Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Returned after 2 weeks

 Actually we just returned from our trip to Sabah for about 2 weeks last Friday. The whole family went this time leaving the garden to look after itself. I thought that there was a period went without rain looking at the garden surrounding but I might be wrong because the weeds were hiding a lot of plants. Three separate section of veggie patches that I did direct sowed some seeds the day before our departure surprisingly were doing fine and I found many heat-tolerant seedlings. I should be happy looking at many new seedlings that does much better when we are not around. I was so surprised the home-saved angled luffa seeds from Adelaide that I direct-sowed 2 weeks ago, now has grown more than 40cm tall! Today harvest summary is what needed to harvest quick after we returned last Friday. I am not sure what variety this banana that we harvested last Saturday. I am glad that the banana is still there after I returned since I have been waiting to taste the fruit. We were not sure of the harvest timing. But when I did a quick tour at the back, I found some of the bananas the skin has started to split. In contrast to the usual ripe yellow banana in the market, this banana variety when young is brownish red which turns to green when ripe. Not sure how to enjoy this banana yet, still sitting on the kitchen counter top. Maybe try with fritter first?
 We managed to harvest a few papayas to our surprised since we always have many competitors. The long switch period of drought and shower causes a few lemon fruits to crack on the plant. Not only the lemons are effected but other fruits such as Jackfruit as well as we observed in the garden which tells a story about how the weather has been these last 2 weeks in our area.
 These few days, my husband has been clearing up an area at the backyard in the afternoon because we found many group plants of bananas dried up suddenly and a coconut plant dying. In the process of clearing up that area, cassava plants were also taken out. So we had some cassava tubers. Monday main menu was 'cassava', lunch we made cassava fries like the French fries and dinner we boiled the tubers and ate with sambal. Out of curiosity, I added a few butterfly pea flowers into the boiling water and the tubers flesh soaked the blue natural colouring. Instead of white tubers, we got bluish tubers. The area which is in the proses of clearing up, we thought of transplanting snake fruit seedlings which the seeds I have grown from my father-in-law plant end of last year. We already have a big mature male snake fruit plant but not female. I don't think my parents realised before that snake fruit plant has separate male and female plant when they grow them at first. I am thinking of growing the snake fruit some of it along the fence to hinder trespasser from easy access because snake fruit plant is very thorny. In the plan, we also like to grow sugarcane, ginger and pineapple. The ducks starts to lay eggs again.
 Some chicken eggs to collect when we returned. Mulberries for Rayyan. The calamansi lime that I gave some goat manure last month seems to be producing more flowers this week.








Please send me your address details for the seeds at this email address (kebunkmg@gmail.com) .



24 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

Wonderful harvests. I always love when my seedlings do what they are supposed to. I'm never sure though.

David Velten said...

Two weeks is a long time to be away from the garden. How lucky to come home and find things are OK. I hope you and the family enjoyed the trip.

africanaussie said...

Oh I don't know how I missed that giveaway! I have had some of those red bananas before - we just ate them fresh and they are lovely and sweet but firm. We pick our pawpaw as soon as they show a bit of colour otherwise the birds will get them. They ripen just fine on the kitchen bench.

黄清华 Wong Ching Wah said...

Alls well ends well ! good harvest !

Norma Chang said...

Would love to have some of your tropical fruits. Just reading about them is making my mouth watering.

MaDiHaA a.k.a Ratna said...

pisang tu kalau tak silap akak.. namanya pisang raja udang kan? akak belum pernah lagi mencuba kecuali ada sekali dulu masa pegi beraya.. akak makcik tu buat pulut dakap dengan menggunakan pisang raja udang sebagai intinya.. pada akak.. rasanya sedap juga..
pokok salak tu memang ada pokok jantan & pokok betinanya... dulu tak tau juga.. tp lepas arwah ayah akak tanam sekeliling rumah barulah tau.. nak bagi buahnya lebat kita kena tolong buat pendebungan dgn meletakkan bunga jantan pada bunga betina yang baru keluar.. insyaAllah memang lebat buahnya sampaikan nak harvest pun susah berbanding dengan tandan yang tak dibuat pendebungaan... buahnya jarang2.. hehe..

tak dpt nak imagine mcamana rupa ubi kayu rebus warna biru.. hehe..

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

So awesome when a garden produces and it's just waiting for your return. Nice going on putting out the seeds when you left. We were on a trip recently and when we came home--strawberries. Always a great surprise.

Michelle said...

You've always got so many interesting things that I could never hope to grow. It's always so much fun to see what you are harvesting. Hope you had a fun couple of weeks away.

kitsapFG said...

Wonderful that you were able to get away for a few weeks and have the garden do so well in your absence. Lovely harvests again this week - so exotic and interesting to look at!

gina marna said...

Terima kasih untuk hadiah give away :)...masa kecik2 dulu takut sgt bila tgk pokok pisang tuu (pisang udang) sebab ada drama tv kisah hantu pokok pisang udang...hehe childhood memories.

Unknown said...

Salam and good day!

Mark has introduced me this blog :)

Well, can we plant potatoes in Malaysia. How>?

:)

cikmanggis said...

ya Madiha..pisang raja udang tu.Sedap.

ooo banyaknya bunga Telang.Boleh buat jus tu Diana :)

Sunray Gardens said...

Nice harvest still with lots of variety still.
Cher Sunray Gardens

Kancil 8349 said...

cantiknya...lain dari yang lain

Liz said...

Your harvest looks fabulous as always. That's a really interesting combination of things to cook with. I am also intrigued by the shape of your lemons - are they a different variety or does the heat make them elongate?

Ummu Madihah said...

Salam Diana,

Memang for the past two weeks panas ting-ting dan bila hujan pula lebat tapi sekali-sekala aja. Alhamdulillah pokok2 Diana survive semuanya. Banyak pula tu hasil tuaian!

Mac said...

Wonderful harvest, love tropical fruits but can't grow, envious envious envious!

Anonymous said...
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KL said...

I was away and thus missed your seed give away post. Darn! I could have participated and won as the flowers look so beautiful. I hope you had a nice time away. I never knew Malaysian ate cassava; somehow, I always that it's eaten only by Africans.

Malar said...

That's good harvest back from holiday! Besarnye pisang!

kitchen flavours said...

Hi Diana,
I have never seen that variety of banana before, turned green when ripe? Interesting, the opposite of the other bananas!
Lovely harvest!

Anonymous said...

walla wei masih sempat jalan2 lagi yer

Stephanie said...

Hey, wonderful to hear from you. You take care and happy harvesting :-D

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Daphne ~ Sowing the seeds are like investment I guess there are also risk behind it and surprises.

David Velten~ We enjoyed the trip very much. Yes gardener will always miss their garden when they are away.

AfricanAussie ~ Yes the birds really like pawpaw. The ones we could not reach will be for the birds which will help scatter the seeds around the garden.

Wong Ching Wah ~ feeling blessed with what we found scarvenging at the backyard.

Norma Chang~ Natural ripe tropical fruit will taste much better.

Kak MadiHaA ~ Yang ni bukan baka pisang raja udang dah tanya ayah Diana. Dia kata lebih mirip macam pisang tembaga. Tapi mungkin lain sebab baka diambil dari Sabah. Bila dah masak sangat tak berapa sesuai nak buat pisang goreng atau jemput-jemput terlerai isinya. Tapi rasanya manis sedap. Dekat rumah mertua pokok salak rajin berbuah.

Gardener on Sherlock Street ~ Strawberry Surprise is always very welcoming :).

Michelle ~ Here I am wishing that I can grow some of your harvest :).

KitsapFg ~Missed you Laura very much. I was really surprised that I can't admire your lovely photos of your garden and harvest anymore.

Gina Marna~ Seronok tengok bunganya dah mula kembang di taman Gina.

Forskning Beta ~ You can try grow potatos in Malaysia. But will need a lot of tender loving care. Not as easy as growing topiaca.

CikManggis ~ Bunga telang naik merata-rata macam rumput dekat kawasan rumah.

Cher ~ The changing of weather and monsoon does make the basket has different goods to harvest each month.

Kancil9349 ~ Setiap kebun ada kelainannya.

Liz ~ There are different variety of lemon. We have several different varieties growing in the garden. The long oval shape ones are very easy to grow here.

Ummu Madihah ~

Salam mak Aji,
Syukur Alhamdulillah ada tuaian juga lepas ditinggalkan selepas 2 minggu. Tanaman ni bila ada tuannya manja, bila takde tuannya pandailah pula menjaga diri.

Mac ~ Here I am envious that you can grow fruit plants that need to stay dormant during winter, and some chilling to trigger flowering.

KL ~ If you like the butterfly pea seeds you can email me and I have many to share. I thought only ASEAN people eat cassava, so while I was in Australia I was amazed that African eat them too. Many frozen cassava are available in the Asian grocery shop in Australia.

Malar ~ Takde lah sebesar pisang tanduk ;) .

Kitchen Flavours ~
Hi Joyce,
Yes I found it interesting too. Now I know when to pick these variety of banana.

Kesuma Angsana ~ Sekali-kala lama tak balik sekeluarga.

Stephanie ~ Thank you. Have a nice holiday! Happy New Year.