Monday, February 25, 2013

Water Snake Year Harvest Kick Off

 I hope its not too late to wish Happy Chinese New Year. Here is a summary of what we have been harvesting since the Water Snake Year has started according to Chinese calendar. I have not had much opportunity to snap photos of what we have been harvesting as keeping busy with the kids. So here a few of the ones shown in pictures as a memory. We have been harvesting Butterfly Pea flowers daily to make blue syrup drinks for the kids. The butterfly pea flowers only bloom for one day, so the more you pick them the more they bloom for you. Average daily we make about 3 big bottle mineral water size for the kids. So about 5 litres a day at least. The kids play a lot outside so they have some cold water to drink. Since we came back, I am happy to report that we also been harvesting edibles from the ones we grown ourselves finally. Our first okra batch has finally bears fruits. Radishes also beginning to grow edible roots to enjoy. Assam Jawa or known as tamarind been falling from the trees to collect. Nam nam fruits also has been bearing fruit quite well. I tried cooking nam nam fruit with our traditional dish 'Asam Pedas' with stingray and it was really delicious. Ahem...had second servings.
 Ilhan and Rayyan has been helping to pick bird-eyes chillies. We never sow them, self-seeded easily in the garden everywhere like weeds, courtesy of birds.
Winged beans also added into our harvest basket this month. We also had a few alpine strawberries for Ilhan and Rayyan to enjoy. Not easy to add into the harvest basket as the berries usually goes straight into the small hand and pop into their little mouth in a blink of an eye.
 Finally we have some Asian greens to harvest like choy sum and red giant mustards. These are from the seeds we harvested from our old garden and I am very happy that they grow really well here. In fact they grow so much faster here. We also harvested some sweet leaves which is known as 'Asin-asin' or cekur manis here. Several calamansi limes for my favourite 'Sambal Belacan'. The kids going bananas over the banana harvest. We managed to harvest 2 small pamelos. 
We had rose apple and pink guava too. The kids enjoyed their first fresh pink guava juice. 
Amaranth or Chinese spinach self-seeded everywhere in the garden. We have a few sapodilla and velvet apple also know as mabolo in Phillipine are also harvested since the water snake year begun. Frangipanis have been blooming so nicely this month and I love to pluck a few bloom to enjoy the fragrance.
 So happy since December, we collect our own eggs now. The boys love to help collecting the eggs. I think they enjoyed it a bit too much. Because right after the hens lay egg, the boys go pick the egg still very warm to touch.

 Visit Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday to see other gardeners all around the globe share their harvest stories.

29 comments:

Kancil 8349 said...

pergh..sedapnya semua nie...

Mariez said...

when I was child, I used to collect eggs.. very very miss that moment.. :)

Anonymous said...

teringat memori KA waktu kutip telur mcm ni kecil2 dulu.. teruja sagt !

suri said...

salam.. hai..
cantik bunga2 itu. ditanam depan halaman rumah ker?

Unknown said...

Diana; itu lemon betul atau timun lemon..macam yang saya order.... can't wait to semai.

smRose said...

uiiiii, banyak nyier...jelez I

Mark Willis said...

Wow, that is already an enormous and very diverse harvest! Lots of fruit and veg that I know nothing about too. What is a Nam Nam fruit, and how do you use it?

veggiegobbler said...

Those blue flowers are lovely - and you make a blue drink with them? My kids would love that!

Liz said...

Fabulous harvest - I love the variety and how different it is from mine. Especially loved the blue flowers - my 3 year old would love that drink - he's going through an everything has to be blue stage.

Sue Garrett said...

The flowers make the harvest baskets look very artistic.

Sunray Gardens said...

Fantastic harvest. Interesting on the blooms you use also.
Cher Sunray Gardens

rainfield61 said...

I drink mixed juice of lemon, apple and bitter gourd every morning.

That makes me think of your lime.

olive said...

too too too much harvest u have!!SO wonderful! these really involve so much of work even eating them. Can u finish all of them?

kitchen flavours said...

Wow, fantastic harvest! I'm so envious!

Anonymous said...

Those pea flowers are *gorgeous*!

Barbie~ said...

Amazing harvests! I'm jealous.

Norma Chang said...

My mouth started watering looking at your tamarind pods, how I would love to have some right now.
A very diverse and bountiful harvest indeed.

JGH said...

Last year I grew some purple podded peas and I thought their flowers were pretty, but those blue butterfly flowers are incredible! And how cool that you can tint the drinks with them!
Beautiful eggs too. I didn't know you had hens!

Lisa said...

What a beautiful harvest! I love tamarinds.

kitsapFG said...

I am always amazed at the diversity of things you harvest from your garden. Those blue butterly pea flowers are just stunningly beautiful.

KL said...

Please share some of your recipes as I love Malaysian and Thai food. Amaranth is called chinese spinach? Wow! because the plant originated from India. Pink Guava.....yummy...simply not possible to get them here in the US :-(...they have such a fragrance and taste.

cookingvarieties said...

hi diana, you have green fingers- always have non stop harvests..so much fun especialy for your cute anak.
happy gardening.

Malar said...

butterfly pea flower can be used to make juice?
Fresh eggs? wow!

helentea said...

velvet apple tu buah yg kulit dia berbulu and kite kene gune sabut utk buang bulu dia kan? skin color pink and isi kaler putih.. lupe dah nama pokok ni. kat kg kat alor star atok saya tnm. bile balik semua berebut nk petik.pastu gatal2 kene bulu dia..jrg2 dpt mkn buah ni skrg..

Kelli said...

It all looks wonderful!

Charmcitybalconygarden said...

That's awesome. You have a great combination of fruits and vegetables! really amazing!!

Kirsty @ Bowerbird Blue said...

the blue flowers just look divine, makes me want to try your drink

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Kancil8349, SM Rose~ Syukur Alhamdulillah dapat rezeki ni.

Mariez~ It is a very good moment that every child should have an experience collect eggs.

Kesuma Angsana~ Anak-anak saya pun excited sangat kutip telur sekarang.

Suri~ Bunga-bunga tersebut kebanyakkan di kebun belakang rumah yang dipetik sambil-sambil tuai hasil di kebun.

Dr. H~ Yang ni lemon betul.

Mark~Nam nam fruit is a native here and commonly eaten raw or with rojak sauce.

Veggiegobbler & Liz~ Yes we make blue syrup drink with just boiling them in water. My kids call them 'SMURF' drink.

Sue~ I have been picking the flowers especially frangipani maybe because I miss them so much.

Cher~ The butterfly pea blooms can also be eaten together with salad as nasturtium or calendula.

Rainfield61~I have not have the chance to sow bitter gourd seeds yet. Will also follow suits once we have our own bitter gourd to harvest.

Olive~I usually share the harvest with neighbours or friends. It does takes time to harvest them.

Kitchen flavours, Foodgardenkitchen, Barbie~ The rain has helped with the harvest. Now that we have less rain in a week, I started to get worried.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

JGH~ Its my mother's hens. I might have to get some chicks to replace some that have mysteriously died.

Norma Chang, Lisa and Robb~ My second son like to eat the tamarinds as well.

KitsapFG~ The butterfly pea flowers only stay bloom a day. So we have to regularly pick them.

KL~ Yes amaranth sometime is also known as Chinese Spinach. I will try to write down some recipes.

Cookingvarieties~ I hope my anak will appreciate growing their own food.

Malar~ Yes you can make smurf drink with the butterfly pea flower and very easy.

Helentea~Velvet apple tu local panggil buah magenta, berbulu dan selalu buang bulunya dulu. Kalau tak masak takut kelat rasanya.

Kelli~ The veggies are photogenic?

Charmcitybalconygarden~ That is our share and mostly more than half goes to the other creatures living at the backyard.

Kirsty~The blue flowers is said to be growing in Australia at mining area to repair the soil.