Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Kesimpulan tuaian bulan Mac ini

 For these past 2 weeks, we had lots of hot sunny days and not much rain. Thus some plants are balking and some welcome it. Happy plant is the okra bunch.  I have to check on the okra plants every 2 days because the fruits grows so long so fast in just 2 days for about at least 10 cm. The lemons are sulking, the hot weather causes them to ripe too fast and physically they don't look great. Lemon size significantly changes on the smaller side compared to wet season.
 Butterfly pea flower plants is a very cool plant. They don't mind the wet or hot weather. So our kids continue to enjoy their 'Smurf' drink. Everyday we spent at least 15 minutes harvesting the butterfly pea flower blooms.
We harvested some turmeric rhizomes and bandicoot some young ginger rhizomes as well this month.
 I almost missed out the beginning of our burgundy okra harvest since I ignored the place that they were growing for more than a week not expecting the plants will produce anytime soon. The Sweet Large Italian Basil plants are doing very well and I was surprised how big the basil leaves were comparing to other sweet basil I have planted before.
 I was not expecting to get any decent harvest of this variety heirloom sweet corn as the male started to flower in just over a month. From experience, when the male started to poke out too early it is always a sign they are under stress. Well I do know what was the main reason why was this sweet corn batch suffered stress because it was solely depending on rain water. Furthermore, our geese managed to chomp some part of the sweet corn plants as I forgot to close the nettings properly as they were able to poke in their head and tugged the plants. This variety of sweet corn produces a lot of ears, but I decided to harvest them as baby corns because the male pollen has finished up. Calamansi limes are also available but not many. So my aim this week is to prune the citrus family and feed them with some manure or compost. 
 Entering March we started to be blessed with bananas. As we are able to harvest a bunch of bananas from one plant each week. Our cheekie monkies is very happy each time we have them in the basket on the table when they are fully ripe. We have to keep an eye on them or ended with a huge mess of bananas in the kitchen.
 Malay wild eggplants which is a very tiny over 1 cm in length and birds-eye-chillies is wildly growing all over the place courtesy of the birds that like them too. Actually the birds and our part of the share is more than we can eat them. I am very happy the first time I tried growing Baby Blue Jade heirloom corn  and have very good results with it. Although the hen below scratched out the young corn seedlings caused it to uprooted and I have to plant it back feeling no hope for it. Despite that these corn batch did very well.
 But the hot weather brings many death to our egg-laying hens in this month of March. Every week at least 2~3 hens were found dead. Sadly, we now only have 2 hens left. I really need to get more chickens now. Does anyone knows any chick suppliers close to Sungai Buloh area? We really are interested to buy some chicks, please do contact us.

20 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

Lovely harvests. Those bananas looks so wonderful. They are just huge. Too bad about the hens though. I wonder if there is a breed that can handle the heat better.

Lea said...

Wow! Great variety of food you have there! I love okra. It is one vegetabe that really grows well in our hot, hot summer.
Have a wonderful week!
Lea
Lea's Menagerie

rainfield61 said...

You have vegetables,you have chicken...

not too surprise to find that you have cows too.

Mac said...

Beautiful harvest, it's so nice to have homegrown tropical fruits. I grow butterfly pea as annual, people here don't seem to like Smurf color food or drinks so I don't collect the flowers to color foods.

Sunray Gardens said...

What a nice harvest. It's always surprising what all you make use of.
Cher Sunray Gardens

Sue Garrett said...

That's a lot of bananas!

~TastyTravels~ said...

Wonderful harvest! Look at those bananas! I hope you can find a solution for your hens.

Norma Chang said...

Gorgeous and varied harvest. So sorry to learn about your hens, how sad. I too love those bananas, bet they are most delicious.

africanaussie said...

gosh you have a wonderful harvest - how big is your garden? It must keep you busy. I have never seen those small wild eggplant before. I wonder if they would do well here as we have a lot of trouble with bacterial wilt. that is the biggest bunch of bananas I have ever seen.

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

I continue to be amazed at the variety of produce you harvest. Love the smurf drink for the kids! Sorry to hear about the hens. Heat is hard on them for sure. I don't know how many hens you have, but I know some people who freeze water in old milk or soda bottles and lay them out in the pens each day for the poultry to cool down on if they want.

kitsapFG said...

I am sorry to hear you have lost so many of your hens. Your garden production has been amazing though despite the heat and lack of rain. The bananas in particular have me quite jealous! Lucky you to have them and the lemons (even if they are ripening too fast with the heat and dry conditions).

Anonymous said...

Wah mmg best , plg penting hasil usaha sendiri & fresh lagi! Seronok tgk hasil2 tuaian ni ! tumpang happy

Umm AA said...

banyaknya tuaian bulan march nie kan..alhamdulillah..rajin gak mama rayyan nie buat sirap biru yer..mesti diorang suka kan minum ...:)

Stephanie said...

The big bunch of banana wowed me! We always go pasar tani to find good ones and sometimes I do see the whole bunch in the seller's truck like yours, with so many bananas. But sorry to hear about the hens. Sometimes I see small little chicks selling in the market but no regular ones. And yes it has been really hot. Keep hydrated and have a great week ;-)

Kancil 8349 said...

wow...terbaik...banyak hasil kamu eya

nadia rashid said...

macam-macam dapat harvest sonok mcm ni...cuma nak tanya part kunyit tu..berapa lama tempoh tanam sebelum dpt tuai hasil yg banyak tu

Kadazan sis.TRG said...

Hi, nice plants you have there.What a wonderful bananas-mcm pisang karabau ja.I used to plant them when i was small. Now, i used to buy them, ready-to-eat ones.The butterfly peas look healthy as well.Why don't you try to put them in your rice.Then, you'll have "smurf" rice. Like the 'nasi kerabu' in Terengganu.My kids love 'nasi kerabu' very much because it has plenty of 'ulam' to go with it.Maybe you can make some over there.I believe you won't face any problem finding the 'ulams' since you already have a variation of them in your garden.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Daphne~ They must had some fever with the changing weather each week.

Lea~ I am curious how you like to enjoy your okras. It will be nice to learn a new way to cook them.
Rainfield61~ No no no we don’t have any cows yet. But my eldest is asking for a goat.
Mac~Butterfly pea is a good colouring for blue and for green we commonly use pandan leaves.

Cher, Sue, Holly, Norma~ It will be nice if we have a swap produce soon as we are going to have many bananas harvest coming soon from a few plants.

Africanaussie~ Almost an acre of land to grow food. I think they would do well in Queensland these wild eggplant of ours.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

GoSS~ Oh our hens are busy walking all over the garden, they don't sit still at all which is also a problem.

KitsapFG~ The bananas are one of the things that my children enjoy best.

Kesuma Angsana, Kancil 8349~ Syukur alhamdulillah.

UmmuAidan ~ Nakkan diorang minum air banyak, tu buat sirap biru dah kalau diorang bosan air kosong sahaja hehehe...buat air sendiri boleh kawal kadar gula.

Stephanie~ I just realised I can order some chicks close to our place. We just need a nursery place to prepare for them.

Nadia~Kunyit selalunya lebih kurang 8 bulan tunggu untuk dituai. Tapi kadang-kadang saya curi-curi juga sikit kalau pokoknya merimbun.

Kadazan sis. TRG ~Oh pisang kerabau ka tu. Macam tanduk karabau? At the moment we have several beras padi bukit with different colours from Sabah. Will try smurf rice too.

Stephanie said...

That's great :-D