Pineapples

I followed some instructions from a guy's website and planted a few pineapple plants. The trick is not to cut off the top of the pineapple with a knife but use your hand to twist out the crown of the pineapple instead. It is amazing how easily the top of the pineapple comes off with a twist of the wrist. Two of the plants are fruiting now.

After growing pineapples for a couple of years, you must really appreciate the hard work and life of the farmers.

It takes more than a year for the plant to mature to flowering size and you need good earth and plenty of sunlight. All for one fruit that costs at most $4 (the most premium types from Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc). The normal Malaysia type (Honey pineapple) costs only $1.30 for a large fruit in NTUC supermarket and 70 cents in the AMK market. There is really no justice if you consider how much the farmer actually gets for one fruit (30 cents maybe) after growing it for a year while some bastard sips champagne, smoke cigars and makes billions selling some junk shitty crap bonds.

A Very Pretty Tree Frog

Polypedates leucomystax (Common Tree Frog)

I accidentally found this tree frog while trying to tidy up the contents of a carton box at the back of the house. It tried not to move at first but decided to make a dash for the longan tree. I followed it to the tree and took some pictures.

More information regarding this frog can be found in:- http://www.sbwr.org.sg/Wetlands/text/99-6-2-1.htm

Huge Caterpillar

This caterpillar is more than 4 inches in length and is as thick as my thumb!

This caterpillar was accidentally spotted when i wanted to get a cutting of pandan leaf plant for a friend. While i was moving the pandan leaves around i noticed these huge round pellets all over the pandan leaves and getting lodged between the leaves. They reminded me of caterpillar droppings so i looked up and saw that many leaves of my torch ginger had been eaten and only the main vein of the leaf remained. Then i spotted it. I have never seen any caterpillar this size before. It is slightly longer than 4 inches, is green in colour and has a whitish powdery skin. It is now in a cage with lots of leaves to chew on. I can't wait to see what kind of butterfly or moth it turns out to be.

Nutmeg

One of my classmates used to live in Lim Chu Kang area and and i once kept pestering her to show me a nutmeg cos she said there's a nutmeg tree near her house. In Penang, they serve nutmeg syrup drink which is so refreshing on a hot day.

It is actually very easy to make nutmeg syrup. You first need abt 3 kg of the nutmeg fruit, slice the fruits into 2; then slice the flesh into thin slices; put them all into a pot; put a lot of rock sugar (just dump the whole bag in); add water to just cover the fruit slices; bring to the boil and then lower the heat but let it keep at it for abt 20 mins; turn off the gas and wait for it to cool.

You've got concentrated nutmeg juice (nearly a syrup). A thick syrup can be obtained by the steaming method but in my opinion too complicated for the average joe.

If you prefer a stronger flovour, do not skin the fruit and add in the seed together with the red membrane around the seed.

Pink Lemon Grass

While orchid hunting in CTC market recently, i happened to see a very interesting variety of Lemon Grass that i have not seen in Singapore. The leaves are the same but the stalk is deep pink in colour. I am growing one in my backyard now and it has thrown out 4 new growths. Hope to get a large cluster soon.

Cucuma elata flower

My cucuma elata ginger produced a very nice flower stalk recently. This plant is among one of those that managed to escape my "search and destroy" operation a year ago.

The story started from Bangkok three years ago where i bought $5 worth of different types of ginger roots from CTC market, including thai tumeric (different from the local ones in the market). Some cost 10baht while some are 20baht per piece. I put all of them into 3 big planters outside my house and before i knew it i have lots of different gingers sprouting all over the place. Very interesting at first but soon i lost interest and decided to clear the place for rosella, barbados cherry, mulberry and other herbs. So i decided to dig out the ginger roots.

Not as easy as i thought because i did not realise how big the roots have gotten. I dug out enough roots to fill 3 NTUC bags! And some of the escapees produced another round of ginger plants a few months later.

Since they are so lucky i decided to leave them alone so now i still have a few of those that got away.

Scotch bonnet is ripe

The scotch bonnets are ripe now. Must handle with care cos it is very hot!!! My fingers burn for a while when i accidentally touched an opened chili.





Close-up of the chili.