Our first tomato!!!

 It survived! That's all that matters. It looked red enough to pluck even though it didn't look fully formed. You can see the sick plant/leaves near it. 

So I decided to pluck it. What a perfect shape from above...

The side view... maybe not enough nutrients contributed to the small size and odd shape. 

Bottom was slightly soft so it was just in the nick of time...

What a beautiful sight...

The freshest taste... minutes old tomato! I had forgotten what it felt like tasting our first kangkung leaf... this was the same feeling :) 

Snake or shit?

This area often has python sightings. I was walking my dog and she pulled towards that. Only then did I take notice of it. Looked like a snake or monitor lizard sticking it's head out. It didnt move from there at all, so it could just be a piece of shit!

This was a juvenile that came into my garden, some 100-200m from the above drain.

To pluck or not to pluck

 I dont know how many more days it can survive. The leaves near it are about toto die out due to whatever is attacking the plant. It looks red enough to eat though. Funny shape.

Rotting pineapple... the right candidate/excuse for tepache

 I wanted an over ripe pineapple as recommended by some Mexican tutorials. 

This one was that, and more! Rotting at the bottom!

By the time I cut out all the rotten parts, I was left with only half the fruit. So instead of using just the peels and core, I added all the good flesh too. 

Sugar was gula melaka. I like being precise with measurements so that I can try to reproduce or adjust better next time. But what the heck ... since the pineapple threw me a curveball, lets just wing it with the sugar. 1 piece.

No spices this time. I want to see what the taste is like without complex flavours.

No ginger bug like the last time which resulted in carbonation on steroids!!

1 litre water looked too little. 

1.5 litre looked too much! Hope I didnt dilute it too much. 

Fyi whole fruit 1133g, Useable skin and flesh 574g, gula melaka 191g, water 1.5litre. 

Since it's a lot faster than ginger beer, I will log by hours instead of days.

For methodology I loosely followed these guys...

Hour 00

Hour 15: Bubbling... not as crazy as the ginger bug version. That's one problem solved.

Taste was sweetish, but not enough pineapple taste for my liking. The plan is to bottle at 24 and 48 hours. If the pineapple taste doesn't come out more after 48 hours, I will try juicing core and flesh next time. 

If you compare this pic with the video of the tepache method earlier, you will see that theirs took longer to get to this stage. My guess is the weather sped it up. 

Hour 24: Bubbling. Sweet. Bottled 300ml of the tepache. Took out one small piece of flesh, squeezed its juice and pulp into the bottle too. Total 315g.

I like it a little less sweet so didnt take much tepache. Will wait till more sugar gets eaten up before I bottle the bulk of it. 

Hour 38: Forgot about it last night. Bottle hard with carbonation. Refrigerated it. The rest tasted ok, less sweet. 

Bottled 1200ml, with added pieces.

Added 700ml water and 3 tbsp white sugar just to see if I can extract another batch before composting the pineapple. 

Hour 49: Refrigerated bottle 2

Hour 51: Refrigerated bottle 3&4. Opened bottle 1. Excellent taste and correct fizz.

Hour 53: Brew taste was ok, not as nice as with jaggery. Added 3 tbsp white sugar.

The next day: tastes not great. I didnt throw it out. Will keep as my next batch of pineapple vinegar.

Day10: I cant believe it!! I have vinegar already! And it tastes good. pH is around 3-3.5. 

Babies feeding

 They look big. They must have hatched a lot earlier than we thought.

We have babies!

 The little birdies hatched yesterday I think.

added more Indian almond leaves

The fish aren't doing well. I think I'm missing a couple of climbing perch, and what I thought was markings on one, looks like it's spreading to the other perch. Added more Indian almond leaves to hopefully help medicate the fish. I think I will add some salt too. And over the next few weeks I am going to add a few leaves every couple of days.

Added to my aquariums... For the main guppy tank, I put the leaves at the back so they arent too visible in the front.

The view from the back...

Close up...

The back aquarium is just a pile of stuff to see if I can encourage daphnia growth. I let the leaves just settle wherever they wish...