SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

Seriously.  Is something wrong with me?

#1

I get so excited at the mere thought of going to a market or supermarket and just a walk around the fresh produce section is happiness to me. 

#2

If I am at the supermarket, I find myself heading towards the fresh produce section automatically even if I have a list of toiletries on my shopping list.

#3

When family or friends go abroad and asked if there's anything I like them to bring back, they get a little shock when I said "nothing really but I do love some seeds."  No particular seeds just simply seeds that I could sow and grow even if I know they will never reach maturity or even fruit in my lifetime. 

#4

I've taken to experimenting with prickling vegetables and fruits, preserving eggs, making my own juices and things that keep me in the kitchen.

I'm no Domestic Goddess and will never be that's for sure but something about eating stuff that come from your garden and kitchen is pure comfort.

FIRST HARVEST OF THE YEAR!

What can be sweeter than these to kick-start the New Year!

They're not exactly my favourite but seeing each one bud from flower to fruit is amazing.  They started off a little pale yellow turning a nice shade of purple and finally a little orange to this final crimson colour.

They're really this glossy.  How not to love them when they're as sweet as they look? 

WHERE ART THOU... BERRIES??

So I have a strawberry plant that sat on my lap bundled in disguise together with a bunch of roses during that two hours flight home.  It has been nine months since I came back from that flower market that saw me running berserk (no rage, no violent... just deliriously happy!) from garden to garden around that fifty acres of land where you can find every conceivable plants you can think off!  Add that to the strawberry plant / runner which presumably must be around two to three months old where I paid less than a dollar for it, I actually have on hand a toddler berry plant.

I'm just very bad with names.  I've came across how some creative people christened their free range chickens, pet snail (Hello Norman #WaveHands @seinemutti if you're reading this), kittens or even plants with such nice, cute and appropriate names. Alas I could only come up with Straw or Berry or Strawberry.

I wanted a name very badly for toddler berry but calling her Strawberry was just too predictable and quite a mouthful considering she's quite dainty.  Straw? That's not funny.  It reminded me of hot days when I can't wait to push a straw into my ice frizz drink.  The other straw would be just as bad.  Imagine a stalk of dry grain!  That's not a good omen since it's practically hot here 365 days and no I don't want my air-flown-hand-carried plant to suffer the fate of dried straws.

I love berries but Berry? So so not cool.  Someone named Barry might just pop his head round the corner if I started cooing "Berry... berry..." 

Hence this nameless toddler berry plant uprooted from the hill slopes of that cool region ended up in my mini garden.  On some days, she looks really well and I know it'll be soon before she becomes productive but on days she doesn't look so well, I could only sigh and turn to google for answer.  Today is one such day.

My search led me to this:  http://strawberryplants.org/2010/08/strawberry-plants-producing-runners-but-no-strawberries/

Thanks for the tips guys!

So here's the answers as to why my strawberry plant does not produce strawberries YET (take note of the Yet for I'm hoping she will produce SOON, fingers crossed!).

10 Reasons Strawberry Plants Don’t Produce Strawberries

1. Strawberry plants are too young

June-bearing strawberry plants will often produce few or no strawberries in the first year they are planted.  This is, in fact good for the long-term health of your plants and strawberry bed.  The energy that goes into a strawberry is not insignificant for a young strawberry plant.  Since strawberries are perennials that will produce a crop year after year, the best use of developmental energy is in establishing a strong, healthy root system and flower buds within the crown.  The better root system will exponentially increase the nutrient uptake for the second year.  And, those roots will be needed as the flower buds will turn into flowers that will turn into strawberries in year two.  This is why it is important to pinch off strawberry flowers in year one as described on the Growing Strawberries page.  Doing this in year one allows development of more buds and better roots.  This makes the plant healthy.  The healthy plant will then set a much larger harvest than it otherwise would without them.

What young?  Toddler-Berry is 9 months + another 2 - 3 months = 11 - 12 months.  A quick footed toddler would already be walking!  Still no flowers in sight *sigh*

 

2. Your strawberry plants have diseases or parasites or both

There are a host of strawberry pests and pathogens that literally suck the life out of strawberries.  In fact, you can view the most common ones on the Strawberry Plant page.  If your strawberries have an infection or infestation, they may simply be too sick to produce strawberries.

No diseases, no parasites... she's all clean. 

 

3. Your strawberries are thirsty (or drowning)

Strawberries can be finicky when it comes to their water requirements.  They have relatively shallow root systems.  This causes them to absorb the vast majority of their water from the top several inches of soil.  This is also the soil that dries out most quickly when the temperatures rise.  Since strawberry plants require a significant and steady amount of water (see the Growing Strawberries page, linked above) to produce best, constant drying out of the top layers of soil can cause the plants to go into “survival mode.”  They don’t produce many or good quality strawberries in dry dirt (if they survive).  Additionally, too much watering will halt plant growth and strawberry production.  In fact, the strawberry crowns will rot, and the plants will die if they remain in standing water for too long.  It is important to plant your strawberry plants in well-drained soil to prevent standing water from submerging any part of the strawberry plant.

I think they're just nice; either drying or drowning. 

 

4. Your strawberries aren’t getting pollinated

Most of the common varieties of strawberry plants have hermaphroditic flowers, meaning they have both “male” and “female” parts.  However, the flowers typically act as either male or female, not both.  This means that pollen from one flower has to make to to another flower in order for the strawberry to form.  So, if a strawberry plant is kept indoors in a window or outdoors on a screened in porch (or anywhere else where the pollinating insects won’t be successfully drawn to your plant, you likely won’t have any strawberries.

There's no flowers to begin with. 
#Sad #SoSad #SadAnnie #AnnieIsSad #StrawberriesDeprived #DeprivedOfStrawberries #NoBees #PoorBees #HungryBees

5. Your strawberry plants are starving

Strawberry plants are amazing.  They can manage to eke out their existence in some of the harshest places on earth.  In fact, one of my own crazy strawberry runners once rooted itself in the shelf of a cheap, pressboard bookshelf.  It had nothing to eat other than wood chips and whatever glue they use to stick those things together.  To my amazement, it survived and grew well.  It actually was only a inch or so smaller than the other runner plants put out from the same mother plant.  But, when the other plants fruited, this one did nothing.  In fact, it didn’t even produce a flower.  All that to say: your strawberry plants need the right nutrients.  Without the appropriate organic components, the plant may still grow, but it won’t provide you with any strawberries.

Compost + seaweed + powdered eggshells + ground coffee... except no cavier added.  
#TellMeINeedToKnowIfYouAreStillStarving


6. Your strawberry plants are high on NPK

Giving your strawberries too much food can also hurt strawberry production.  The Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium (NPK) fertilizers are generally formulated for specific growing purposes.  Using fertilizers that are of the wrong concentrations for strawberry plants, or even using way to much of an appropriate fertilizer can decrease strawberry production.  Often, the fertilizers cause excessive vegetative growth at the expense of strawberry production.  After all, why should the strawberry plant worry about propagating itself via strawberry seeds if it has so many nutrients tickling its roots that it can’t even think straight?

What high?  On food?

 

7. Your climate is wrong for strawberries

Most strawberries grown at the equator are grown at high elevations where it is cooler.  I don’t think it is possible for them to grow on Antarctica without serious human interventions.  While a few populated places on earth are completely unsuitable for any type of strawberry growth, strawberries will grow just about everywhere else.  If, however, the preferred combination of warmth and coolness is not attained, many varieties will not produce strawberries.  Most strawberry cultivars do best when the days are warm to hot (but not scorching) and the nights are cool to slightly warm.  This combination of warm days and cool nights will almost always result in the maximal strawberry production for almost any strawberry variety.  If you live somewhere where it is too hot, the plants may still grow, but the strawberries may be sparse or absent.

#HangsHeadInShameNo1

There's no spring-summer-autumn-winter here and everyday is practically a hot day.

8. Your strawberry plant variety is wrong for your climate

Strawberry breeding programs around the world are constantly trying to increase local yields by developing more suitable strawberry plants for specific regions.  This goal is often attained.  However, in creating specialized strawberry cultivars, some of the overall adaptability of these plants is bred out or lost.  When that happens, the new cultivars are sometimes successful only in specific climactic regions.  Buying a strawberry developed for Michigan strawberry growers, for example, may not grow well in southern Florida.  When the plants don’t thrive, they often don’t fruit.

#HangsHeadInShameNo2

It was so cold and breezy up there on that 50 acres plot. 

9. Your strawberry plants don’t like their home

Strawberry plants will grow well in containers.  If they are properly cared for, that is.  Container strawberries often do not have sufficient soil.  Their soil will dry out much more quickly than in-ground strawberry plants.  Their roots can get too hot.  If planted in nutrient deficient or poor strawberry-quality soil, the plants won’t be happy.  Regardless of whether a strawberry plant is planted in an inhospitable pot or inhospitable plot, the lack of a suitable home that results in any of the conditions above will diminish or eliminate berry production.  Unhappy plants don’t readily produce strawberries.

I need to have a heart-to-heart and face-to-face talk with ToddlerBerry.  "Tell me seriously.... Have you been unhappy?"  

10. You’ve been duped, lied to, or are misinformed

Occasionally, nurseries that sell strawberry plants get their facts mixed up.  If they sell a June-bearing strawberry variety to a customer wanting an everbearing variety so that they can have a decent crop toward the end of the season, the buyer will be frustrated when no strawberries come forth.  Be sure to check the characteristics of the cultivar you want to plant to make sure it is what you think it is and that it will perform well in your climate.  A great place to start is the Strawberry Varieties page.

So, if there are no strawberries on strawberry plants you have planted, or strawberry plants producing runners but no strawberries, evaluate each of the 10 reasons above and see if they apply to your situation.  If they do, remedying the problem will likely result in reaping a harvest!

No! No! No.... I was not!  It was such a good deal I pressed the note into her hand and made a hurried exit even before she could put a plastic dress over ToddlerBerry.

PS: ToddlerBerry does sounds like a berry nice name... yes?  Until she starts to flower, she will always be just ToddlerBerry.

I AM NOT ALONE

Does the temptation to buy tomatoes amount to suffering from OCD?  

I am obsessed with collecting tomato seeds and growing them.  Until I am successful and have a decent tomato patch, I will continue to buy them.  

I can't walk into a supermarket and not go to the veggies aisles in particular where the tomatoes are placed even if I do not have t-o-m-a-t-o on my shopping list for the day.   I still must wiggle my way there just to check them out and the chance of me putting some into my trolley even though there are tomatoes at home has always been high.  

I always thought I was the only one to behave in such a manner until today.  Well so I was at the supermarket standing in front of a huge box of tomatoes.  It didn't help that the tomatoes were huge;  have grooves and just of the perfect ripeness.  On top of that, the  packer was opening boxes and boxes of them and piling them up to form a little mountain where eager hands were waiting to grab them. 

Off course out of the many hands, one belongs to me.   I never imagine that one day I would be selecting and buying tomatoes as if I was buying a designer's handbag.  

An elderly lady who was beside me looked up and sheepishly said: "I can't resist all these tomatoes.  They're so nice.  I have some tomatoes at home but I still can't resist them." 

There was a familiar ring to what she said as if she was speaking on my behalf.  

"It's alright to buy more." I told her sounding all serious and grown up as I smiled secretly to myself. 

FRIENDS AND FOES

Chillies / Peppers and I are friends.

There's something about growing chillies / peppers that excite me all thanks to the weather here that is just so conducive to growing them.

Success rate is high as compared to growing tomatoes which has always been my biggest obsession and nightmare simultaneously.  

From experience they thrive even in the poorest soil with minimum water but I am not saying you should leave them thirsty.  It's just that you can get away for a few days without having to worry about them.  Off course like all other plants if you tend to their needs well, they will reward you handsomely.

My only grievance in growing chillies is that caterpillars like to strip my plants naked of leaves.  They just love to munch on those plants with smallish leaves while they steer clear of the bigger and tougher leaves.  Snails on the other hand do not fancy eating leaves.  They are a sophisticated lot and love nothing better than feasting on sweet peppers even if that is just my one and only on the branch!

 

While chillies and peppers are my friends, clearly the bugs and slugs are my biggest enemies especially since I am contemplating if I should focus on just growing different types of chillies and peppers in the near future.

Haven't you heard about the benefits of eating this hot stuff?  Well I'll leave the talking for another day... :)

THE GARDEN RULES!

The garden sits on top of my list of favourite places which is no surprise.  Coming in close is the kitchen which is a BIG surprise.  It relegates the bedroom to third position.

I am no Domestic Goddess but something about the kitchen just excites me these days for a simple reason that food yes food comes from there. 

Collecting seeds

I have enough seeds to start a farm and be a farmer but I am still collecting and saving seeds.  I feel guilty throwing away seeds even if they're from an orange which I know is unlikely to grow here.  However just saving the seeds and throwing them in the ground even if they don't germinate makes me happy.  I should say it's becoming a hobby or habit (depending on how you see it!) saving seeds and nothing makes me happier than sending someone seeds from my "seeds bank."  I feel like a million bucks if I learn that the seeds I sent germinated and grew successfully.  However don't pressurize yourself if they don't.  Didn't I say I have enough seeds to start a farm?  Seeds anyone?... just give me a buzz :)) 

Pickling & freezing garden produce 

As we're in a temperate region with no such luck of having seasonal changes in weather (spring, summer, fall, winter) apart from rainy season, we're just able to grow the same crops that suit our climate throughout the year.  You won't hear of such thing as picking summer produce to save for fall / winter.  However when you end up with many of a certain produce and can't eat them at one go, pickling & even freezing them are such wonderful ideas.  Seriously I'm more interested in seeing pretty bottles of floating pickles lining the kitchen countertop than eating them but they sure make wonderful gifts.  

Flowers for tea 

If you are a flower, beware.  There's a flower monster lurking something out there.  I take my flowers seriously; feeling, caressing and smelling them.  While I never imagine myself chomping on a bunch of flowers there's nothing I love more than sipping tea from flowers gathered in the garden.   

Concocting (new) recipes 

I never imagine myself making tempura from squash flowers but I did.  Have you tried omelette with squash flowers and cheese or even blue pea flowers tempura?  Enough said.  I am hungry.  Time I head to the kitchen.

Gardening is therapeutic  

Not too long ago, someone commented that my palms felt like sandpaper.  I never deny that.  Neither was I offended.  This just cemented the fact that I've been spending a lot of time in the garden. There's something nice about feeling the warm earth.  What? Gloves? 

From garden to kitchen it's all in a day's work.  Ok now time I seek comfort of the bedroom for some well deserved shut eye.

NUTTY LIKE ME?

One of the things I hate to do is preparing tomatoes for cooking.  They aren't different to handle just that I tend to complicate things a little bit.  I would be spending the longest time ever over the chopping board because like someone with OCD, I have to remove every single seed out of every single tomato that I use.  No kidding! 

I have nothing against these seeds but I just couldn't bear the thought of my molars crunching onto these teeny weeny ones.  In my mind I could conjure rows upon rows of sun-kissed tomatoes growing happily with just that fistful of seeds I collect.  

Just in case you're wondering how many plots of tomatoes I have since I am a habitual tomato seeds remover (remove all the seeds Annie!) well.... well... I actually don't even own a single plant right now with the exception of these if these seeds choose to sprout!

 
What is it exactly with tomatoes and me? *sigh* Hmmm.... it's really a love & hate kind of relationship.

Anyone out there just as nutty?  I certainly hope not!

 

HELLO JUNE

Yay!

June is definitely my favourite month on the gardening calendar here on this island.  

 

It's "The King of Fruits" (durian) season and if you like me loves them, you will understand why.  

During durian season, the island sees an influx of visitors.  Some of these faces you see only during the durian season.  They come, they camp, they pick, they collect and then they leave happily ever after until their next hunt for the thorny fruit.  While this is often all in a day's work, for some it can turn into an overnight affair.  Camping the night means there are more chances to gather the fruit as durians reportedly fall late at night or in the wee hours of the morning.  

  
                     

It's a very common sight to see people carrying a fruit or two in their hands or people cycling past with durians in their baskets.  There are also the locals who pick enough to sell them to the visitors by going to the right plantations in search of the prized fruit.  I haven't got around to camping under the trees and letting mozzies feast on me as I laid in wait to hear that  much longed for thud under the tree.  However I did find two fruits by chance. One was the size of my clenched fist while the other the size of a rock melon.  These were durians the "professional pickers" will not even bat an eyelid let alone pick them.  They were unripe but I still wore that "I picked two king of fruits" smile!
  
The time is here again and I've seen people coming to the island in the morning and leaving at night heaving heavy sacks or unloading trolley bags onto boats.  I think it's worth the S$5.00 they pay for the return trip.  After all these are organic durians; free from additives (pesticides, growth hormones, etc) that some commercial growers feed their trees with the hope that they will yield heavy and perfect crops.  So if you pick a decent size one easily over a kilo that is enough to cover for the boat ride. 

I know of a couple that come almost every weekend.  They form such a perfect team!  During the course of their hunt, while one waits the other will run errands as sort of a break to stock up on drinks and food or to answer nature's call.  Picking durians is no mean feat.  Imagine camping under the trees fighting with the buzzing mozzies with your ears pricked for that sweet sound that will break the silence on those dried leaves and then racing to be the first to reach that prized fruit.  However at the end of the day despite the mozzie bites and perspiration, the bags and bags of fruit they get to lug home outweigh everything.   

This year, the harvest is expected to be  less than in the past as the locals have reported that monkeys... (oh you cheeky monkeys! ;) ) have pulled down some of the developing fruits.  Yes there's monkeys here on this island and let's just say they do like durians too :)) The sad thing for durian lovers is that in their excitement they pull down those unripe fruits too reducing the yield in the process.  

What is so special about durians on this island?  Imported ones from commercial farms can be had almost every other day.  They seem to magically appear so frequently whereas the durian trees here fruit mostly in June and with some luck maybe a smaller crop in November.  They are organically grown so they are as pure as can be.  

While durians are cholesterol free, they are packed with sugars but I can always settle for those bitter sweet ones right?  Bring them on... breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and I'll gladly sink my teeth into these cottony creamy delightful treats.  I like :))

  

THE ACCIDENTAL MUSTARD

I soaked a handful of mustard seeds having mistaken them for basil which once soaked and expanded can be added to drinks or desserts.  They were supposed to look like chia seeds when soaked.  However the mustard seeds remained unchanged and as I am seeds obsessed and every little seed means a lot to me, I threw the whole lot of the seeds without much of an expectation on my meant to be tomato patch which had succumbed to some hungry creatures.

Few days later, the ground was covered with tiny specks of greens and then this was followed by shoots that sprouted freely.  

It's ironic that sometimes you don't get what you wished and hoped for but when you least expect, things turned up more than you ever asked for.

It was exactly what happened to those mustard seeds now.  

 

Looks like soon, I'll be tucking into mustard salad, mustard stir fries and everything that is mustard including mustard flowers and seeds when the plants reach maturity!

Let's wait and see...

MUM AND THE HAIRLESS KIWIS

I didn't understand why Mum kept telling me not to buy any potatoes lately.  I knew I bought a bag and used a few of them for a salad.  There were like a dozen potatoes and probably 7 - 8 left.

"Don't buy any more potatoes.  There's a lot in the kitchen." That came from Mum as I headed towards the door on my way to the supermarket.

Habits never change and customary for me to head straight to the fruits and veggies section whenever I step into the supermarket.

As I was choosing some mandarins, I caught sight of someone putting a punnet of kiwis into her shopping cart and suddenly I wondered what happened to the kiwis I recently bought.

I made a mental note to find the kiwis when I get home.

Back home as I was unpacking the fresh produce that I bought, Mum came into the kitchen and I asked if she has seen the kiwis she unpacked the day before.

She said she hasn't... well really she hasn't because as I was talking to her, I caught sight of what appeared like kiwis on the countertop.  On closer look, they were indeed my lost kiwis snuggled in between some potatoes.

"They are kiwis?  Look like potatoes to me.  Why are these kiwis so tiny and without hair?" 

Mum, there are people with more hair than others.

LITTLE BABY STEPS...

Nothing quite like homegrown!  The taste and fulfillment you get from growing your own fruits and veggies are so worth it.   

Out of my long list of things that I love very much to grow are tomatoes.  Seeing how people who grow their own tomatoes raved at the sweetness and deliciousness of them all makes my desire to grow bigger.   

I yearn to grow tomatoes like these

I spent hours looking at people's tomato harvest on IG as well as gluing my eyes on the computer checking out seeds that promised gorgeous looking tomatoes.  I always thought tomatoes were either orange or green (ripe and unripe) until my internet stalking revealed that a rainbow of colours like blue, green, orange, pink, yellow and even white (varieties) tomatoes exist! Oh boy.. on top of that, they were all so good looking!

My world literally swam in tomatoes but as much as I was obsessed with them, in the garden it was a totally different story. There was zilch tomato.

In the beginning, seeds just refused to sprout and when they sprouted, they looked like teeny weaklings but I never gave up sowing more seeds! 

Finally I must have done something quite right because I found a few robust seedlings which continued to grow taller.  Each day I watched so eagerly with excitement for the first flower to appear.  They did appear in clusters and then frizzled out and dropped.  The cycle repeated again and again and months after the first flowers appeared, there was still no sign of any tomatoes in sight.

Aren't I clever?  Just because I read of people hand pollinating blooms, I reckoned since no tomatoes were still in sight and bees just weren't doing their jobs, I happily used the tip of my not too dainty fingers to tickle those tomato blooms.  

More disasters followed but surely I am getting nearer to harvesting those prized tomatoes.

FROZEN

Bye raisins… hello frozen grapes!

I used to have grapes in the fridge left uneaten and forgotten. 

Since I started freezing grapes, the joy of eating frozen grapes on a hot day is something I’ve always look forward to.   It's a healthy snack given that grapes contain flavonoids (very powerful antioxidants) which can reduce the damage caused by free radicals and slow down aging.  They also stimulate collagen production.  Cool stuff!

Here’s what I normally do.

Wash and drain the grapes.  I usually remove the stems, put them in ziplock bags and pop them in the freezer for a couple of hours.  You can leave the whole bunch in the freezer if you want to use them as a “centrepiece” perhaps to be shared over some nice wine, cheese platter and interesting conversation ;)

This frozen grape thingy makes a delicious snack; it has a sorbet texture and just eating a handful of them on a hot day is bliss.

NB:  Best to eat them frozen; once thawed the grapes tend to be soft and a little reminder that small children should not be left unsupervised when eating grapes.

  

AVOCADO, THE WONDER FRUIT

Kick start your day with something healthy and hearty!

Recipes need not be the length of a ruler and it should not hold you ransom in the kitchen unless you're a Kitchen Goddess for which I am not. 

Here’s one “quick to assemble” recipe that you can add to your breakfast and eat without guilt.

I don’t want to dwell on the many benefits of this fruit both for health and in skincare.  Avocado itself is rather bland and boring but once you get past to eating this rich tasting fruit, it’s actually rather delicious.   

What you need

2 slices of any type of bread or toast

1 ripe avocado

Trickle of condensed milk / honey

What you do

Halve the avocado and slice into bite size pieces.  Slight mash of the avocado is also doable.

Spread or place the avocado generously on the bread.

Lightly dribble a trickle of condensed milk or honey over the avocado spread.

Have it for breakfast or in between when you feel like some healthy snacking.  I enjoyed that very much!