Bananas - Pisang Rastali

This is another "old-timer" banana which is now no longer easily found at the markets.  It is most often eaten raw and has a lighter albeit sweet taste.  It is a medium sized banana and when ripe has brown/black patterns over it;s yellow skin making it appear like a batik design on the skin hence the its other name - pisang batik. 

This is one of the few varieties of banana that should fully ripen on the tree.  It takes a longer time to mature and ripen as opposed to other varieties as it takes over 4 months from the inflorescence to ready-to-eat fruit but is well worth the wait.  When the fruit is unripe it is green in color.  The brown/black patterns only appear when it is mature and almost ripe.  By the time the fruit is ready for harvest, all the leaves would have already dried out.  A healthy plant should produce about 10-12 sisir (bunch of bananas) weighing about 10-15kg in total.

I do not recommend eating the inflorescence (jantung) as it has a bitter taste.  When the fruit is ripe, it can be used as the main ingredient in making a banana cake.  It has just the right moisture content resulting in a deliciously moist banana cake.  Due to its higher sugar content and texture, it doesn't work well when turned into banana fritters as it will soak up a lot of oil.  It teams up well with ice creams making it a good choice for banana splits.

Being a small farmer Part 2 - Setting the basics

I am often asked to explain what type of a farm I have and I find it difficult to define it within the more prevalent terms so I created my own term: a natural integrated farm.  At the heart of it, we strive to make the most use out of nature within the farm operations 

To start with, 2 separate polypipes are used to transport water from two separate sources, clean and natural water sources.  One polypipe provides for the water for household and agriculture use and the other pipe is strictly for the fish ponds for aquaculture use.  This ensures that water flows through the ponds 24 hours a day enabling the constant removal of any aquaculture waste and providing for good oxygenation of the pond, critical elements in rearing fish.  From an aesthetic value, the pond does not produce noxious odors and the sound of the water creates a calming environment.

The land clearing was done manually and selective bull-dozing, taking care to preserve as much of the top soil as possible.

Being situated in a water catchment area where there is plenty of rainfall, it was important to have facilities to provide for water run-off and a flood prevention mechanism, hence the ponds also serve this purpose.  The pond is built on the dried stream bed hence its shape is similar to a stream with the outflow going into Sg. Lui.  This is where I will start our aquaculture project of rearing fresh water fish.  With this in mind, it was imperative that no chemical herbicides or pesticides is used at the farm to prevent this being introduced into the ponds and ultimately into the fish,  With the great water quality, it would be almost criminal to contaminate the pond and the fish.  Whilst people who consume the fish may not be aware of any minute amounts of chemical toxins, I would know and this would go against my principle: I only sell produce that I would eat.

The selection of what was to be planted at the farm was also important in order to provide a balanced environment.  The first plants planted was banana plants.  This plant consumes a lot of water so it helps to absorb the water from the rains.  At the farm, only natural banana plants are planted which means that we do not plant any genetically-modified (GM) plants or plants from culture tissues.  In Malaysia, we have an abundance of variety of banana plants and I am on a quest to have all the varieties of bananas available at the farm.  This is my personal conservation effort to preserve our heritage.  It would be a shame to lose it and for us to become a GM culture and not be aware of the richness of varieties available.  Apart from being harvested for the bananas, the inflorescence is also harvested prior to the bananas and this is a great ulam or "vegetable" which has many health benefits based on our traditional medicine practitioners.  The inner portion of the pseudostem is used as a supplementary food for the fish as well as serving as a pond water natural cleansing agent.  Sometimes, we consume the inner portion of the stem as one of the ingredients in a curry.  The remaining portions of the plant after harvesting the fruit is turned into a compost providing for a natural fertilizer.  Hence from this one type of plant, it serves multiple purposes and provides a multitude of benefits naturally.

Since I foresee that there will be times when I will be too tired to drive home, I decided that I needed to have a house built but one with is functional to farm operations, easy to keep clean, comfortable and with lots of natural light.  I do not foresee working the farm alone so I designed the house to accomodate my workers too.  I use a lot of tiles all over the place - all the floors, the kitchen counters, most of the walls and to allow for privacy yet allowing for natural light, most walls have glass tile cubes.  Skylights are also strategically for more natural lighting.  All around the house, just below the roof, a 2 ft. lattice "wall" allows for fresh air to constantly circulate into the house.  The detail work on the house is still being done as the primary focus is the farm but I hope it will be completed before end of this year - my birthday present to myself.

Of course no farm is complete without some animals - other than the fish.  I started my initial stock of kampung chicken which I obtained from Kedah and later added more from my neighbour.  These are free-range chicken so they wonder all around the farm, eating their fill.  Another reason why no chemical pesticides or herbicides are used.  From my initial stock of 4 chickens, we currently have a total of about 60 chickens which I hope to further increase in the coming months.  They also serve to keep the insects at bay as well as helping with controlling the weeds and grass.

With all the different practices utilizing nature, this gave birth to our tag line: Maximizing Nature's Bounty.  More tales to follow so watch out for the next segment.

Being a small farmer - going the uncharted route Part 1

I changed direction in my life, leaving the corporate world and entering the agricultural world.  Before making this decision, I considered many things.  I realize that I no longer wanted to be involved in board room shenanigans and wanted to remain true to my principles.  I also wanted to be able to spend more time other than in meetings till late at night and to have my weekends back.  I also didn't see myself going at that pace for long nor do I see a long-term future.  Let's face reality, as we age, we come to a point that we have to "retire" and for the younger ones to move up.  So, what will I do then.  I cannot imaging myself facing the walls or watching tv day in and day out and not having much mental and physical activity.  To me, that is a sure way to get sick fast!  I began work on a life plan - considering what I love to do and to turn it into my "golden age" plan.
I have always loved plants and animals and being outside.  Added to that, I also love being active and not sitting in one place.  I also enjoy doing things that are a challenge.  Taking all those things into consideration, I decided to go into agriculture - not run of the mill type, but something new.  Hence the birth of the concept of natural integrated farm, a farm whereby emphasis is placed on maximizing nature to provide food without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  I tend to shy away from the term organic farming as I find that this term has been over-commercialized.

The first item was to select the right piece of property which has good, natural water supply, easy vehicle access, available utilities infrastructure, freehold land grant, within my budget and not far from Kuala Lumpur.  It took me about 10 years to find a piece of land that met my requirements.  To many, at first glance, the land represented a lot of work since it resembled a jungle - there was even vines that you can swing from tree to tree like Tarzan.  Taking a walk within the land then was a challenge and you need to have a parang handy to make your way through and good hiking boots as the land contour was not clearly visible and also as protection against leeches and who knows what else.  I fell in love with it at first sight - I saw possibilities in the different vegetation there as well as presence of dried stream beds.  My mind began to fill with all kinds of ideas and the vision of what this land can be developed into.
First things first, acquisition of the property.  I was fortunate that the land grant is in good order but with the twist that the property had 2 owner names on it as a portion of the total property as described in the land grant had been sold off at one time but the grant was  not converted into 2 separate land grants.  I refuse to just add my name to the grant so one of my terms of the sale was that the grant be divided accordingly before the sale can be concluded.  I wanted a proper land grant that fully described what I will own with my name on it to avoid any property disputes in the future.

During the period whilst I waited for the land grant to be processed, I visited the property many times, studying its contour and vegetation as well as checking out the water availability.  That area has poor Syabas water supply so I had to find alternative sources.  In the worst case scenario, I would have to use the Sg. Lui water where it crossed the land, splitting the land into 2 portions.  The river wasn't indicated in the land grant and apparently the land grant has not been updated since the 70's when a major flood caused the Sg. Lui to re-route itself.  However, in getting to know the people in the area, I found that water can be piped down from a clean water source up in the hills.

The land was filled with all kinds of plants, shrubs and trees and I began my study of what they were and how they can be useful to me.  It was during this period that I found that there are many plants that can be of medicinal and also nutrition value.  Thus began my adventure in the study of the properties and use of plants as well as herbs.  What to some people may be just a mess that using a backhoe can clean it all up, I found it to be a treasure trove.

I have always loved being close to water and with Sg. Lui running through the property was great, an added bonus was to find that there appeared to be stream beds running through the property and during heavy rains, the water would run through it.  This gave birth to the idea of being able to raise fish.
As the land had been left untended for many decades, I found that through the natural process, there was good quality top soil from the natural decomposition of plants and trees.  My decision to not use a backhoe to raze the land was a good one as I then can keep the top soil ensuring good fertile soil presence for my plants and trees. This meant that land clearing would be done in a manual manner with judicious selection of what plants and trees should remain and what is cleared.  My favorite tools are parang, weed cutter and cangkul.  Through the initial land clearing, I was able to see the contour properly and to set a first-level design plan for the land.

With an understanding of the elements of the property that I wanted to retain, I started selective land clearing and construction of the fish pond.  After the intial land clearing, the first structure that was built was a storeroom cum bathroom.  I needed a place to store tools and equipment as well as the need for privacy for....you all get my meaning.  I had a well dug in this room so that there was a water supply for washing and cleaning as well as a refreshing "bath" after the workout.  Now I was ready for the serious development.........

Dried Marinated Salted Lampam

I am always interested in experimenting with new ways of processing food.  Recently, we were doing a minor fish harvest, more to see the reception to our fish and to reduce the population in the fish ponds.  With the natural setting of the pond, the fish have been reproducing and for the overall betterment of the fishes in the pond, it was necessary to reduce the population.  During this exercise, we managed to harvest about 100 lampan with many more left in the pond.  This fish has been flourishing in the pond and to reduce competition for space, this fish was harvested along with the red tilapia.

Lampan is a fish that is very susceptible to the oxygen content in the water as well as to the quality of the water.  This fish is my gauge for the oxygen content.  Should the oxygen content be low, they are the first to react and will be at the water surface.  They can die within one day if the oxygen content is low.  If the water quality is low, they will also be the first to die.  By comparison, the keli or the haruan is very hardy and can survive in low quality water and mud.  Apart from the fish pellet, they love eating the water grass and plants so when I was cleaning the fish, I noticed a lot of "green" in their "stomach".  With the natural setting of the fish pond, this has helped them to flourish and breed.

We sold some of the Lampam at the Sunday market and the remaining I decided to process into dried salted fish.  This fish has many small bones and as with many fish that has a lot of bones, it taste great but eating them could be challenge.  Previously, I had turned them into dried salted fish and when fried till crispy, is very tasty.  This time around, I decided to do a variation of it - you could almost say a gourmet version.  The fish has a lot of fat, like many of the trout family (salmon is one fish that is from the trout family along with rainbow trout and many others) hence when it is fried, it doesn’t become hard but is more malleable.  You will also see the fat turn into oil, staying on the surface of the fish.   It also has a lot of scales, which I prefer to remove as I like to eat them without the scales and it also speeds up the drying time.

With the abundance of herbs to create a marinade, I decided to use lemon grass (serai) and kaffir lime leaves (daun limau perut) along with coarse salt to create the marinade.  The lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves were pounded in a mortar pestle to release the juices and aroma.  Alternatively, you can also blend but this would mean adding water to the ingredients before you can blend it and this can cause the salt to dissolve faster and seep into the fish faster than the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves, making it more salty and less aromatic.  I like my fish to taste of salt but not overly salty which would necessitate the dried fish to be soaked to remove some of the salt before cooking but which would also cause for the herbal taste to leak out.

The fish is marinated overnight, best to keep it in the refrigerator, and all excess salt and the herbal mix is removed before it is set to dry in the sun.  Depending on weather conditions, it can take 2-3 days to dry.  This is one way to preserve fish without the need for chemical additives or preservatives.  For long storage, it is best to store it in your fridge or chiller.

I enjoy having this fish fried to a crisp and eating it with ulam and sambal belacan  (chillies and shrimp paste mix)  along with rice.  Sometimes, I even eat it on its own or with a salad accompaniment.  The taste of the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves gives it a great taste twist.  Because it is crispy, you can just munch on it without worrying about the bones sticking to your throat.  You just chew them down.

So, next time you want to have dried salted fish, make some and use the abundance of herbs and natural seasoning that we have in Malaysia and create your own gourmet version of salted dried fish.

 

Bananas - Pisang Rotan (Lidi)

Another interesting banana that is not often found is the pisang lidi or rotan.  It has a distinctive shape compared with other bananas and you can easily identify it.  It is more elongated and slim almost like fingers.  The skin is a milky-yellow color and relatively thin.  This banana is normally eaten uncooked and has a sweet and light taste to it.  This particular banana is rarely found now so I am happy that we have it at the farm as part of my collection of banana plants.  At our Sunday morning market, when we have it available, it is sold very quickly - apparently a favorite with the afficionados.

At the farm, the plant grow to about 7m (approximately 20ft) and in comparison to other banana plants has a rather skinny pseudostem and is green beneath the dried brown upper layer.  The leaves tend to grow upright and only angles when it is about to die-off hence making it look tall and slim.  The upper side of the leaf is a dark green with a groove in the leave stem.  The underside of the leaf is a lighter green with a light green leaf stem. 
This plant produces multiple baby plants and it is best to keep it to 3-4 per group to ensure a higher and better quality yield.
The inflorescence is rather bitter hence is not consumed.  It takes approximately 2 months from when the inflorescence appears to the fruit maturing and ripening.

Taking freshness and health to special events

Recently, I had the opportunity to provide two items to the menu at a friend's event: fresh ulam (Malaysian version of salad) and misai kucing tea.  For this special event, I wanted to be sure that the ulam tray we provided was different and offered as many varieties as possible - both to provide for choices as well as introducing different ulam that people are not familar and at times, not easy to find. 
In order to serve approximately 800 guests, preparation for this started over 1 month before the event in ensuring that we would have enough produce so care and maintenance to the plants was essential. This would be the first time that we would be doing something like this and I wanted it to be the best that we can do and especially so since it was for a good friend.
 For the event itself, we started doing the harvesting 2 days for ulam that would be blanched and one day before for items that would be served fresh, all in the spirit of fresh from the farm to your dining table.
We prepared 10 trays for this event.  Since the food theme was traditional kampung food, I decided that the way we presented the ulam should be different instead of just regular steel tray or ceramic plates, hence we constructed a bamboo and wood tray.  Each tray consisted of fresh ulam raja, silom, lumai, pucuk jambu, bunga betik, bunga kantan, bunga misai kucing, bebuas, pucuk kadok, ruku, selasih putih, pucuk salam and blanched jantung pisang, pucuk paku, terung bulat, terung telunjuk and 2 kinds of pucuk ubi kayu. 

I spent my time at the event mostly ensuring that the trays we replaced as needed and also to chat with the guests over what was in the tray.  It was gratifying to hear the comments from the guests: "I have never seen such a variety of ulam served at a kenduri, this is great", "I love this ulam but haven't been able to have it since it is difficult to find" and "Look at how fresh the ulam is".

 

The other item that we provided was the Misai Kucing Tea concentrate which was mixed with hot water on site in a drink dispenser container so that the guests can just fill their cups and drink.  As to properly prepare enough tea to serve many guests takes time, it was necessary to produce the concentrate for ease,  This was also well received and the comments that I obtained was very positive.  One comment that made me feel good is: "This tea taste great, is not bitter and doesn't taste like misai kucing tea.  It tastes like chrysanthemum tea.".  Comments like this validate my efforts in producing my tea, ensuring that it is pure misai kucing and using only the leaves and flowers with the soft flower stem.  As a note, once you have prepared the concentrate, you can store it in your refrigerator and add hot or cold water before serving your tea.  You can also add ice, a great alternative to regular iced tea.
So, if you would like to have similar items served at your events, please contact us :)

Kampung Chicken Project

During the last couple of months, I have had several requests for village chicken or ayam kampung.  I have a small number by comparison to the poultry producers so I was not able to cater to the requests.  The chickens that I have are also producing a good number of eggs so over the Ramadan and Syawal period, I decided to leave the chicken eggs and see how many will hatch as well as learning more about the natural cycle of the chickens.  Hence, Project Ayam Kampung was born with the goal to produce ayam kampung and telor ayam kampung.

During this period over 100 eggs were produced and we left them for the hens to hatch them.  It takes about 3-4 weeks of incubation before they are hatched.  We have identified which eggs are being "hatched" and their mother hens.

Many have suggested that I should buy more chicks to add to the population.  However, being rather careful with introduction of new chicks or chickens of which I have no idea as to their health and not wanting to introduce the risk of illness to my stock, I prefer to stick to letting my hens produce the next generation.

The eggs have begun to hatch and we are starting to collect the new eggs now to provide a better picture of how many eggs will be hatch from the primary batch.  Apart from letting the chickens scrounge for food, they are also feed crushed corn, broken rice and also grated coconut,  I have noticed that weekly feeding of the grated coconut has increased the egg production.  I guess there is some truth behind the advise given by some old-timers that feeding the chickens with grated coconut can increase the egg production.  Someday, I will have to delve into the whys.

It is very satisfying and calming to watch the mother hen herd its chicks as they scrounge the ground for insects and new grass for food.   Another reason why I opt for natural farming, I want to reduce the introduction of harmful chemicals to our system.  With the egss hatching, it is also good timing as we are in the period of maintenance of the farm so the weeding and tilling of the ground is underway.  This uncovers many food source for them and with the soil already loosened, it makes it easy for them to scratch the ground and for me, it also serves a secondary purpose of breaking the soil.  They also add more natural fertilizer to my soil.  There are so many things to consider at the farm, balancing the growth cycle of the various produce, timing of tasks to maximize the benefits and inter-dependency of activities.  I have to keep track of all this and everything is a project that requires tasks and timelines - another useful usage of the legacy of my corporate days.

The progress of this chicks are being monitored.  With many new chicks, I frequently scan the sky during the day for the eagles that have made this area their hunting ground.  Alhamdulillah, so far the chicks have remained safe,

The next step is the trick of balancing eggs for sale versus producing chickens.  I love the eggs and there is a definite difference in looks and taste.  The egg yolk is a golden yellow and has less egg white compared to the regular store-bought chicken eggs.  SubhanAllah, I now eat farm-produced chicken eggs.  With the chiller at the farm, the eggs are stored there but it usually is stored for more than 3-4 days before being consumed.  After all, what is the purpose of producing fresh produce if it is stored for long periods?

My dad is not one who gushes over things so when he who says it is the best chicken egg that he has tasted, it is the best compliment that I have received.  I try to send a few each week and feel very happy that I can provide this for them, a small gesture to all the love, caring and support that they have showered me over my life.