Articles

28 Aug 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, SHL Project, Vegetables

Shredder, My New Love

I am involved in a new love affair – yes, you read it right. My new love’s name is Hawk Shredder which is made in China. It is simply wonderful, it helps me out and does things that fills my heart with joy and it didn’t put in in the red, in fact, in shaa Allah, within 1 year will help me save money. What more could a woman want?
Am I gushing over a shredder/chipper? Yes, I am. I have been looking for a shredder for over two years but I didn’t want to over-invest. After all, one of the principles of the farm is to be sustainable economically so any investment should be able to pay for itself. Otherwise it would not be practical. This item is important to the farm, not a toy.

Being an organic farm that is more focussed on maximising nature’s bounty (which is our tag line), an inherent principle is to go for natural farming where possible and using what we have to the maximum potential. For us, it is important to keep the soil alive and to continuously feed it so it will be healthy, enabling us to grow edibles using more natural methods.

Top soil is important as well as the soil composition. An important element in our farming methodology is the use of organic mulch, free of pesticides and chemical fertilisers. In our initial stages, we used bought organic matter but over the years, we have begun to recycle our organic waste such as banana pseudostems, ginger torch leaves and stems, grass and various other plant-based matter. In this manner, we can feel confident of mulch matter being free from chemical pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser.

As in all love affairs, it is not perfect. There are ups and downs. The downs are the shredder cannot handle recyclable wastes that have high water content nor with lots of stringy fiber so it doesn’t handle the banana pseudostem. It will cause the shredder to clog up and overheat. The up is there are many options at the farm – the tebrau, bunga kantan stems and leaves and all sorts of other vegetation.

You also need to get attune to how it functions – don’t stuff the input chutes or you will have problems with it clogging up. Just take it easy. Every once in a while, you will need to clear the output chute. As the shredded material will be moist, it may clump up so it doesn’t drop off easily. Get a feel on when you need to speed up the engine and when you can just have it at a steady pace.

As with any relationship, you have to maintain it. Be sure to use good quality 4-stroke engine oil – no need to go overboard on this as the prices of the oil for 1 litter range from between RM 10 – 50. Periodically clean it so that it doesn’t dry up on the insides and create blockages.

All in all, I am happy with it as we have been running the shredder about 3 times a week, 2-3 hours each time. I now use a lot of mulch all over the farm, around my fruiting trees, my vegetables, and also as an organic additive to the soil. At the rate that I am creating and using mulch, the machine along with the lubricants and petrol would have paid for itself in 6 months.

20 Aug 2015

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Edible Landscape, Herbal Therapy

How the Super 5 salad came about

Over the years, I have continued my research on the various herbs and plants that I have planted at the farm. I read up research articles, talked to alternative medicine practitioners as well as tried them out myself. It is born out of my love for healing, gardening and keeping our tradition alive. So this article is based on what I have learnt and experienced.

We live in a country rich in natural resources that we have only just begun to document with many of the information passed over the generations by word of mouth. Whilst pharmaceuticals tend to address corrective measures, our ancestors had a diet full of preventive measures and my aim is to focus more on preventive measures but at the same time look for curative measures.

In our fast-paced life, I find that salads are one of the best mechanisms for eating food that is nutritious and full of preventive measures – all of it being organic since introducing chemical pesticides and herbicides only adds toxins and cancer-causing elements to out diet. In selecting the Super 5 salad elements, I focussed on our main major illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, gout to name a few. So in my research, I looked at what were the major causes and how to control them within our bodies. Another important factor was the ease of growing and caring for these plants so people can succeed in growing them in their home gardens.

My Super 5 consists of ulam raja (cosmos caudantus), ruku or selasih hitam (holy basil), kemangi (lemon basil), tujuh bilah or bintang tujuh (pereskia sacharosa) and selasih putih (white basil).

Ulam raja is rich in vitamins, antioxidants and minerals. With this herb, it is addressing almost all our major organs as well as our bones. It is easily propagated from seeds.
Ruku, with its anise-like flavour, adds the respiratory health elements as well antioxidants and anti bacteria. With this herb, we are focussing on the respiratory system. It is easily propagated from seeds.
Kemangi, with its citrus aroma has blood cleanser, antioxidant, anti bacteria as well as heart strengthening element. With this herb, the focus is our blood system. It is easily propagated from seeds.
Tujuh bilah is known in the herbal world as being an anti-cancer agent and antioxidants. It is easily propagated from stem cuttings.
Selasih putih has antioxidant, anti-cancer and anti-bacterial properties and helps in the digestion process. With this herb, we are focussing on the digestion system. It is easily propagated from seeds.

All these plants grow in full sun or semi-shade and are easy to care for. Regular pruning will encourage new growth and maintain a healthy plant. It can all be planted in pots or polybags so not having any ground to plant is not an issue. With the exception of tujuh bilah, all are annuals although the life expectancy can be increased with regular pruning.

To further enhance the value of the salad, a serai or lemongrass infused olive oil dressing can be prepared by placing chopped, cleaned lemongrass stalk and leaves at least overnight in the olive oil to allow the flavours and essence to infuse into the olive oil and adding salt and pepper as well as a dash of lemon juice to taste. This will further add cleansing and anti-cancer properties to your salad as well as nutrients. So, next time you want to have a salad, try this and taste the flavour of these leaves and reap the benefits.

20 Aug 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, Edible Landscape, Herbal Therapy

Why the Super 5 in a tea?

I enjoy blending herbs to create a refreshing tea that I would want to drink any time without thinking of it as a health food or “medicinal”. Somehow we tend to equate healthy drinks to bitter, awful tasting drink but in this instance, it tastes great and not medicinal. I wanted to create a tea with lots of preventive properties as well as curative properties while maintaining the taste.

The criteria for the tea was that the source of the leaves had to be able to be grown on the farm (read: local and organic) as well as easy to care and maintain. And of course, had to result in a good tasting tea that can easily be stored and transported (read: either a concentrate or dried tea leaves blend).

I started out with the first leaf selected: the durian belanda or soursop (graviola) mature, dark green leaves. Many studies have been conducted including by Purdue University, Catholic University of South Korea, Virginia Tech to name a few, have found the the phytochemicals in the leaves and fruits are effective as a cancer prevention (since they kill off cancer cells and we all have them, just whether they are active or not) and also as a curative for cancer with its cancer cell killing properties. In traditional or herbal medicine, it is also use for hypertension, kidney stones, gall bladder stones, diabetes and other major illnesses. From my research, 5-7 leaves per day are used. It should be noted, that to date, there has been no known adverse effect from the leaves.

Misai kucing or cat’s whiskers has long been used as an aid to control the blood sugar, treatment of gout, high blood pressure and as a blood cleanser in traditional or herbal medicine. The flowers are also used in the blend for a subtle floral undertone flavour. The care and maintenance of this shrub is easy and it is easily propagated from stem cuttings. From my research a range of 1-2 gm per day is used.

Kemangi or lemon basil is often used in cooking as it emits a citrus herbal flavour. In traditional or herbal therapy, it is often used for diabetes, high blood pressure , cholesterol, blood cleanser as well as to strengthen the heart. This plant is easy to care for and propagated by seeds. From my research about 5-7 leaves per day is used.

Serai or lemongrass has only recently surfaced as being used in cancer therapy. At the Ben Gurion University, a study conducted found that citral, a phytochemical in lemongrass “causes cancer cells to commit suicide”. A local favourite herb for many of our local dishes, it is also used to create refreshing drinks. Easily propagated from stem bulbs, it grows with hardly any care required apart from periodic cleaning of old and dried stalks to maintain plant health. From my research, 1 gm of fresh leaves are use.

Belalai gajah or snake grass is also known for its usage in cancer therapy and high blood pressure in alternative, traditional and herbal treatments. It is easily propagated from stem cuttings and grows well in sunny to semi-shady areas. An average of 7-10 leaves per day is used but sometimes more, depending on the purpose of the tea.

Ultimately, I wanted a tea blend that would allow me to eliminate toxins as well as having illness preventive characteristics but yet be palatable. Amongst the major illnesses that I hope to address in myself are cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, gout, stroke, hypertension, kidney and gall bladder stones to name a few. To my knowledge, we all have cancer cells and it is just a matter of whether they are active or not. Thus, as a preventive measure, I hope to kill off as many of these cancer cells. Our modern day diet also introduces a lot sugar, uric acid and fats to our food consumption as we enjoy crustaceans, desserts, steaks, and many other wonderful tasting food. My aim is by consuming the tea, it will help my body eliminate all the unhealthy by-products from my body such as excess sugar, bad cholesterol, uric acid and the like. I wanted my blood system to be cleansed of all the undesirables regularly or keep them in check so as not to make me fall victim to these illnesses.

I do not advocate dismissing physician’s visit and advise but merely share what has been used for years over the generations. I periodically go for a medical check-up as a form of motoring my health. Unfortunately, not much is documented as the traditional practitioners do not carry out documented studies. I am constantly on the lookout for studies conducted by research centres and universities to further add my knowledge so if anyone else has information, please share.

I belief that a healthy blood is one of the keys to a healthy body so the blood cleansing properties is also high on the list of the characteristics of the tea blend. In preparing the tea, I will chop up the leaves to facilitate the release of the nutrients from the leaves. I tend to prepare a concentrate which I store in my fridge and I have tested storing it for 3 weeks in the fridge. When I want to drink it, I will add either hot or cold water, depending on my preference at that time. Personally, I drink it twice a week, mainly for preventive and maintenance purposes as I have other blends that I drink. So, why not create an organic “tea” garden where you can enjoy the beauty of the plants as well as the health benefits 🙂

Updated: Aug. 20, 2015
Updates: Aug. 21, 2015

12 Aug 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, Eating Well, Edible Landscape, Healthy Options, Well-being Landscape

Just drink it :)

After a conversation that I had with a very good friend, I was inspired to share this. Oftimes we feel lazy to eat fresh “ulam” or find it difficult to find. I remember my late great grandmother, late grandmother and even my mother have “ulam” at almost every lunch and dinner. For us nowadays, in the age of technology and processed foods, we have lost this tradition until we get sick and then we scour all over the place for them. At the farm, part of the aim is to keep the species alive and continue to propagate them.
The beauty of these herbs is that they can be consumed as a drink and done in such a way so that it becomes a regular drink and no longer thought of a medicinal or health drink. Many can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge, ready to drink or as a concentrate which can later be mixed with hot or cold water to drink.
The can also be easily planted and cared for, and can be planted in containers for those with limited ground space. As long as the plants can receive about 6 hours of sunlight a day, the soil not left to dry out and planted in a good soil mix, they can produce the necessary leaves and flowers for consumption. Since we live in a tropical climate, we do not have to worry about planting times as we can plant throughout the year.
Since the purpose is to produce quality for our consumption, I strongly suggest that it be planted organically, using organic fertiliser and pest control and totally avoiding chemical and toxic pesticides. Basically, we should feel comfortable to pluck the leaf and eat it directly from the plant.
So, here is my top 10 list:

Lemon grass or serai
Lemon basil or kemangi (produces small white flowers)
Cosmos caudantus or ulam raja (produces 5-petal pink with yellow centre flower)
Cat’s whiskers or misai kucing (produces white or lilac flowers)
Holy basil or ruku (produces tiny purple flowers)
Pereskia sacarosa or tujuh bilah (produces vibrant pink or red flowers)
Asiatica pennywort or pegaga
Chinese betel or sireh cina
Snakegrass or belalai gajah
White basil or selasih putih (produces tiny white flowers)

Tujuh bilah

Misai Kucing

Ulam Raja

Ruku

Selasih Putih

The above plants either on its own or in combination is purported to address may different diseases or illnesses including cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, and gout as well as detoxifying your body. It also includes antioxidants as well as containing many different vitamins and minerals.
It is important to remember that it is the fresh, green leaves that are used and not the old brown, dried leaf. So, when planning you garden, whether it is in a patio, cemented space or ground soil, why not include these plants 🙂

02 Aug 2015

8 Comments By admin Events

Durian Fest V – Post Mortem

This year’s Durian Fest taught me a lot. This is the first time that I had an open invite and I must say it was a stressful experience for me albeit it has its highlights. Preparation for the event was already stressful as I had some people upset with me when I declined some of their rsvps. It was a necessary measure as the response was already large. Many responded late and some didn’t confirm till the last minute so I really couldn’t accommodate them. All my previous durian tests was by invitation only so this is the first experience that I had in trying to nail down how many are coming.
The day arrived and true to my guess, quite a few people arrived early, some disrupting the preparations and some quite rude. This created stress for my crew and I, something which I wanted to avoid. The paying guests could be categorised into 3 – the good, the bad and the ugly. Since I always like to know the worst first, let’s address the ugly. The ugly are those that paid RM 10 and know that it is a “eat-at-site” function but yet choose to steal durians in plastic bags or other bags that they brought with them. These are people that I noted on the registration sheets and will choose to no longer have anything to do with. Then there are those “uglies” that came and eat without paying. Again, I will choose to no longer have anything to do with them. Since they didn’t register in, it is easy to avoid them in the future.
Next we have the bad. These are those that think that since they paid RM 10, they can waste as many fruits as they like. Over 100 fruits were wasted by these “Bads” who ate a couple “ulas” of the fruit and then left them lying around, and sometimes throwing the barely eaten on the ground. Guess what, these “Bads” will no longer be welcomed. There are also the “Bads” who refer to my crew as “kuli” and wanted to order them around. Guess what, RM 10 doesn’t buy you a slave that you can be rude to and threaten to report to me. The other type of “Bads” complaint about the durian and the lemang, all the while downing the food like there was no tomorrow. These people also go into my “undesirables” list.
OK, enough of the negativity. Let’s hilight the Good. There were groups who used this opportunity to get together, laid their mats down, shared fruits and ate lemang and enjoyed the drinks provided, all the while having a good time. It was a pleasure to see them enjoy themselves. Then there were others that shared fruits, even though they didn’t know each other because they decided that they wanted to try other fruits. Then, there were those that got there only to find that we had run out of fruits. Durians are not something that you can simply pluck, and due to the Bad and the Ugly, we ran out of fruits faster than anticipated. They were understanding about it and I will put them in my “Desirables” list. Some of them came from as far away as Melaka and first time to the area. Imagine how bad I felt :(.
My apologies goes to those who didn’t get any durians and I will add you to the list of invites for next year’s event. This will be the first and last time that I will have an open event. I will revert to previous format where we had a closed event by invitation only. I want everyone to have a pleasant experience, both the guest and my crew, the same kind we had previous years. A very important lesson was learnt this year: You can only control certain things but there are so many unknowns :).

28 Jul 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, Farm Information

All About Durian Fest V

I am happy that we are again able to hold a Durian Fest and this will be our fifth. We didn’t have one last year because the season fell during Ramadhan. However, this year it seems like we will receive more visitors compared with previous years with the main interest being enjoying “original durian”. I call them as such because these are durians planted from trees decades ago, before we had genetic modified plants and introduction of forced-fruiting, before the drive of commercialization pushed for “standard” fruits. Our aim is to promote local, original durians and the adventure of eating these durians. You never know what you are going to get and there are many varieties. These durians fruit naturally, following their own schedules, not injected with hormones or such items to force them to fruit to meet a commercial desire.

The Durian Fest is held during the area’s durian season and we do not collect any durians with names that have alphabets and numbers in them. Some people call them durian kampung but I prefer to refer to them as the original durian. They come in all sizes and many different flavours and flesh shades of colour from cream to bright yellow and if we are lucky, we may get the orange ones too. Part of the excitement is to see what fruit we have when we open one up.

Personally, I love eating durian with lemang made the traditional way. So, we cook lemang for this event so others could enjoy what we enjoy. It takes over four hours to cook it, requiring constant care while it is being cooked. Glutinous rice with fresh coconut milk and a touch of salt placed in bamboo poles of about 2 feet long, slow cooked over wood fire results in a delicious lemang.

Considering that we are eating rich foods high in sugar and carbohydrates, we serve a blend of misai kucing and durian belanda leaves tea with the hope that it will help re-balance our bodies. The tea is made with our natural, uncontaminated river water direct from the source. The tea leaves are grown on the farm so it is organic and natural, no pesticide or herbicides. With the great water, I think the tea just tastes wonderful, hot, warm or cold. We feel happy to be able to enable people to being the water home but everyone has to bring their own containers.

After the rich meal, our farm is open for visitors to walk around and see what we have planted as well as see how we plant them. Through sharing, it gives us an opportunities to exchange ideas and gain
knowledge in a real sense. Sg. Lui flows through the farm and it is about knee-deep so if anyone wants to cool their feet or sit in the river and enjoy the cool water, they can do so.

Our farm produces fruits and vegetables – all chemical pesticide and herbicide free and on this day, we will have whatever is available for sale along with various other items such as seedlings, mulch, potting mix and fertiliser. Our principle has always been to encourage organic or natural vegetable and fruit production as well as recycling of organic waste to produce fertilisers. As such, we will have friends sharing the Bokashi method and goat fertilisers. We will also have visitors who want to share or exchange seeds or seedlings and we will have a table set-up for people to place items for this. I am happy that the fest will be an opportunity to share amongst people with like interest.
All in all, this Durian Fest V is my most ambitious fest to date and I hope that we can manage to make it a wonderful experience for all our visitors.

18 May 2015

3 Comments By admin Banana, Eating Well, Healthy Options, SHL Products

Bananas: Berangan or Emas

I admit it – I still prefer the originals, no genetically modified for me. The taste you get from the originals are special. Pisang Berangan is about slightly more than double the size of Pisang Emas and the difference doesn’t stop there. Both bananas are eaten raw but over-ripe pisang emus can be turned into a lovely pancake and also our favourite local cucur – cucur kodok or as the northerners call it: cok kodok. However, both varieties do not make good banana fritters as they tend to soak in lots of oil.
Just ripen, pisang berangan (left) and pisang emas (right)

Two days later, you can see the difference in the skin colours.

The pisang berangan skin turns yellow as it matures and as it further ripens has a slight orange tint to it. The flesh is white and has a sweet taste with a subtle sourness to it. The texture is almost cake-like with a lower water content by comparison and almost melt in your mouth. Because of the taste and texture, it tastes great when turned into a banana split with chocolate or vanilla ice cream as it balances the creamy sweet taste of the ice cream.

Pisang berangan (left) and pisang emas (right)

By comparison, pisang emus skin turns yellow as it matures but as it further ripens, becomes a golden yellow. The flesh is slightly yellow and it gets to be a golden yellow as it further ripens. The texture is more solid and it gets even sweeter as it ripens. When it is over-ripe, it tends to get slightly watery due to its higher water content making it easy to turn into a mush for pancakes or cok kodok.

11 May 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, SHL Products

Mulching – good choice for recycling

By definition, organic mulch is the placing of organic material around the base of the plant to enrich or protect the soil. I have found this to be a great practice to improve the quality of the soil as well as providing additional nutrients naturally to the plants. As the organic matter decomposes, it releases essential nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen, phosphorous as well as other elements into the soil from which the roots of the plants absorb.

It serves as a great way to recycle the leaves, grass cuttings and stems of plants, allowing me to clear these items from laying around the farm. I will chop up the stems before applying it as a mulch so that it can function as a mulch effectively. I stay away from grass that have flowered or formed seeds as this will then add additional work for me as I will need to manually weed them out. On top of that, they will consume the nutrients that I wanted my plants to absorb. I always stay away from sawdust as timber is treated with chemicals to maintain them and the lumber produced from these timber will contain these chemicals. I also do not use any lang material that was infected by disease as I do not want to spread it to my plants. I find that there is no need to wait for the mulching material to dry out before applying in on top of the soil.

For planting bed, I will lay at least 2 cm depth of mulch as this will greatly help the soil to retain moisture especially as the day heats up in the early afternoon. I also use mulch on many of the plants that I plant in polybags or pots. Most vegetables do not tolerate the soil drying out and will wilt in the afternoon. By mulching, water remains available in the soil and allows the roots to absorb them.

For all my external mulch, I will add citronella leaves that have been chopped up to serve as a pest control element to the soil. It doesn’t affect the beneficial microorganisms in the soil so it ensures that I do not kill these wonderful microbes. For fruiting vegetables, I will added banana pseudo stems as they contain lots of nutrients essential for fruiting.

When the plants have lived their age and taken out, I will till the planting bed, mixing all the mulch, which by now have broken down substantially, thereby adding more organic matter into my soil and improving its quality, ready for the next round of planting. This is a practice I highly recommend as well as understanding what is in your mulch. Happy recycling and mulching.

25 Apr 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, SHL Journal

And I used to think that Chem, Bio and Physics was wasted…..

I used to think that I would never get the opportunity to maximise on my Physics, Chemistry and Biology classes from secondary (high) school. As I continue on my chosen vocation, I realise more and more the value of all that I learnt. All the knowledge that I gained then is being put to full use now as I am slowly becoming a practicing technical organic farmer. It has helped me understand the literature and reading I do on the more technical aspects of organic farming and being able to translate it to practical applications adapted to my farm environment.

I find that my chemistry and biology knowledge has helped me the most in the day-to-day act of growing my vegetables, fruits and herbs as well as in growing the fresh water fish. When talking about the nutrients necessary for the plants such as Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, Sulfur and Magnesium and marrying it into the biological aspects of photosynthesis and chlorophyll generation, it all boils down to having healthy plants that have good quality yield.

Then you have the soil pH from acidic to neutral to alkaline. Certain plants prefer acidic soil and certain alkaline and some neutral, it boils down to whether the plant can grow. Trying to grow cabbages in acidic soil will result in it dying or having poor growth. In contrast, tomatoes prefer acidic soil conditions. In practical terms, it means that I cannot grow cabbages and tomatoes side by side since they require opposing soil conditions.

I have learnt to appreciate the beauty of micro-organisms and the role they play in growing healthy plants. Understanding the chemistry of water and other components ha enabled me to produce my own beneficial micro-organism for use at the farm.

Obtaining my water supply required that I understand the physics of pressure as well as force and speed. Applying these concepts to practical terms of creating my own polypipe supply line resulting in me understanding how to construct a water tank that is at a higher level than the water coming in and being able to have good pressure in the pipes in the farmhouse and the watering pipes. At the same time, I have a fountain that doesn’t require a pump but simple the application of force and pressure but yet provide sufficient oxygenation of the water.

So, at this stage of my life, I am now benefitting from the knowledge of my younger days and realising the value of it. I am also thankful that I had great teachers at MRSM Pengkalan Chepa that taught in such a way that I understood what I was learning and not just parroting for exams 🙂

20 Apr 2015

0 Comments By admin Armchair journal, SHL Journal, SHL Products

Balancing with Nature: SHL approach to producing effective micro organisms for farm use Part 1

From the Open Farm Day on April 19, 2015, many are interested in using and/or producing their own effective micro organism solutions. Effective Micro-organisms is apparently a trademark name so I will henceforth use a different terminology. The use of these beneficial micro organisms or friendly bacteria is really using what is available naturally to improve the farm soil quality and at the same time enabling nutrients and health benefits to our plants and trees. Being a totally organic farm, we try to utilise what we have to further improve the quality and quantity of our produce. It is a common saying that “seeing is believing”. We try to promote cost-effective organic produce from fruits to vegetables and one of the ways is to utilise what nature has to offer like what our tag line is: “Maximizing Nature’s Bounty”.

So, how do we produce our organic beneficial bacteria solutions. First, we use pesticide-free and herbicide-free ingredients as our base organic matter such as fruit peels and vegetables waste from our farm which will provide the beneficial bacteria and enzymes. For the ladies, I am sure you are familiar with fruit peels that provide beneficial enzymes for our skin cell renewals, well the same principle applies for our plants and trees. Remember our biology lessons from school – bacteria can be easily killed by toxic chemicals and the chemicals do not distinguish between friendly and harmful bacteria. Common sense tells us that if we start with organic waste that have been sprayed with pesticides, they will tend to remain on the peels and skins. It doesn’t take much to kill these bacteria which you cannot see with your eyes.

Next element is the food for these friendly bacteria to feed and multiply. They like simple food – unprocessed or unrefined sugars such as molasses, raw sugar or cane sugar. An option for us, going local, is gula nira or gula melaka. We are encouraged to stay away from refined sugars but instead go for unrefined sugars – same principle here.

The third element is water and this item is just as critical as the first two. Everyone is aware that our water is treated with all kinds of things to kill bacteria and it remains in the water. As our “tap” water sources are often contaminated, all kinds of other things are added to “clean” it which will remain in the water. Check your tap water – is it “crystal” clear? When you leave it for long periods of time in a container, is there a sediment? Is there an odour to it? All these things tell you that the water is not healthy. If it is good, there would be no need for people to buy water filters or water filtration systems costing thousands of ringgit. You need good, clean water free of “introduced” chemicals such as chlorine.

Now that you have the ingredients, the ratio most commonly used is 3 parts organic matter to 1 part sugars to 10 parts water. Place it in a closed container, out of sun and allow the gases produce by this fermentation to escape daily initially and then 2-3 days interval followed by weekly, depending on the amount of gases produced. Allow three months for the fermentation process. If you do not release the gases regularly, your container may “explode” or burst from the gas build-up.

And there you have our recipe for producing beneficial bacteria for use on your plants. The dilution we use from this concentrate to create the spray is 1:100 or 10 ml per litre of water and the water we use for dilution is also good, clean, “introduced chemical” free water. Always remember we are using beneficial living organisms so do not kill it when you want to use it by using the wrong type of water. Happy “using beneficial bacteria” in your gardens 🙂

Part 2 will be all about increasing the value of your beneficial bacteria solutions and in shaa Allah, will be written in the near future. The experiments continues………

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