Other Fruits

This cherry-like fruit is called Barbados Cherry(Malpighia punicifolia L.). It is rather sour but according to articles on the web it is suppose to be the fruit with the second highest level of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) behind the fruit of rose hips(Rosa rugosa) .
For more info on this plant please visit:-
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/barbados_cherry.html


This is the familiar Thai guava variety with larger fruit. The seller told me that rounder fruits are sweeter.

Here is a pineapple plant sprouting two side shoots after the unripe fruit was eaten by a monkey.

This is a Thai coconut that i brought back from Mr. Lim Song's orchid farm in Penang. I gave one plant earlier to my colleague Mr. Andrew Tan and it had already fruited. I planted mine a year or two later so i am still waiting. According to Mr. Lim, you need to give it lots of salt when it is this size and then soon you will get fruits and this Thai variety fruits early so you actually have to bend down to pluck the fruits!!

This is a view of the Thai coconut beside a local coconut tree.

This is a black sugar cane. This is better than the green type because even the nodes are tender. Sweetness level is the same.

This is obviously a cross between the Longan and Mata Kuching (Cat's Eye). Although the seller at the nursery labelled it as Longan. The fruit can be as big as a Longan but the taste is that of Mata Kuching. The flesh is much thicker than Mata Kuching, very sweet but too soft.

My orchid collections are at:-

http://joestw.blogspot.com/

Good Stuff From The Ground

Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior), the flower that Singaporean hawkers use for Rojak and essential ingredient in many nonya dishes.

The two new growths are of the same height but the one on the left is a flower spike but the one on the right is a new shoot.

The beautiful flower if the flower bud is allowed to open instead of being used for cooking.

Even the little red sunbird thinks so too.

Another good stuff!! Japanese sweet potato. Very sweet and good texture without fibres.

Bananas

A bunch of Pisang 'Rajah'.

Above: Close-up of the bunch.

Left: The plant of Pisang 'Rajah'

This is a red banana variety with a more spicy flavour.

Chillis/Chilis

This chili padi sprouted on its own and grew very fast. It is now beginning to form pods so let's wait and see.

This "Black" chili is actually very dark purple. It has very dark leaves as well. But the plant tends to wither off after producing a crop of chilies. This is very very hot!!! Hotter than chili padi. I am waiting for my scotch bonnet to fruit then i can compare them.

A better view of the black chili plants.

This variety of chili padi is supposedly from Myanmar. The pods are slim and the flesh barely wraps around the seeds as can be seen in the picture.

This is a close-up of the Myanmar chili padi.

Star Fruit.

The first layer of protection is a plastic bag. After which a piece of magazine paper is wrapped around the bag. To protect against squirrels, a bag made from green netting can be wrapped around the bag.

A good size star fruit.

A good harvest, mostly good sized fruits.

To see my orchids please follow this link:

http://joestw.blogspot.com/