months, a certain animal, we believe Cik B, entered the farm through a poorly built fence. It damaged the plant badly, and I managed to salvage some roots and replanted it. Cik B and the fence and the kubang, and the trail, is another story in another posting maybe...

The common "lengkuas" grows well on the hill slope

The "ubi lengkuas", recuperating from an encounter with Cik B - Nora the farmer

Trying to conserve the almost extict plant and revive the fond memories of yesteryears - Nora the traditionalist

From a different perspective. Subhanallah! God's signature - too beautiful not to share with others - Nora the artist.... hehehe

Seranek and Kelulut...

Experimenting the camera again - still frustrating when it won't do what I intended... Micro shoot common issue of focus... Many times the camera went absurd and beep the "unable to focus" alarm... At this stage I am only using about 10% of the camera features - at least more than my brain usage hehehe.... Maybe I will venture further into the manual setting (yes, even auto camera has this feature...) maybe la.... after all they won't innovate the auto camera for nothing .... hahaha


Rumput Seranek - common in the swamp. Very difficult to get rid of - unless if we used weed killer... But I am determined to keep the farm organic, so let it be la...
















As I spy with my 2 little eyes... Can you find the kangkong in the midst? Hahaha Remember the song "tinggi lah rumput dari padi"













The more successful shot... The actual size of this kelulut flower is about the size of 5 sen coin. Btw, kumbang tu tak gi skolah, gi tunjuk tut...tut... plak - kalu nak posing biarlah btul2 hahahaha....










...posing betul2 like this one.

Mata dah rabun skarang ni, I did't notice the ant in the picture until I viewed it in the computer screen....

Durian!

First bought 2 saplings at Balok's pasar tani - the popular type is "Raja Kunyit". The pasar tani's operator is just a middleman - the saplings were from China man's nursery somewhere in Johor. At RM14/sapling, you get a healthy looking tree. Later on, I attempted the state's own Taman Pertanian Jubli Perak along the Kuantan Bypass (not far from UIA). The Taman Pertanian nursery is in a sorry state... with thin, malnourished saplings... There are several types of durian saplings - I can't remember the code numbers, but the alternative names are polititian's wives' name. Not quite good strategy though, for I tak sampai hati nak beli durian "Siti Hasmah"... heheh. Despite the poor saplings condition, I bought some anyway, at RM5/sapling.

But what do I expect? The Taman Pertanian's saplings only survived for about a month after replanting before they die off. I bought another Pasar Tani's type i.e. 101 variety (aka IOI, not the mall...) - as replacement. There are also a couple of trees that we planted from seeds. Our area is actually famous for its "durian Beserah" - especially "Durian Hijau" type that came from Ah Hu's farm (again), I did mentioned briefly earlier in the banana posting. The durian sells at more than RM14/kg and would only fall at RM8/kg during peak season when fruits aplenty. Now, why didn't I plant the durian hijau seeds? Beats me... However, my favorite is still the old "Durian Tembaga", planted by great-grand-dad at the kebun. Copper colored, creamy, thick and... no words can explain...

I found out that planting durian is not as fun as first thought, for the progress is so slowww... The first Raja Kunyit was planted about 6 months ago, but I hardly see any growth - except for one time when it produce a batch of new leaves... but hardly noticeable growth. Requires a lot of patients, I suppose. Now the trick is to just ignore the growth...


Mak Teh took the honour to plant the first Raja Kunyit to commemorate her visit to the farm


















...and Pak Teh, likewise



















The 101 type



















The 101's batch of new leaves - looks like gold eh? Aptly hailed as King of Fruits...


















Bila nak besar ni Mak Teh oi?...