White Mollies

I gave up on rearing bigger edible fish. I couldnt bring myself to eating them. So now the plan is to keep prolific breeders. The existing guppies have a stable population. The perch arent multiplying coz there are only 2 left, probably the same sex. Added 5 white mollies. I have had experience with mollies in my indoor aquariums before and know that if they survive the first week from the aquarium shop, they will start to breed. They are live bearers just like the guppies. 

Guppies are dark and blend in well with the aquatic plants, enough to survive the early growth stage. The white molly fry may not be able to hide as well as the guppies to survive the adult climbing perch. I am hoping that there are enough hiding places that some make it to adults. 

19Jan2021 update: crossed the first hurdle and that is all 5 survived more than a week after getting them. The perch dont seem to be bullying any of them which is good.

Brinjal seeds

 I didnt see this guy...

Can you see it? Hidden until it rotted and fell to the ground. The seeds look ready to start many new plants...

If they survive the birds etc, they will become 100% my very own brinjals for the first time. 

New red bug

 Fed the whole leaf with its red invaders to the fish.

the flower bud

Each successive tree has yielded less bananas. It might come to a stage when I might stop bananas and give up that area to another plant. Anyway we will deal with that when it comes. For now, this tree (#4) has stopped putting out combs that are growing. So time (slightly overdue) to cut the bud. 

It went to one of our neighbours, the only one who here who knows how to cook it.

Brinjal observations

• We dont get many coz the nutrients from the fish pond arent enough for fruiting plants.
• The ones that we do get are small, for the same reason.
• Strangely, the insects love the leaves but so far, touch wood, have not gone for the fruit.
• The leaves are attacked more than most other plants I have. So whatever fruit that does grow is a blessing.
• I still dont know the optimal time to pluck them.
• I love slicing these up, about half cm thick, and toast them on a hot pan. Just a tiny bit of oil to help it along. Zero seasoning.

benefits of kale

I found this nicely written article re kale. It talks about nutritional composition and cooked vs raw.

Ginger gen 2 100 percent organic

Ginger plant #5

My 1st attempt at ginger was a success. That was started from a piece  bought from our wet market. The source was probably China. So even though the harvest which was all new growth, I guess technically it wasnt 100% free of pesticides or whatever from the ori piece.

So this is a piece of new growth from that ori piece, which makes this 2nd gen attempt 100% organic. 

I left the half dead leaves as is.

It's 12 Dec 2020, and this time, the plan is to leave it in for 8 months minimum and see if any diff in taste. So harvest date will be set at after 12 Aug 2021.

29Dec2020 update: new shoots finally. I was thinking before this that the piece was too small or too young. Luckily all looks well.

The new shoots are ones on the extreme left and right.

Also good to see that what I thought was half dead leaves and on its way out, were still green and supplying food for the plant by photosynthesis.

29 May 2021 update: harvested!

Erosion

A fair amount of loose topsoil gets washed away with heavy downpours. Spent this morning making a barricade with old roof tiles and bricks.

Ran out of bricks.

Mushroom-like flower

 The sayur manis just flowered. Some of the flowers look like little mushrooms.

first ginger harvest

 It's been 5 months.

Couldn't wait for 8 as recommended by most on the web. Some random guy I met while walking my dog told me his took about 4 months. That convinced me to go ahead.

Luckily I planted it above the ground in a bed of new soil surrounded by bricks. Removing one or two of them made it easier to dig the ginger out from the side...

This was growing under the soil...

What an amazing feeling seeing it multiplied. Lots of earthworms in between the bulbs so I had to be careful washing and breaking the ginger apart.

This was what it looked like, semi cleaned. You can see the original mother was a different colour.

Height perspective

 Most of the photos of the banana tree have been by itself. Here is one with me next to it. I am 5ft11in.

cutting grass

Cutting grass day today...

I used to spend heaps of time sweeping up and composting all the cuttings. But now I just sweep whatever is on the driveway only, out back into the garden and let the cuttings break down all over.

Also was time for another dose of Epsom salts. I do a tablespoon to 4 litres of water and just give a little to each plant, every 6 months. I dont overdo it coz there are claims on both sides, some swear by it, some say its useless.  

Tilting tree from the weight of the fruit

 The banana tree will sure fall if we leave it as it is. Just the weight from the start of the fruiting has already caused it to lean quite a bit. 

We have had to secure most of our trees to the wall/fence.

Used a sack to distribute the force on the tree a bit more. Also 2 ropes instead of one. All to lessen the stress on the plant.

Tree looks better/straighter now. 

Red neem water

 The water which I soak neem leaves garlic and chili in has turned from a dark brown to red.

 

Banana tree number 5

 Number 4 is fruiting so time to choose the next gen. 

9Dec2020: So many shoots to choose from. But I have been leaving the one closest to tree#4, and cutting back the rest. That closest one, and the tallest now, will be #5. It may be affected by #4 being so near. Wait and see if that was a wise or not choice.

23Dec2020: Growing nicely right next to #4

15 Feb 2021 update: No ground supporting the base of the trunk on one side.

26Feb2021 update: The biggest one now.

9Sep2021 update: Harvesting

Neighbourhood ginger - plant #4

 While waking my dog I came across a guy planting ginger just outside his house. Asked him about it. He said it was "halia merah" (red ginger) and the next thing I know he was pulling out one he just replanted and told me to have it!

The ginger looks smaller than the regular ones from the market. Cant really tell if its red. We shall see in 8 months time what it really looks like.

The quality of our water is like...

We have so many problems with water supply here in the Klang Valley. So many cuts, most of it is caused by contamination from illegal dumping.

The water that we do get has heaps of sediment. Have a look at the backwash (I do it once every 4 weeks)... 

Our filters...

The back wash...

Yuck!

My homemade ACV has multiple SCOBY layers

 I think each time I tip the bottle to use some ACV, the pellicle/SCOBY drops down.

I can count 3, plus some puffy looking bits at the bottom.

 

First attempt at FERMENTED chili sauce

Loosely followed this guy...

What I did differently was add garlic to the ferment, as well as per the video, fried and added at the blending stage. Also I added sugar.

Some of differences side by side for easier comparison... 

	Joshua Weissman	GV could-be-wiser-man
chili	540g	221g
chili padi	nil	68g
garlic	nil	103g ferment; 53g fried
vinegar	150ml white vinegar	75ml pineapple vinegar
water for ferment	1150ml	746ml
salt for ferment	51g	23g (2% total weight)
sugar	nil	2TBsp + 1 tsp
oil	0.5 cup	0.25 cup rice bran oil
fermentation	5-14 days	24 days
brine added to blend	42ml	2.5 TBsp

The ferment looked a bit iffy. I was preparing myself for throwing it all out. 

But after emptying it, it looked ok. The white cloud like patches in the mix turned out to be the garlic disintegrating. Tasted the brine and chili, it all tasted and smelt good. 

Made up a batch of 2% salt water just to rinse the chili and garlic, coz the top layer had some kahm yeast on it. 

The brine was sieved multiple times, each going through a finer mesh. First the big sieve to separate the main solids from the brine.

Then a finer sieve to remove, I think, some garlic that had disintegrated. Washed out all the sieves then ran it through multiple layers of cloth. This got rid of the yeast, and was the slowest process.

The resulting brine was more translucent. Tasted salty and hot.
Then came frying up some more garlic.

note: the final taste wasn't as garlicky as I expected. I used half the chili the video asked for but more than 3 times the garlic. Either our garlic is shit or our taste buds are dull from all the chili and garlic we consume everyday. I think a combination of both reasons.

Blended and added the rest of the ingredients according to the video. The result...

The true test was the family having it for lunch with some roast chicken. All said it was better than the last 2 batches :)

How I can improve...

 - add some pepper to the ferment

- try ACV instead of PCV for the vinegar. PCV is milder in taste.

- will add garlic only at the final stage. the fermented and fried garlic must have taken out some of its strong flavour. It definitely made the chili milder

- I wont ferment more than 14 days to minimise the loss of heat.

- add water and psyllium husk to add body/volume. I didnt so this time coz I wanted to taste what fermented chili sauce was like without any unnecessary ingredients. 

Banana tree #4 fruit

 I've been on the lookout for this. Missed it in the first 3 trees. The existing leaves block it's view really well. Had to maneuver a bit to get this side on shot... 

From below...

From afar...

30Nov update: nice to see it choosing to hang towards us. Will make it a lot easier to handle as it grows and increases in weight.

3Dec2020 update: the first comb is just visible.

is that dill?

This was growing in one of the pots... 

I have never seen dill shoots coz all of ours are from cuttings.

made jemput for the 1st time

Mum gave me a huge ripe Pisang Tanduk from her garden. The banana, peeled, weighed in at 353g. Decided to try jemput. The first recipe I Googled (warning: the link contains lots of ads so just read here unless you really want to see for yourself) said I needed 300g of banana. Since it was so close to what I had, thought it was meant to be.

I chucked all in the food processor coz I just lazy and impatient.

The recipe...

300 g banana - I used 353g

50 g rice flour - I used 55g

50 g wheat flour - ditto

1⁄4 tsp salt - I used just under 0.5 tsp

1⁄4 tsp baking soda - ditto

1 tbsp sugar - I used exactly that

350 ml oil - I used just enough to cover half of the piece when frying. When brown, I just turned it upside down to fry the other side. I suppose if u used lots of oil it would be faster as the whole piece would be frying at the same time. 

Turned out great! The taste was just right. Could have used even less sugar coz the banana was sweet enough.

Yellow spinach leaves

 The spinach leaves have heaps of yellow dots. I cant see any insects underneath that might be causing it.

having another go at tomatoes

 The 1st try was not that great. The plants were attacked by pests and/or disease, and yielded hardly any fruit. 

Having another go at it...

Wish me luck!

often our consumption is just prunings

More often then not, when I have a looksee at the garden in the morning, I am searching for slightly insect or weather damaged leaves, or ones that are blocking some other plant. These prunings make up our lunch/dinner for the day.

trying fermented chili sauce

 I've done chili sauce before. Now to try fermented chili sauce. I will loosely follow this guy for the method...

And for the brine measurements, this guy...

And for the general recipe, this lady even though its not fermented..

For chilis I used mainly regular green chilis (221g) for bulk. At the supermarket, the red ones were from China so I ended up buying the green local ones. Slightly more expensive but better to support local. I added a little homegrown ones (41g) I got from my cousin, also green, slightly hot. And a third, chili padi (27g), for heat. 

I added garlic (103g) at this stage, but according to the 1st video, he did not ferment it. Instead he fried it and added after the ferment. I will taste the sauce when the ferment is done, and if it's not garlicky enough, I will add a 2nd batch of garlic, ie fried garlic. 

Water was enough to cover the ingredients, 746g or ml.

Salt was 0.02% of the weight of ingredients plus water which worked out to 23g.

This was how it looked the next day.

I dont have a weight on top. I will stir it everyday to keep an eye out for mold. 

I'm not sure how long to keep it before going to the next stage. The video said anywhere from 1-2 weeks.

3 Nov 2020: some bubbles already appearing.

5Nov2020: Kahm yeast (I think) on top

Online literature says its not harmful and still useable. I dont like the sight of it but will wait and see...decide after 7+ days. Smell is still nice.