SHL Project – Suria Helang Lui

01 Jan 2017

0 Comments By admin Articles, Eating Well, ORGME, SHL Products, SHL Project

Fish Story: Part 2: The Fishes

Whenever we harvest the fish, I do enjoy cleaning the fish because the fish are not smelly, they are firm and fresh and look good and my mind is filled with endless possibilities of what to do with them. Three things that I have invested in that I find serves me well is the chiller, the freezer and the dehydrator. These three heavy-duty equipment backs me up in processing my fish and retaining the quality and freshness of the fish.

Once the fish are harvested, and there normally is a lot of it, the ones waiting to be cleaned are placed in the chiller. This ensures that the fish does not spoil and remains fresh until I clean it. As the water
used to clean the fish is also from a clean, fresh uncontaminated source, this further adds quality to the fish and keeps it clear of chemicals. Once cleaned, I then decide what to do with it.

Live catfish

Catfish fillet

For catfish, all the larger ones are filleted, packaged and frozen in the freezer. The catfish do not go into the chiller before being processed but is kept alive. The mid-sized ones are cleaned, marinated with herbs from the farm and then smoked with unprocessed wood being the source of the fire. Once it is smoked to the degree desired, it is then dehydrated, reducing the moisture content to a level that will inhibit microbial or bacteria activity. It is then packaged and ready for sale. We do also sell live catfish at our market stall but it all depends on what the demand is at that time – fillets, smoked or fresh.

Smoked catfish

Fresh red tilapia

Marinated red tilapia

The red tilapia is also processed to be sold either as frozen fresh which means it goes directly into the freezer and depending on order, are sometimes cleaned before frozen. Some are marinated in herbs and are then dehydrated and sold packed as dehydrated marinated red tilapia. For the dehydrated fish, I will remove the scales as I do not enjoy eating the scales. Once dehydrated, this fish can simply be fried or cooked in other savoury dishes with a gravy like asam pedal or masak lemak (with a coconut milk based grace).

Smoked and dehydrated eel

Marinated eel

From the river water coming in, we also get river eel which then find our fish pond as the place to live. They eat the small river fish and flourish. They are cleaned and filleted, producing long strips of fish meat. We cut them to shorter strips and then marinate them in a herbal mixture for at least 12 hours. It is then smoked and then dehydrated. We use all natural ingredients with the aim to keep it as natural and tasty as possible. Many people tend to say that they don’t eat eel because of how it looks. Strangely enough, many of these people eat Unagi (the Japanese name) and didn’t realise that they were eating eel. They can be steamed to rehydrate or made into soups. I just like to cut them up into pieces and eat with rice porridge or cook them in a savoury coconut milk based gravy like masak lemak cili. It can also be used as a topping in salads.

Packed dehydrated lampam

The lampam is a fish with many bones but it is tasty. Since I am too lazy to pick out the bones, I find that by turning them into dried fish, they taste great and I do not have to worry about the bones and I can just munch my way though it as it becomes crispy.
It is cleaned including removing the scales and then marinated with a slightly salted herb marinate. I leave it to marinate at least 12 hours before placing them in the dehydrator. Once dehydrated, you can just enjoy them as is. The smaller sized ones becomes a pure fish cracker. The larger ones, can either be further fried or eaten as is with or without sambal belacan. It can also be cooked with a sambal sauce or in a savoury dish with a coconut milk based gravy. It is packed ready for sale and does not require refrigeration for storage as long as it is stored in a cool area as the dehydration process removed moisture thus preventing bacteria or microbial activity.

Packed, dehydrated selling

Fresh seluang

The seluang is a small river fish that is tasty but delicate. Improperly handled when fresh, you will end up with a mush on your hands. Sometime we sell it fresh but it has to be sold and cooked within 24 hours so this makes it tricky. We get lots of it in the pond so it is a waste if I do not handle it correctly. As such, most of the time I will dehydrate it. I will place them in a draining bowl to minimise handling of the fish. This bowl is them placed in water that has sea salt and various herbs added and gently shaken so that the fishes are coated with it. It is left to sit in the liquid for about an hour before draining. This process firms up the fish whilst at the same time adds flavour to the fish. They are then arranged on the dehydrating tray and placed in the dehydrator.

All the fish wastes are collected from cleaning the fishes serve as the main ingredient in creating my fish amino acid (FAA) fertiliser which is then used in fertilising the vegetation at the farm. I use the water from cleaning the fishes to water the plants. I find this is a good way to return to nature as it improves the soil at the same time that it nourishes my vegetation. The FAA it then formulated with other ingredients and becomes one of the fertiliser produced by the farm for sale.

I use the dehydrator a lot and not the traditional way of drying the fish in the sun for several reasons:

I can dry my fish any time and am not dependent on the weather.
I can be assured that my dried fish will be free from air-borne contaminants.
I can be assured that my dried fish are free from flies, fly eggs and worms.
The fish are dried more evenly and to the level where the bacteria or microbial activity will be prevented.
Once in the dehydrator, I can just leave them until they are ready and not have to keep checking on them.

The herbal marinate contains herbs that are grown on the farm so I can be assured that they are free of chemicals. I use sea salt because they are better for us.

Why do I do all these? Simple. It doesn’t make sense to ruin good quality, fresh and tasty fish by adding chemicals or ruining them with improper handling and processing. At the end of the day, it is the taste that counts and so far, I have got good feedback on them and that makes me happy 🙂

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.

19 Oct 2014

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, SHL Products, SHL Project

Journey through teas

In doing my research of each of the individual types of leaves that can be turned into teas, most of the therapeutic benefits tend to be listed as anecdotal and very few have had extensive research done. I can understand why this is so: research costs money and if something cannot be patented that it is of no interest to the pharmaceutical companies. I remember the attempt by a major company within the last year to try and patent Habatus Sauda which to me was absurdity to the maximum. This spice has been used for centuries by many cultures and now that this giant company see that money can be made out of it, tried to patent it to prevent others from selling it. Studies have been done by universities on soursop leaves and lemon grass that focussed mainly of the nutrition aspects of it as well as the chemical composition as well as the cancer preventive and curative aspects of it. Since no major profits can be expected, this is not well publicised and therapeutic properties is still mainly anecdotal.

Misai Kucing

Serai

As such, I began my own journey on the herbal teas based on plants and trees that are grown in Malaysia and grows well here in our tropical climate. I spoke and discussed with several traditional medicine practitioners, people who have taken or tried them, as well as reading up on any study that I can find on them. The choices plants are plentiful so I decided to focus on misai kucing (cat’s whiskers), durian belanda (soursop), ruku (holy basil), kemangi (lemon basil) and serai (lemon grass). The reason is due to its therapeutic values for diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory system and cancer as well as serving as a detoxification agent.

Kemangi

Ruku

With these five basic herbs and leaves, there are many options for blending depending on the therapeutic values being sought. From a personal perspective, I wanted to have teas that provide me with therapeutic values whilst not tasting like “medicine” or unpleasant such as bitter. I also wanted prevention options as well as curative without the many side effects as often found in pharmaceutical medication. Being able to consume it as part of my normal drinks list was critical so that I can continue to drink them without feeling like I am taking medication.

Durian Beland

From the farm production perspective, we are able to produce pure teas as well as blended teas and now custom-blended teas. I have always enjoyed providing personal touches so the custom-blended teas enabled me to tailor the teas in accordance to customers needs. My philosophy to is have the tea produced in smaller batches and often, with no preservative and maximum therapeutic benefits. As such, we do not keep stock of more than 1 month and the teas can last for several months stored in a cool and dry area. From my own testing, it can last for over 6 months with no impact to taste or condition of the tea. I am happy that at the moment, I am not able to keep stock as the teas run out within a couple of weeks after production.

To me it is key that no chemical pesticides or herbicides are used so as not to introduce contaminants. As such, they are all grown organically using organic fertilisers and organic pesticide control. It doesn’t make sense to produce something for its therapeutic values and yet using growing methods that introduces contaminants which often are toxic or carcinogenic.

At the moment, the farm produces for local consumption only and in order not to impact quality and our principles, we do not cater for the mass market. At the end of the day, this project allows me to pursue one of my passions and is infinitely satisfying.

18 Jun 2013

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, SHL Project, Vegetables

Project long green beans

I enjoy eating long green beans, whether raw or cooked. I prefer them when they are mature and green, still crispy. Previously, I had done smaller experiments in planting them, looking at soil content, support structure and water quantity as well as sunlight. This time around, we decided to plant a lot more than previously, about 100 plants.
I started with seeding them in small polybags and once they were about 10cm with several leaves, they were transplanted. The planting beds were also prepare carefully, removing the weeds and then mixing the soil with “seasoned” pure goat manure and then covered with black plastic. The beds was covered to serve two main purposes: to reduce the weed and grass growth as well as to help retain moisture in the soil.
Since we do not use any chemical herbicides, it was essential to remove the weeds and grass prior to planting and to control any new growth. It would be a waste for all the nutrients from the goat manure to be used by grass and weeds. Covering the beds also meant that we would reduce the time taken to maintain the beds – a big savings in time as we would have to manually remove the weeds and grass. I was hoping that it would also mean that we would not have to water them but rely on the rain to supply the necessary water to the plants and that has come to fruition.

Five weeks after transplanting, it began flowering and about at six weeks, the first beans began to appear. The intial harvest was around 6kg and now it is producing about 15 kg per week. I am happy with the results in terms of the yield but I learnt that we need to improve how we support the plants. On a weekly basis, I remove the mature leaves and try not to let any dry out on the plant. By removing the old leaves, it encourages the plant to produce new shoots and more flowers. Without old leaves drying out on the plant which turns mushy when it rains, it helps prevent mold from forming on the plant which can kill the plant. As the leaves are maintained, I also manually remove the black aphids which literally suck the life out of the plant. All the time and effort is worth it when I see the quality of green beans that we produce. SubhanAllah.

01 Sep 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, SHL Project

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.

19 Aug 2012

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Prime, tasty keli (catfish)

Prior to owning the farm and getting into producing fresh water fish, I didn’t like fresh water fish and stayed away from Keli like the plague. The keli that I had tasted has a muddy taste as well as had a smell. Even now when I go to supermarkets, I can detect whenever there is “gutted” keli – there is a distinct odor! However, I kept hearing how some people raved over keli so I decided to experiment and raise my own keli. After gutting and cleaning over 100 keli recently, I can definitely say that I didn’t come out smelly :). It seems to be a popular fish especially crispy fried keli and smoked keli in coconut milk with bird’s eye chillies (masak lemak keli dengan cili padi).
After my initial proof-of-concept, several key components were clear to me:

Good, clean, uncontaminated water source
Quality feed with scheduled feeding times
Flowing water to ensure removal of fish wastes and prevent waste build-ups

We are blessed with having a good, clean source from upriver where the water has not been contaminated that you can even drink directly from it. You can even go swimming with the keli though I do not recommend it just in case you get a feel of the sting from them. We also do not use chemical herbicides or pesticides to ensure that these chemicals do not end up in the fish ponds from the water drainage.
During the first month, I feed the frys with high protein starter/growth fish pellets to ensure proper growth. Once the average size of the fish was approximately 6 inches long, I started feeding them what is called “grower feed”. We also included fresh greens such as young tapioca leaves, keladi leaves as well as tebrau shoots. Once a week, they would also get the inner pseudostem of banana plants or ubud pisang. The inner pseudostem serves a dual purpose: as an additional element to the feed and also as a water cleanser. The keli also feed on other types of small fishes that came in with the water flow. We do not feed it with any carcasses or chicken innards.As far as possible we try to emulate what fishes eat naturally.
With approximately 10,000 keli, it was important for us to ensure that there is no waste buildup in the ponds hence the constant inflow and outflow of the water helped managed the water quality level as well as waste removal.
As the fish do not all grow at the same rate, similar to other life forms, it was important to perform grading of the fish by size. This also helps reduce the canibalization of the smaller fish by the larger fish as well as help us in grouping the fish ready for sale. This task is performed every three weeks.
Moving forward, we have learnt that we will need to add “cages” to help in the grading efforts as well as ensuring higher productivity.
From the farm, we sell fresh keli and have started the sales process. At the moment, the sales is done once a month but we are putting into place a fortnightly schedule and ultimately, a weekly schedule.
As at the farm, we also grow lemongrass along with other herbs and condiments, I decided to experiment in making smoked keli with lemongrass infusion. It takes about 4-6 hours of slowly smoking to produce the smoked keli. I love the taste of it with its slightly lemony taste and tried it in rice porridge, similar to how you would add salted fish or other”bits”. It gives a different delicious flavor to the porridge. This will be a near-future product of SHL and will be made available at the SP Sunday morning market as well as by special order. I am happy that we have received good reviews on the taste of our keli and we hope with further improvements made, insyAllah, we can continue to produce tasty, quality keli.
If you would like more information on purchasing our keli, you can contact us via e-mail at suriahelanglui@yahoo.com or call 019-2089062.

14 Aug 2012

0 Comments By admin Eating Well, Healthy Options, SHL Project

Free-Range Kampung Chicken

Over the past year, I have been testing out growing Ayam Kampung or Village Chicken. During that period, I was monitoring the feed and growth as well as the general health of the chicken along with its predators. I was also building my prime stock – the starter for all my chickens. We also sold the eggs produced as there was too many for us to consume and it was well-received. The chickens that we raise are strictly ayam kampung and also mixed-bred with ayam hutan. The eggs produced have a golden yellow yolk and are smaller in size in comparison to the regular eggs.
I tried a few types of “homes” for them and finally settled on one, an enclosure with partial roof as well as laying boxes for the hens. We also placed “standing” rails where the chickens put place themselves during the night time. It appeared that they preferred to be above ground when they rest at night. It was really interesting to watch them look for their spots as darkness fell. As these chickens can fly, albeit not at a very high height, the fencing around the enclosure is about 12 feet high and to prevent them from getting up to the roof of their house, we placed the zinc vertically.
The hens seems to be happy with their laying boxes although I cannot understand why sometimes they want to share the boxes when there are empty boxes. Alhamdulillah, they seem to lay every day and over this period of Ramadhan and Aidil Fitri, I have decided to let them hatch their eggs. At last count there are over 50 eggs and it would be interesting to see how many hatch. This will my starting point for seriously rearing chickens.

It seems that these types of chickens are popular and not easy to find, and when you do find it, it is more expensive. It makes sense as you require a larger area as well natural source of food for them supplemented with store-bought feed. The growth period is also slower as compared to cage-reared chicken that spends its days in the cages.
The chickens are let out during the day, to forage for insects and worms as well as the greens such as grass. We also fed them with the extra ripe bananas and papayas as well as grated coconut that we had extracted the milk from. So they also served as our organic disposal “machines”. Every evening around 6pm, we feed them crushed corn and they seem to have this down to a tea. Should I be walking around during this time, they will follow me until I feed them their corn.
The chickens I raise are strictly for food and not for fights. So, I am selective as to who I sell it to. If all goes according to plans, then we will be able to offer for sale free-range ayam kampung in the near future.

05 Jul 2012

0 Comments By admin SHL Journal, SHL Project

Of keli and tilapia

Another major activity at the farm is the rearing of fish, On 1st of June, a new batch of fish was placed in the ponds. The baby fishes (10,000 keli and 15,000 red tilapia) were about 2 inches long and in the month that they have been in the pond, I am amazed at the growth, especially the keli.

I started them out with the starter feed with high protein and to date, the loss has been almost negligible. They are fed strictly fish pellets and leaves from tapioca and keladi. A definite no-no is any carcasses, human or animal wastes, or animal innards. Whilst this means that the cost of feeding them is higher but I believe in producing quality tasty fish that doesn’t have a funny taste or smell to it.

Another key element is the quality of water – to ensure good oxygen content as well as keeping the fish waste level to a minimum. Alhamdulillah, the investment of laying 3 inch polypipe from the source up river ensures a good constant supply of water into the pond resulting in continuous inflow and outflow. Definitely no smelly, stagnant water so it provides a beautiful landscape feature to the farm.
I have separated the keli and tilapia but somehow a few of the keli has managed to get into the tilapia pond. There are a few other fishes that have appeared in the tilapia pond – river fish as well as haruan. I guess I will know what else has appeared in the pond when I drain and harvest the tilapia.
In order to gain more knowledge into the rearing of the fish, I have attended courses with Jabatan Perikanan as well as visited some other fish farmers – the quest for knowledge never ends.

I love feeding times – the first 3 weeks I fed them 2 times a day and then increased it to 3 times a day with the feed calculation based on 2% of the estimated total body weight of the fish. After the second week, I changed the feed to be specific feed for the type of fish – keli feed for keli and tilapia feed for the tilapia. When the keli is feed, there is this furious rush of feeding activity and you can hear the sound of the water as they attack the feed, The tilapia also rush for the food but it is less aggressive when feeding.
This week, we will be categorizing the keli by size and separating them. The rate of growth is different although they were all about the same size when introduced into the pond. The larger size will be placed in the holding pond ready for harvest as I expect the first harves will occur by end of month if not sooner.

The tilapia on the other hand is targetted to be harvested at the end of October.
The next challenge I face is marketing the fish so I will have to draw from my corporate experience. InsyAllah, this effort will be successful. The journey continues……

04 Jun 2012

0 Comments By admin SHL Project

SHL Aqua Project: Jannah Part 4

Three months from start date of project, the fish ponds are now ready. The new 3″ polypipe has been connected and the wonderful sweet, clean water has made its way to the ponds. It is definitely a force of rushing water – I tried standing under it and had to ensure that my feet was planted well in the pond.

It took 2 days to fill the ponds to the level of the overflow thus ensuring that water is continuously flowing in and out of the pond. I love hearing the water, so relaxing. With the water, the baby fish from the river also has entered the pond. They are my pond testers – if I they died then I know that I have a problem. Alhamdulillah, they are happily swimming in there. I have retained the general shape of previous pond so it still appears like a river flowing through the land.

During the time that it took to get the last pond ready, grass and vegetation started growing in the other pond. I decided to leave it as when it is filled with water, it will provide additional food and habitat for the fish. Now that the water has been released into the pond, I see the fish playing hide-and-seek. On Friday, June 1st., I released 3000 baby red tilapia. After observing them for a few days and seeing that all is fine, I will be adding another 17,000 over a period of a week. I may add another 10,000 to 20,000 more depending on how this intial 20,000 works out and my observation of it over a period of two weeks.

The last pond is fully cemented and it is done differently than the rest with a holding pond between them. The size of this pond is 3000 sq. ft. and will serve multiple purposes. The plan is to release about 10,000 baby keli. Due to its nature of burrowing into the ground when water is drained from the pond, by virtue of a cement floor, this will ensure that they can be properly harvested when it is time. With the separation of the holding pond, this will also prevent them from entering the other pond. However, with the good quality water as well as my blended feeding approach, it will have a great taste without the “muddy” flavor. Now I am selecting the source for them.

The holding tank is the area that will be used to “collect” the tilapia during the harvesting process, thus ensuring minimal damage to the fish and allowing live fish for sale. All in all, I am happy with how things have turned out but there are still improvements that I will have done over the next few months.
For pest control, in my previous experiment, I found that if lemon grass was planted around the pond, this will deter the memerang so we have just planted serai wangi around the pond. This will serve a dual purpose – added protection for my pond and adding another herb to my herbal collection for transforming into other products in the future.
The next detail addition will be the water sprouts from various spots along the banks of the pond which will help improve aeration of the pond as well as providing aesthetic value. At the same time, listening to water has always relaxed me. I choose this mechanism for aeration due to all these reasons as well as being eco-friendly and staying away from dependence on electricity or diesel-powered aeration devices.
And so the adventure continues and insyAllah, we will be ready for harvest in 4-5 months time.

24 May 2012

0 Comments By admin SHL Project

SHL Project: Aqua Jannah Part 3

The creation of the third pond is taking longer than I expected. Between the frequent rains and additional modifications that I decided to have done, it has added an extra month. However, since my preference is to do it right the first time, the additional time is inconsequential in the realm of thing.
One of the features that I like about this project is the connection holding pond between the second and third pond with its bridge. This holding pond has a concrete floor with high steps along the side. The bridge is about 10′ long and almost 3′ wide, allowing a nice area for relaxing. Plus, it enables me to cross-over to the other side with my wheelbarrow. There is still some finishing work to be done to the railings of this bridge.

The third pond also has a conrete floor and walls surrounding it and measures approximately 30′ x 100′.
The walls is being built similar to the holding pond, with steps. It will serve as a barrier against soil erosion along the sides of the pond as well as a retainer barrier against river. The depth of this pond is below the water line for Sg. Lui, which is just over the small hill. Hence the separation between Sg. Lui and this pond is just about 20′. I wanted to be able to totally dry out all the ponds at each harvest which would have been impossible if this pond didn’t have a concrete base. The insides of this pond will be plastered. One could say that once this pond is done, it will resemble a swimming pool but with lots of fish swimming around.

With all the rains, the first and second pond have begun filling with water and the level seems to remain at 1′. Grass, water lilies and various types of keladi have begun growing in there and I will leave it there when I start releasing water into it. This will serve as additional food for the fishes and helps with the conditioning of the ponds. There are other refinement works that I want to do to the ponds but I will defer this until at least one harvest. By this weekend, we will begin to fill up the ponds, the first since the renovation and upgrading works. I look forward to this happening and seeing the water level. If all goes well, by June 1, I will be able to release about 60,000 baby fishes, insyAllah. It will be exciting for me :).

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