"Nangka Busuk"

"Nangka" is the Malay name for jackfruit and "busuk" is Malay for rotten or smelly and "nangka busuk" is a Malay expression used when someone fall. When a rotten jackfruit fall from a tree and by virtue of its weight it will definately make a thud.

Today I was replacing loss water in the fountain due to evaporation and spilling with a hose direct from the tap. At first the water was clear but turn to a disgusting thick tea colour after a while so I decided to fetch water from our bathroom with a pail because it is filtered so it is much clearer and purer. Why are we paying for dirty portable water??????

The fountain is now much more livelier with plants and fishes in the water, it is really soothing just to look at it. Every morning and evening I'll spent some time "talking" and watching the fishes while feeding them. I like the noen tetra most because of their brilliant colour and their pleasant nature.

So I am sure you can understand why I decided to get the water from the bathroom, yes I just cannot my precious fishes to live in dirty water. Initially I thought of using a normal size pail to fetch the water but decided against because of my bad back and used a smaller even though I have to make an additional trip. The first two trips was fine and on the third trip arrghhh!!!!!!! thud ....... yes I slipped on a small puddle that I spilled and "nangka busuk" ouch!!!!. I broke my thumb nail and my thumb is still hurting, so is my butt. :)

SCUBA Diving

The ocean is a mysterious, exciting, interesting with lots of fun place and scuba diving is a great sports ......... is my favourite. The very first time I saw people scuba diving was on TV in the sixties, yes I was still a kiddo then but I knew that is something that I really wanna do someday. The TV program was Sea Hunt and whenever it was on I will be glued right in front of the screen, it was black and white then. Even thought it was black and white I was really fascinated with the view underwater. Hundred and fifty-five episodes of this show were produced and I watched every single one.

At that time most of my diving adventures were in the bath tub with a hose for breathing ....... hehe!!! The bath tubs we had at that time was just an extra large pot for holding water and it was not meant for soaking in. A used large Planta can was used to scoop water for a typical Malaysian splash bath. Well at least I can say that I had dive in a place where even Jacques Yves Cousteau have not explored ......... hehe!!!

After having explored every nooks and corner of the large bath pot and much older, I took my first official scuba diving course to be a certified diver in 1985. My first dive was off Pulau Pemanggil and oh wow!!!! it is really beautiful and it is in colour .......... the feeling is just out of this world. After about three years of active diving our group disbanded because everyone were busy trying to make a living. It was really terrific to be able to do something that I had really wanted to as a kid. At that time when I was only able to dive in the large bath pot, I never knew that I would really be scuba diving .......... it's great.

My last scuba diving trip was in year 2003 to one of the ultimate international scuba diving destination, Sipadan. Yes Sipadan is really a diving haven for scuba divers and it is a must go destination for most scuba divers. I had wanted to visit this great diving place ever since I heard about it when I started scuba diving ........ err real scuba diving not the one in the bath pot. The pictures here were all taken in Sipadan. Let's go to Sipadan !!! :)

Planting Seeds

Now that I have both coir (brown) and peat moss (black), I am going to do a simple experiment which the results will decide on which media I will use in future. This is the first time I am using both coir and peat moss.

The plant that I am planting is brassica which I had very low germination rate over the last three batches I had planted. The seeds are from the same supplier and all other conditions will be the same except for the media.

To make sure that the environment is the same I have created a mini green house by reusing disposable food containers ......... great idea huh!!! :)

Preparing Coir

Coir, yes it is coconut husk .......... it had been awhile since I got the two coconut husk from the drink seller down the road. Decided to prepare it for planting some seeds today since I had finished preparing a new bed to take in more plants in the mini farm.

The first thing to do is to separate the fibrous part from the hard nutty part ........... it is not as difficult as I had imagine it, guess being born in the year of the monkey really help huh!! hehe!! After separating the two parts cut the fibrous part about three centimeters or so then find a suitable way to make the fibrous parts into finer chips. Initially I wanted to reuse a kitchen chopper but was unable to revive it after spending one and the half days trying to modify it to make it work ............ so it is back to the mortar and pestle which I have got official approval from the home minister. My princess helped me to pound the coconut husk which help in breaking the monotony of pounding. WARNING!!! If you are not the home minister please refrain from using any kitchen thingy from the home minister's kitchen like food processor, blender and so on ............ unless you are ready to face the consequences...... you know what I mean hehe!!!

After making the coconut husk into finer chips I some of them into a few starter pots to see what will happen to it after twenty four hours. Oh ya!! the knife that I use to cut the coconut husk with is my scuba diving knife ......... :)

First Harvest

Today is the thirty-ninth day since I had a first successful batch of choi sum or brassica that actually germinated. Even though the germination rate is about forty percent of the total number of seeds I planted, I am proud to say all germinated seeds grew to maturity and eaten today ...yum!! yum!! It is really tasty, my wife cook it with soy noodle for dinner less than two hours after they were harvested.

It is really good ......... indescribable ........ you will have to imagine it ....... :)

Recycling

Our recycling store is getting overloaded ......... guess it's time to make a trip to the recycling center. Before loading the stuff into the old chariot, I'll have to do some sorting and organised the loading. The loading must be organised to avoid confusion during unloading and weighing at the center. The recyclables were separated into paper, plastics and metal ........ no glass why huh???? Old bottles are not accepted by the recycling center in Malacca and I do not have the slightest idea why .......... can somebody enlighten me??? The recyclables can be sent to the recycling center unsorted but the returns are much less compared to sorted recyclables.

The recycling center we send our recyclables to is Ong Peck Seng or OPS in short. I think OPS is named by the children of the original founder of this company because OPS is a bit more hip ......you know like YSL hehe!!!! Anyway OPS had been around for a real long time and is the largest in Malacca with a real good reputation.

Recycling is a great way to keep our environment healthy ............ have you done your part yet? :)

Farm Expansion

With new seeds in hands and a already fully planted mini farm, I guess it is time to start making more raised beds to accommodate more varieties of veggies. Making the raised bed now is much easier than the very first time and much faster too after having a mini experience of building a mini three bed farm .......... hehehe!!!!The best time to make or rather to dig the earth is on a hot day when the ground is dry contrary to the believe that a wet ground is easier to dig. My defination of a dry ground is that there is no rain for a day or two and a wet ground is just after a downpour or a day after. A dry ground will break up easily compared to a wet ground which is also heavier due to the water content. The main aim of having raised beds is to loosen the earth to improve air circulation and drainage ..........just like ploughing.

After having the earth turned and shaped as much as possible compost should be worked into the soil. Then the bed is blanketed with a layer of grass clipping mulch and is left to mature for a couple days before seedlings can be transplanted to it. The mulch is to minimise undesirable weed growth and that is how I will build my beds from now.Got to get some seeds planted real soon ......... :)

More Seeds

Having successfully planted all the different seeds that I bought and collected from various sources, I decided to expand the mini farm further by planting more varieties of plants. Off I went to the same seed supplier that I bought my first batch of seeds from.

I was satisfied with the seeds that I bought from this seeds trader except for the one packet of brassica that they repack them self because the germination rate is less than 30%. I made a complaint and he started probing for more details as to how I planted them because he could not believe his product is that bad. After a quick session of questions and answers, he came to the conclusion that the potting media is not right. After a brief explanation he recommended that I make use of pest moss. Peat moss ......... hmmm !!! heard of it but couldn't place where I came across it ............ his explanation is logical so I bought a bag to try out.

When I got home I did further research on potting media in the net and discovered that coir is a more favoured media over peat moss. Coir which is from coconut can easily be sourced from where I am staying. I thought that having successfully made compost is the key to successful organic farming. Guess these are the innocent thoughts of a first time farmer ..............

Armed with new knowledge I went down the road to the drink seller and asked for some coconut shell ..... husk ....... anyway it is the remains of the coconut after the water and the flesh kind of thingy had been remove to be sold to thirsty passerby. The water seller was really happy that I am collecting this coconut thingy from him because it save him the trouble to get rid of it. He told me I am welcome to collect it and it is available everyday.

Now that I got all the materials......... err some knew knowledge too .......I am going to do a comparision on the rate of germination and quality of seedling by using 100% peat moss and 100% coir. :)

Bamboo

Bamboo is a plant with million and one uses with some very hair raising tales....... hehehe!!!! My very first encounter with bamboo was with the leaves yes!!! the always so delicious bak chang my mum used to make, the delicious thingy is wrapped in bamboo leaves.

My early involvement with bamboo was making pop guns, fishing poles and kites as a kid. Pop gun works on compress air principle and the ammo was usually mashed newspaper. Bamboo is great for making kites because of its light weight and strong tensile strength. Haven't played with both of these self made toys for decades and used to have great fun playing with them ......... hmmm!!! maybe I might make a pop gun tomorrow.......hehehe!!!

The kampong I stayed in when I was a kid had lots of wild bamboo patches growing and of different species. The patch that is most suitable for making pop gun or kites is just about a hundred meters behind our house after the undergrowth. About ten meters after the bamboo patch was a house occupied by a scary looking old lady with a shrieky voice. To chop the bamboo from that patch, I used to use my mum's meat cleaver because it is razor sharp ........... errr!!! my mum doesn't know. A very sharp knife is required so that the bamboo can be cut very fast and dragged into the bushes and into our backyard before the scary old woman comes out shrieking. Later on I found out from my mum that the old lady told her that we can cut as many bamboo as we like. Guess it must be just imagination of a kid's mind that the old lady is scary.

I was a boy scout when I was in school and I always attend our camp fire. It was really fun during the campfire with all the singing, eating, jumping around and off course the girl guides. Anyway the campfire usually end around 10:00pm and my only mode of transport was by bicycle. I lived about eight kilometers from school and I had to cycle most part of the journey home alone. I am sure if you are in my generation and living in Malaysia you must have come across some kind of a eerie supernatural story right???? During that time the road was not that brightly lit at night and the road leading to my place after the town was quite deserted. Along the way there is a huge patch of bamboos just beside a mosque, on cool moon lit breezy night, the shadows and rustling of the swaying bamboo always without fail recall eerie stories like pontianak into mine mind .......... my legs will start to pedal real fast until I reached home ............. guess what I am not getting goose bumps ........ looks like it is not that scary anymore .............................

Today I collected some fence bamboo to make trellis for my mini farm :)

First Bloom

Remember the chili seedling that I thought have no chance of growing? Well I am wrong, due to my inexperience I made that stupid conclusion but my green side made me investigate further .......... yup!! to go right down to the grass root level. So with a hand shovel I started digging up the poor little plant and guess what????? The seed pot was still intact and therefore its roots were not able to grow. This is what I would call a classic case of bonsai syndrome ..... hehehe!!!!

I feel kind of a stupid for just following what I read in the net without thinking ............ I guess the paper core of the toilet roll that we were using takes a longer time to decompose or maybe the weather here causes it to take a longer time. Anyway I decided not to plant anymore of the seedlings with the seed pot. So carefully I tore the seed pot away and treated the bed with more compost before replanting the poor seedling right into the exact same spot. Every morning after that I would inspect it, for four days it looks like it was really struggling to stay alive.

On the fifth morning I was greeted with a new leaf sprouting right on the bud tip ........ whew!!! it is growing. It was really a great

moment, I am not able to describe the feeling I had but it really feel good to have saved the poor seedling.

Today the yellowing little seedling is a healthy little plant and is anxious to catch up with lost time, the very first flower in the mini farm is from this saved little plant. :)

Croissant

Croissant, no it is not French but it's origin is from Vienna just like the Danish pastry. Both are great breakfast food.

I have loved croissants for breakfast for a long long time now .......... toasted with melted butter and marmalade or just with fried egg ......... either way it taste good. I get my croissants from the store and they are not as tasty as they used to be ........ maybe they changed the ingredients, hmmmm??????? Anyway they are still acceptable.

To have croissants for breakfast, they have to be bought at least a day before and heated up the next morning. Having it with fried eggs, I prefer to heat it up in the wok and make use of the extracted oil to fry the eggs. I like my eggs sunny side up ................ join me for a croissant? :)

Edamame

What exactly is edamame? Can somebody care to enlighten me exactly what it is?

My first experience with this simple but delicious bean was about nineteen years ago, it was my very first encounter with Japanese food. I was treated to a Japanese dinner in a real Japanese restaurant by my first Japanese boss. I do not know anything about Japanese food at that time so I told him I'll eat whatever he ordered. Being a food lover I am always willing to try anything new and guess it was a great opportunity for me back then.

When the edamame came he was "killy kolok killy koloking.... ah so!" away with another Japanese and I decided to help myself to the beans. I took one whole bean pod and put it in my mouth ........... hmmm....it's hairy, wow!!! it is very fibrous like eating wires yucks!!! So poor me not wanting to be impolite I forced myself to swallow it, it was like swallowing steel wool !!! How can anyone eat this I wondered ............ should I try one more??? Maybe that one I had was very old .......... OK I'll try another. Just as I was about to put it in my mouth "No no" he said "you only eat the beans, not the skin" Whew!! just in time and the beans alone minus the skin tasted great, I really like it and learned that it is called edamame.

Now I want to plant edamame but I can't get the seeds here locally so I surf the net. Some site mentioned that it is young soya bean but some said it is a special bean only grown to be a vegetable bean. Guess the only way to find out is to try soya bean, I am trying the black soya bean too :)