Monday, June 20, 2011

Another round of roselles and greens

The 3 roselles plants I had in my veggie patch have been very productive indeed with more fruits after every harvest. This time I got 50 or so of the red fruits and I managed to make 1.5 litre of roselle juice! So refreshing in these hot weather! The same goes for the new 4 okra plants which give 3 or 4 okras every other day!




freshly picked okras, roselles fruits and 2 sprigs of Thai basils for my Hot Basil Squids










The extra okras I gave to Noni and my son's MIL when they came for a visit. The rest were blanched and with Ulam Raja (cosmos caudatus shoots) were eaten with sambal belacan for lunch with the Hot Basil squids and a grilled fish...







Today's harvest of the last pak choy (white stem), some kangkungs (water spinach), kacang renek (they seemed to look like long beans but they dont climb like them though) and long beans, more okras and sayur manis/cekur manis....for tomorrow's or next day's lunch! The cekur manis I will mix with pumpkin and its shoots to cook sayur lemak (veggies in coconut milk) - its one of my favourite dish.





2 pots of newly planted beans were attacked by swarms of aphids...looking at them makes my hair stands. Manually squeezed them everyday, though the next day they will be there again, it was so frustrating! But then when I put some eggshells in the pots, they seemed to dissappear althogether! Well...they didnt dissappear forever, but came back after a few days though this time, it was less than before.





Ulam Raja shoots (cosmos caudatus) tastes and smell a bit like mint and green apple.


I was introduced to them by my Grandma when I was a kid. The picture of a small field of green leaves and sweet pink blooms besides her house in Sitiawan were one of my happy childhood memories. When I introduced Ulam Raja to my youngest son to eat as herbal salad with sambal belacan, he loved it and have been asking for the shoots everyday to eat with his lunch or dinner!



sayur manis/cekur manis before harvesting





A lush bush of Thai basil given 3 sprigs originally by my friend Noni, though now hers has since perished - are my source of fresh herbs in some simple Thai cuisines like Hot Basil squids/prawns or Manggo/Papaya salads....love their fresh fragrance!





next harvest of spinachs/amaranthus



So happy gardening to all!

14 comments:

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Your garden is so productive. So many choices everyday. Mama said your seeds has arrived and said thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

Our aphids are white. Strange.

Malar said...

So many harvest Shida!
I hate aphid too! eggshell work on them? I have a lot of mealy bug in my garden....

p3chandan said...

You are welcome Diana, hope you mom will love those plants as much as I do when they grow.

Donna, gee I thought the white ones are mealy bugs...anyway whatever colour they are, they certainly are pests to my poor plants!

Malar thank you. Well..eggshells worked only for a few days I found out, but at least not many of those bugs like before. I have those mealy bugs before but I sprayed home made insecticide and they seemed to dissappear.

miruku said...

Your plants all look very green and healthy. Can you keep some roselle seeds for me? ^_^
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

You have alot of wonderful looking herbs & veggies. I've never heard of the Roselle fruit, looks interesting. I love Okra, must try to grow it next year. :)

p3chandan said...

Milka, dont worry I have plenty of them and waiting for yr address to send them. Ive started to collect the morning glory seeds but not enough to send them to you yet.

Racquel, roselle is a type of hibiscus which have pink blooms in the same shape as the okra blooms and the fleshy red fruits are boiled leaving the seeds, to make a refreshing sourish juice which you can a bit of sugar to drink.

Anonymous said...

This time I was smart enough to read your post after I had eaten so as to avoid drooling--delicious.

Andrea said...

Even if we have the same climate, i am not familiar with some of your plants, nor eat them. Maybe i am not just introduced to them yet. Some people here in some areas eat plants which are not eaten in other areas too. BTW, you might want to try spraying solutions of detergent to your aphid infested plants, or put the scraped aphids in the solution. Some people spray crushed chili pepper, the small very pungent ones. (I tried several times to post comment but it cant get through, wonder why!)

p3chandan said...

Carolyn thanks!

Andrea you are the 2nd person complaining about the comment part, not sure why because all these while, there was no problem. Anyway Ive modified a bit, so I hope everything is ok now. You are right about those edible plants, even some plants eaten by others are not familiar to me. Thanks for your home made remedy about the detergent solution. Must try it next time.Ive also tried the hot pepper spray.

EvoOrganic said...

Looks very yummy!

p3chandan said...

Thanks Evo, they certainly are, at least to me, thats why I grow them!

Egretta Wells blog said...

Very interesting post! I had never heard of roselle. Could that be what is called hibiscus tea here?
Beautiful, healthy looking plants.

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