Ulam-ulam and Edible Leaves

More often than not, we used to "pluck" our vegetables in the wild. Other than fungi, leaves and shoots were part of our diet... Like the mushroom, the other "edibles" came back to me when I work for the farm - some of it are almost forgotten... Our "sayur pucuk kayu" normally is a mixed of 3-4 varieties of shoots of "lampin budak", "mata ayam", "putat", "sekentut", "bayam lang", "bayam praksi", "bayas", "peria laut", "kacip siti fatimah". As well as the more common "pegaga", "(pucuk) labu", "(pucuk) ubi (stela, kayu)", "ulam raja", "paku merah" etc. And not forgetting "petai" and "jering"...

Maybe in other posting I can tell about "umbut" eh?

Pegaga are a plenty! This one grows like a star shape, someone remarked...

Bayam praksi, quite common in the farm. It has a soothing aroma, and menthol like after taste... My mum's favorite ulam!

Bayam Lang, quite rare...

Kacip Siti Fatimah in a "sayur" - taste like mushroom! Can you imagine?

Petai - bought the Thailand sapling from agri expo. Supposed to bear fruit faster than the Malaysian cousin. I've been wondering why is Thailand's agri technology is so much more advanced than Malaysia? Other than trying to do a poor catch-up with Thailand, I don't see much product from the Jabatan Pertanian, more so in fruit trees. Btw, we also have a "wild" grown up "jering" in the farm, and its started fruiting for the first time...

Hujan Weh...

Tak leh gi kebun...




has been raining cats and dogs for 2 days... not unusual during the monsoon season...




i miss the kebun. many times contemplating grabbing a raincoat...

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.