Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Grand Election Week Harvest

We have been staying with my parent in-laws for several days for the grand election at East Coast Malaysia. So the garden has to fend for themselves. We don't have to worry much about watering the plants because almost every day this week the plants received some showers from mother nature almost every afternoon. Due to the rain I have to check on the mulberry plants often as some time during heavy rain the fruits fell from the tree before it turns fully ripe. But Rayyan seems to like sweet sourish fruit so he does not mind even if the mulberry has not turn blackish red in colour. One of the patch that was overgrown with weeds after clearing up salvaged some Asian greens like kailan to harvest. Basil plants are very at the overgrown stage, plenty of pestos can be made from them. We usually harvest them right before we need some basil leaves while cooking.
 This month of May will be the month for hard pruning for some big fruits trees in the garden at the back before we enter hot and dry season. Last week, hubby managed to give a hard-pruning to one very old tall mango tree. Some of the fruits are not reachable even using a long bamboo stick to poke the fruits so they fall. Hubby has to climb the mango tree using a ladder and stand on the tree to chop many branches. After most of the branches were chopped off, Ilhan and Rayyan helped his father to collect the fruits on the chopped branches before their father disposed the chopped branches. The mango tree bears small egg size mango fruits type which commonly used to make pickle when the fruits are young green. I hope my mother will be happy when she returned for a few days next week to see the mango tree has been pruned. She used to prune the mango tree until almost 2 years ago she fell from that mango tree from a high position. From the accident unfortunately she can't moved or used much of her left arm to lift things and has to meet up regularly with physiotherapist. She will celebrate her 60th birthday at the end of this year, so with age will take time to recover and doctor said she exceed her limits using her arm muscles to do stuff. Nope not listening, she still do a lot of hard-pruning (more like whacking) with her right arm each time she returned when she sees her plants competing with light again because I had to pretend not seeing them growing robustly (excuses busy with the 3 kids again). To be honest, looking after an acre land including the house, the TV is hardly switch on. We even had a period where the TV was not switch on at all more than a week. 
 Alternate days through month of May, pea eggplants, bird-eyes chillies, snake beans, calamansi limes and butterfly peas are available to harvest.
 Pattypan squashes has also started to produce. But I am so clumsy each time when I touched them to help with the pollination I broke the stem. Not just pattypan squash but also other squashes growing in the garden.
A few chicken and duck eggs.

10 comments:

JaSSNaNi said...

assalam.. saya datang melawat ni.. tengok macam-macam hasil kutipan hari ni ye.. seronok.. siap telo dan sayo.. complete nak wat masak2.. :) kan..

Mark Willis said...

Sorry to hear about your Mum's accident and subsequent difficulties with gardening, but it's good that she has you and your husband to help out sometimes. We old folks have to take things easy, you know! :)

Kadazan sis.TRG said...

Yeah, one of my active grandmothers also fell from a 'takob-akob' tree a few years back. Even though she's gone now but i still can feel her sufferings when she broke her right hand. Well, your mango seems bearing more fruits this year.Love to eat pickles and 'kerabu mangga'. Do you have any new recipe of the young mango? Looking forward for it....tq

Sue Garrett said...

Do mulberries continue to ripen off the tree?

Daphne Gould said...

Pickled mangos sound so interesting. I wish I could try them.

Kate said...

We're entering our hot, dry season too. There's one good thing about the dry season, the weeds stop growing for a little while.

rainfield61 said...

I have found the first passion fruit growing big in my garden!!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

JaSSNani~ Waalaikumsalam.
Minggu lepas ada telur, minggu ni tiada pula rezeki telur. Ayam dan itik tak larat kut sebab tiba-tiba masuk panas pula.

Mark~ My mother really likes gardening. I always try to buy her some plants she does not have in her collection. Trying to grow more veggies for her too.

Kadazan sis. TRG~ I hope the mango tree will bear more fruit after having a hair-cut. I usually just eat the young mango like that.

Sue~ I am not sure whether the mulberries will ripen of the tree. I don't think the boys will wait for it though.

Daphne~ It is usually better left overnight before enjoying it. But we are never patient ate all of the pickles just a few hours like that.

Kate~ I do really hope the weeds will stop growing. But the plants hopefully won't suffer that much.

Rainfield61~ Many first for you this month in your garden :).

Fay Jesselton said...

My first time at your blog, I love it :)

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Thank you for your visit dear Fay.