Herbs

My princess brought back more herbs for me to plant and now I can say I have two sections in my mini organic farm .....veggies and herbs.

The herbs are lemon grass, pandan, ginger, curry leaves, sweet basil, sage, rosemary and oregano. The earlier basil that was planted was Thai basil and not sweet basil. Princess was not satisfied with the taste and so she went to look for the basil seedlings in Cold Storage again. The first time she bought it, it was the last pot left and it was not properly labelled. When she discovered that what she bought the first time was Thai basil, she decided to get the right one this time. The pesto sauce was great even though it was Thai basil .......... I wonder whether she is going to make pesto sauce again this time with the correct basil?????? Oh ya, the Thai basil plant was already removed from the herb garden and is now in the compost after collecting the seeds.

Having a herb garden is really a boon to kitchen and the key to extra delicious dishes. Working around the herb plants are always so rewarding because ahhh!!! so delicious scents. Fresh herbs are always the best.

Snatch Thieves

This evening while I was tending to my mini farm I heard someone shouted "Ooi"!! I look up over the wall fence, I saw a youth running towards a waiting motorcycle with a ladie's hand bag in tow. By the time I realised that it was a snatch thief, all I could do was also "Ooi"!! How I wish I was closer so that I can clobber those thieves with the hoe in my hand with no pity...... those swines, or even note down the registration number of the motorbike.

The victim was an elderly lady maybe in her sixties, she just pick herself up and continued on her way quickly.......... I wonder whether she was too shocked to comprehend what just happened or just wanted to quickly get to her destination of her safety zone.

My mum was also a victim before, those scoundrels snatch the plastic bag with her cell phone in it while she was walking to the market in the morning. My mum-in-law too lost her gold chain to one of this scums and recently my wife's very close friend too was a victim.

People out there, please be very careful and if you are abled bodied, please do something. Those parasites of society need to be eliminated ........ yes I am angry ........VERY ANGRY!!!

The Fountain

About six months had passed since we set up a fountain to add a water element to our house. The fountain is now more natural with the ecological cycle going through its cycle and stabilising the water quality. Some say the brown fungus growth are yucky!!! ......... yucky?? I don't think so because it is a very important part of the ecosystem ......... looks yucky maybe but not yucky.

The inhabitants are very happy with the quality of life in there and are really having a great time in there. So far I have only changed the water once in the very early stage because of contamination. Till now it is great, no problem at all and all the fishes are very healthy.

The plants ......... beautiful ya!!! the bamboo is kind of a bonsai kind which I did it myself, the yam leaf ........ Princess brought it all the way back from Petaling Jaya and the I do not what you call it long leaf kind of plant is from my mum.

The Bread Maker

Yesterday our bread maker made a squeak while doing its job and died. Luckily my wife heard it, if not we would not have any bread for breakfast this morning……. she continued baking the bread in the oven.

The bread maker had been with us for a while and had really served us well. From day one when we had it our bread were exclusively homemade and it had not failed us before except when someone decided to climb the lamp post with their car and cause a power disruption in the vicinity ….hehe!!! Other than bread my wife used it for kneading dough to make buns and pizza base.

This morning I did a surgery on the bread maker hoping that it is just a minor problem …….. nope one of the wires with the connector at the circuit board was burnt. The wire looks like it is connected to some kind of sensor and I guess the circuit board must be having some kind of problem too.

Me no electrician if it is dead, it’s dead.

Collecting Seeds

The next step in my farming adventure at this stage I guess is to ensure continuity.......... yes seed collection. For most of the plants I still have lots of seeds especially those that I collected from the kitchen. For those that I bought it is increasing in varieties ......... hehe!!!! I also received some more seeds from my sister-in-law from USA recently ....... :) wow seeds every where!!!!

OK my plan is to allow each plant/fruit to grow to maturity so that I can collect the seeds of the breeds that I like most when my stocks run low. For hybrids I will not do it because from what I read the chances of getting freak plants is very high when planting from seeds of hybrid plants.

At the moment I need to collect the seeds from the basil plant that my Princess bought from Cold Storage as seedlings. We have collected more than enough of the leaves for the moment, even distributed some to lucky people .......... organic air dried hand prepared basil .......wow!!! hehe!!! Since there was more than enough to go round, I decided to let it flower so that I can collect the seeds. From what I read the leaves should be collected before the plant start to flower and the flower buds should be removed to extend the period for leaves collection. Leaves collected after the plant had flowered are not as pungent so is of lower quality to people who enjoy basil.

Collecting the seeds is not difficult. The flowers were left to mature on the plant itself ......... deciding when the flowers were ready for harvest is a little difficult since it was my first time. I made two harvest two make sure that the flowers were matured enough. After harvesting, they were left to dry for a couple of days.

To separate the seeds from the pods need to be careful because the seeds are quite fine. Make sure it is not windy or else the wind can just blow them away. Using the thumb and first finger, rubbed the dried pods and the seed will fall out but make sure it falls into a container so that it will not be blown off. Need some basil seeds???

A New Chapter

My organic mini farm is now into a new chapter, an unpleasant one though ........ yes pests. When I had an active part in the economic chain, I had to deal with lots of pests but of a different kind. Dealing with human pests I had a lot of experience in but garden insect pests ........ it's totally new for me.

Last week I noticed that the leaves of the okra plant is turning yellow and some of the leaves have a layer of white powdery stuff on it. One of the bell capsicum looks retarded ...... at first we thought it was a different species. The brinjal leaves were rather holy .......... oops!! I mean fully of holes.

Inspected the leaves one by one and found that there were lots of activity going on some of them. Little township were already established on the underside of the leaves while some were in the process of construction and the pest were already partying..........Whoaa!!! this is bad. Surf the net to find a suitable solution to this problem.

Some of the sites suggested chemical pesticides and send them to kingdom come ........... hehe!!!! very tempting but I am into organic ........ not interested in poisioning myself and family ........ you know like the current melamine cases. Some recommended using a mild soap solution .......... naa!!! chemicals too!!!

From my research there are good bugs and naughty bugs, the trick is to control the number of naughty kind of bugs with the good kind. One of the most effective way without using chemicals is of course physically removing them. The worst pest at the moment are aphids, they are also carrier of plant disease and is transmitted when they suck the juice from the plants. They even deposite some kind of sweetish stuff that encourages somekind of whitish coloured fungus to grow and damage the plant.

Pests ....... Ooooooo!!!! this pesky little things BUT I still think the worst kind of pest are those of the human kind .......

"Sio Bak" & "Chiak Sio"

"Sio Bak" is Hokkien for roast pork and "Chiak Sio" is lean roast. For the Chinese roast pork is traditionally eaten with lean roast. The part for the roast pork must be from the belly and the lean roast usually just any lean part will do .......... the seasoning is different but I think it is quite simple. If you want to know I'll have to ask my wife, she is the expert, me I just eat only hehe!!

A great "sio bak" is not only in the taste but also in the bite and feel, all have to be perfect to make it special. If you have eaten "sio bak" I am sure you know what I mean right! There are just "sio bak", so so one and wow!!! mouth watering kind. The mouth watering kind is really hard to come by ............ it has to be perfect in taste, the meat is juicy and tender, the skin .......cruck cruck cruck yup crispy and crunchy ........ just thinking of it is making my mouth watering .........whoa!!! After much trial and error in the past, my wife's "sio bak" is classified in the mouth watering section ....yum yum!!! I think the trick is in the process of roasting.

From young I had never really fancied "chiak sio" because it is boring until my mum started making it herself. Stall bought "chiak sio" is meaningless, usually fibrous, dry and tasteless. My mum taught my wife how to do it and she made some modification to perfect it. Her "chiak sio" is full of taste, smooth and juicy making you always wanting more after the first piece. In simple words "HO CIAK"

Clocks

Clocks are indeed a timeless piece of machine and time stop when they stop working ............ craps eh! .......... hehehe!!!!

I like pendulum clocks and I have quite a number of them in my home but none are antique clocks because I don't believe in buying them ............ if you want to give me one thank you!! The pendulum wall clocks are really a pleasing sight and they will never be outdated, yes timeless.

A couple of days ago I just got two of my pendulum wall clocks working again with new quartz electronic clock work. The first one was from Germany which I bought when I was there in the nineties and hand carried it back all the way home. The original clock work was quartz electronic and I had to replaced it once before because it died ............ so now it is the third time.
The second clock is a fully mechanically pendulum wall clock and it was the first mechanical pendulum clock that I bought. It was made in China, a replica of some kind of antique clock ......... I think it is the Lipizzaner Horse Clock which was made in Germany. The escapement gear was worn out unevenly and thus it was not able to keep accurate time. I tried to adjust the rocker to keep the time right but ........... no result and I guess the only option was to change the escapement gear or change the mechanical clock work to quartz electronic ........... I decided on a quartz electronic since it is much easier to replace.
Now I have three quartz electronic pendulum wall clock and the third one is a replica of a classic school house long drop regulator "a" clock made by Citizen. This one has been with us for quite a long time now and it is still keeping good time. It did gave some trouble like stop working but I managed to get it started again .......... I don't know how but I did it ...... hehe!!
Another four pendulum wall clocks are mechanical and they are running perfectly. Three were China made, antique replicas and another is Japanese .......... Seiko I think. It is really an old boring mechanical pendulum wall clock and it had been around for more than thirty years I think. Actually it had already stop working when I got it and I managed to revive it.

Other than pendulum wall clocks there are also other types of clocks in the house including one in the upstairs toilet. One day I think the pendulum wall clocks are going to be worth quite a fair bit ............ don't you think so?

A Treat

Yesterday our Princess gave us a lunch treat at the Saravanah Indian Restaurant down the road, yes it was a banana leaf curry rice treat for lunch. It was a great treat but I can't really say much about the food now. The last time we were there the food seems to be tastier but this time it is either too salty or just blend, the veggies were OK though. At the end of the meal there was a small surprise .......... a sweet desert drink. Thanks for the treat Princess. Pictures courtesy of Princess cellphone camera.

Trellis

My trellis is completed and it is made of bamboos that I collected from the fence. I intent to use it for planting angled luffa and zucchini. The zucchini seeds I got it from my sister-in-law from the United States. She brought it back when she was on holiday.

The bamboos are now dry and they feel strong but the final product look flimsy. I wonder whether it is strong enough ....... guess I'll have to wait until ........ hey!! maybe I can reinforce it, better safe than sorry ya!!

Black Forest Gateau

Black Forest Gateau is a cake that my wife had really mastered. My first taste of this cake is like err .... more than thirty years ago and that was when my wife then my girlfriend .......first learned to make it from a teacher friend and she loved it. Everybody loved the black forest gateau and she loved the compliments that comes with it. The taste is just ..... mmmmmm!! heavenly........ yum yum!!!!

The appearance is .... err the creativity is great you should see some of the cakes she made and decorated when she was into selling them. The Black Forest Gateau was a hit and the best seller too!! Nowadays she only sell her cakes to a selected few lucky people only. Our wedding cake, she made it too and the guest just couldn't get enough of it.

Other than black forest gateau, her range of cheese cakes are fantastic too. Eclairs, cream puff, steam cake .......... all yummy yum yum!! not only is she a great cook but a great baker too!! Join me for a piece !!

Veggie Bed Rehabilitation

After the harvest of the leafy veggies, the process of growing them is complete and the bed need to be rehabilitated before another batch of veggies can be planted. It is a good feeling to know that I have completed the whole cycle of planting veggies from seeds to the dinning table ......... really great!!

Rehabilitating the bed is pretty easy, just dig up the whole bed just like ploughing and replenished it with compost. My idea of doing this is to get rid of the weeds that were starting to grow every where and any where around or on the bed. It is also to aerate the soil and add in more nutrients for the next batch of veggies. The bed need to mulched too!

Princess made some weather proof labels for the mini farm and it really help in keeping track when the veggies can be harvested ............ I like it.... :)

BBQ

BBQ is a great way to eat, not the commercial kind but our own kind is always the best. My Princess is home from her first semester break of her final year in uni. Being a food lover like me she proposed to have a BBQ and we had it last Monday. The best way to really enjoy a BBQ is to make it private so our only "guest" were my mum and mum-in-law.

Making it private is the best because we do not need to worry about the guest and usually the host will end up not eating. Commercial BBQ is boring, no choice just eat what is available, sometimes have to fight for the food too!! Private .........ahhh!!! Yes is the best kind, we can decide how to eat, what to eat, how well to cook, eat and cook ...... play with fire ........... many many things to enjoy!!!

We had lamb, seasoned with organic rosemary from our very own herb garden. Other ingredients errr.......have to ask my wife she seasoned it. It was really delicious barbecued to exactly the way I like it by myself....hehe!!! The chicken wings were seasoned by Princess and barbecued to perfection by her ........ yum yum ....it's great. Potatoes in jacket, really yummy with butter and organic basil also from our herb garden. Fish, red snapper, baked in foil with spicy sauce a'la home minister style ............ "ho ciak!!!". The calamari and the mussels hmmm ............ just heavenly mouth watering with the special sambal sauce specially prepared by my wife. The salad was fantastic too!

It was a fantastic BBQ, everyone had a great time and our tummy were filled to the brim. If you really want to have a great BBQ, yes do it yourself privately. :)