The Citrus

The common citrus in Malay culture, Lime has been used extensively, from adding jest in dishes, more often than not, is to weaken the fishy smell in laksa's gravy, budu, belacan or grilled fish, to refreshing drinks. It is also used for "mandi langir" in the olden days when soap and shower foam is not yet available. The lime is also a must item in "bomoh" rituals, either to use for spriritual cleansing or prophecy. Those who tried the "mandi bunga/mandi limau" knows what I mean...

The kaffir is used for the aroma, either from its fruits or leaves. Only after the influx of "tom yum" in Malaysia about some 20 years back, sees the popularity increase of the kaffir leaves used in cooking soup. Otherwise, it is used as one of the many herbs for the "mandi serum" for mothers in confinement and the sicks, to help improve blood circulations.

While the kalamansi is getting popular about the same time as kaffir - used as drink or milder alternative to lime.

The lime sapling, bought in Balok Pasar Tani at RM9/tree - from branch graft - so it is ready to produce fruit anytime...

The lime flower - emitting sweet citrus aroma. Look at the flower bud - a bit strange, with its 4 halves, but blooming out 5 petals...

The kalamansi sapling - bought at the same place at RM7/tree. Compared to lime, kalamansi is easier to care and has higher resistance to pests. That is why lime is fetching higher price in the market...

The kalamansi flower - also emits sweet aroma...

Kaffir tree - this one is transferred from my sister Jamilah's pot. It grows better in the farm, but the tree looked less "bushy" than it should, for both mother and son keep on plucking the leaves for "tom yum" and instant noodle respectively... hahhaha

Catching the Dew

Sometimes the morning dews were caught on the leaves and spider webs attract more than a passing attention, especially when the morning sun rays hit them...

...like a sparkling jewels

...one web in the grass

...the other on the ground next to the chili tree

...from a different perspective

Perfect Love....

The heart shaped leaf of "ubi besar" (big tuber) that we planted late last year, has sprouted and growing well, climbing the young duku tree - faster than u can say "go"!

Bird's Nest

Firstly, I apologize for neglecting the blog for quite sometime. Pressing priorities...


Recently a sparrow (we guess) built its nest on the young duku tree. I have not seen the bird yet, (despite I was in the farm almost every day). Quite surprising when the bird choose to built the nest so near to the pondok, and hanging low...


The young duku tree, about 6ft tall...





Neat work of art, stiching 2 leaves together. How long will it last? The most is until the leaves grow old and fall. Hopefully until the eggs hatch and the babies started flying...





Look at the stiches... and the small holes - how is it possible for the bird to make tiny holes like that and not breaking the leaves into pieces... I have been wondering also what made the yellowish thread... and the domestic waste, instead of the all natural building material?





A peep into the "living room" and found nobody home...

...Mushroom Again! - The Oyster

I hope I didn't bore you with the mushrooms postings... They are simply fascisnating! Another variety growing in the farm. The Oyster mushroom was in the earlier posting, however, I didn't get tired capturing its pictures and had hard time choosing the pictures to share with you as all of them are beautiful - from all angles - see it for yourself...

...Mushroom Again! - The Cousins

Rosnah came for a visit the other day, with a "quite new" camera. The more powerful, higher density, plenty of features and bigger screen (4x bigger!) compared to mine... Must admit that I am envious of her hehehehe. Nevertheless, we have good time together - as we were clicking our cameras, shooting the mushrooms.

As I mentioned earlier, Miss Pinky @ Alien was quite rare i.e. I have not seen before. To come across another similar type is a nice surprise, not only one, but two at one place, under the old durian tree!


First encountered this one, it was the day before that I spotted the budding mushroom, but I don't have a camera at the time... So, this is the picture on the day when the mushroom in full bloom... This type actually looks edible, I am quite certain it is the same type that was indicated in the book of England wild mushrooms.

While inspecting this mushroom, I spotted another one nearby, still budding...


Unlike the Pinky cousin, this one is almost pure white, with a hint of softest pink.



The sunrays make the picture looks heavenly - similar to the turmeric flowers earlier... On second look. it reminds me of the British Guard black hairy hat...


The day after, the bud is slowly opening up and its top torn in several places...


She really looks delicious!

Its Raining and Mushroom Again!

It was raining almost daily for about 2 weeks already, following the months of dry spell. Not only the greens grow healthily, the mushrooms are sprouting all over the place. Reminds me of the upcoming seasonal mushroom period circa June, July - am looking forward to the season, hopefully abundant of edible mushrooms - the "kulat paha ayam", "kulat kawan", "kulat bertih" and "kulat susu musang". Delicious soup or spicy stirred-fried, I need no other dishes. The mushrooms sold in the supermarket somehow cannot substitute the wild taste... Well, that was for another report, in the meantime here are the inedibles (as far as we are concerned...). I am featuring 2 types of gano mushrooms. Here are gano varieties as mentioned in the gano remedy website:

• Akashiba (red Royal Gano)
• Kuroshiba (black Royal Gano)
• Aoshiba (blue Royal Gano)
• Shiroshiba (white Royal Gano)
• Kishiba (yellow Royal Gano)
• Murasakishiba (purple Royal Gano)

This is the white fungus, growing from a rotting coconut stump. The Shiroshiba? Whatever...

Notice the dark base?

...pure white goodness? Not that we ever tried to consume this type of mushroom...


This is the blue type, growing on a rotting kuini trunk.

Reminds me of blue cheese. U think? Hmmm been quite some time since I last stuffed the crakers heheheh...

The cow dung mushroom grows in group on a fertile burned soil under the old durian tree.

Pretty small umbrellas eh?

Other Edibles

This is the continuation of edible herbs that I posted some time back. Some of the herbs I have mentioned before, now for the pictures.


Pucuk paku merah. One of the most common fern in our surrounding. Plenty of it by the road shoulder along Kuantan-Rompin road. The shoot is part of the "sayur rampai daun kayu", it is actually the "sayur lemak kuning" of a mixture of edible leaves.

"pokok lampin budak" - another leaves that goes into the "sayur lemak". Quiet difficult to describe its taste, as the vegetables are "mixed", thus it is not possible to single out a particular leaves taste.

"Pokok mengkudu" - either mixed in the "sayur" of eat it raw as "ulam". But my favorite is the "kerabu". I remember asking mother to prepare the kerabu every other day when I was small.


The "putat". Better taken as "ulam". I am not aware if it ws added to the sayur.

"mata ayam" - quiet common, either mixed in the sayur or part of ulam for "laksa". The namesake is due to a bunch of red small fruit that resemble the chicken's eyes.

"penar" - don't know if the spelling is right. She is the cousin of mata ayam above.

What R These 2 Doing?

Lazing around under the sun, obviously...


Mosquito-like insect and common bug resting on corn flowers. I like the view, sucking the aroma of corn flowers, in the morning breeze...

Durian Dah Berbunga Weh!

Of course it is not the tree that I planted - no, not yet hehhehe...


The durian flowers are budding, so heavy, maybe due to the extended dry period... See, there are always good things coming from a disaster. It's a matter of perspective, really. Btw, you need to click on the picture to spot the flower buds...



The tree is almost 100 year old, that the great grandpa planted, "durian tembaga", my favorite ever... with orange colored thick flesh and sweet creamy taste...

On the Tree Top

The happenings, one fine afternoon, on the tree top...






The young cucumber has formed early, even before the flower wilt. Looks so beautiful and full of goodness...







But sometimes the bug got the better of it - this one is caused by a type of bug that injected itself inside the healthy fruit, and destroy it on day 2...








Meanwhile the "dull" bug creeping along the main vine.








And stop at a destination. Cozy eh?... Sorry for the compromising pose again - it is just the season hehehhe...

Meet the Clown!

The newly planted lime tree was attacked by the funny looking fella... With its juicy lime colored body, which is decorated with unique fierce looking "tatoo"...


Lazing in the sun after a hearty meal...


A fierce looking "face"...


Top view



I think it's look will scare off any bird on the prowl...

Harvesting the Stela...

Harvested the stela last week - though it was not the ripe time yet, we dug it anyway for the fear of the wild boar attack. Almost the whole yam trees (about 40) were wiped out by the boars in 3 days...

Anyway, the stela was so sweet and the flesh is firm. It was one of the Japanese sweet patato variety. We distributed to neighbours and relatives and all of them came back asking for more! hahahah

Now that we got a hired hand to mend the fence, I replanted the shoots and looking forward to harvest in the next 3-4 months.

The young tubers. Red skin with pale yellow flesh. All the while I thought it was orange heheheh