Grade A Vegetables for Free!

Grade B 'midin', sold at a local 'tamu' , jungle produce market at Bintulu town.

Notice the 'midin' rhizomes in thickets and climbing big trees.

Living in an eco-farm can be extremely healthy and plain simple lifestyle. Just imagine that after every rain ( and during this months of November and December ' Landas season' or monsoon rain season they are amazingly heavy and on daily basis) young fronds of 'midin ' the local jungle fern will exhibit themselves as young and succulent leaves. They mushroomed in abundance along the streams and wet basins.

In our farm, there three small streams that merge into a bigger meandering stream and on their sides the damp and swampy areas are retained for a good reason. As you can see in the picture, the flat areas are fantastic grounds for the growth of 'Midin' ( Stenochlaena palustris).

This is a very common fern growing in sunny or lightly shaded areas. There are many names given by the local people here in Bintulu for this wild fern. The Malays call it 'Lemiding', while the Bintulu Melanaus call it 'Jiyai'. This fern has been eaten as vegetables for generations. But with modernisation, it is harder to get them due to the disappearnace of its native growing conditions with the onset of urban sprawl. This jungle and wayside fern can now fetch good supplementary income for the local farmers who bring them to the local jungle produce markets called 'Tamu' throughout Sarawak.

Grade A 'midin'

Being gathered from the wild, as a vegetable, it is not subjected to chemicals and thus very safe to consume. Today the ferns are served in 5 star hotels and ordinary restaurants and are becoming a delicacy at national level looking at its popularity among Peninsular Malaysian tourists and visitors who are slowly taking a liking to it.. This fern can be served fried with the local shrimp paste,called 'Belacan' of which the Bintulu variety is most popular in Malaysia nowadays, thanks to the 'Midin' phenomena. It can also be fried with oyster sauce and garlic. Some people like to eat them as salad( 'ulam'). However when fried it is best served hot.

Over at our eco-farm, you can see them growing in thickets. This is due to its creeping rhizomes. But they can be adventurous and will climb big trees.

'Midin' is a rich source of iron ( for low blood count) and vitamin A ( beta karotene, superb for night blindness). 'Midin' is an " in thing" these days to savour for it has gained reputation as a 5 star hotel offering . For us at the farm, it is a Grade A vegetable that is obtainable freely . The more we prune the thickets, the more young fronds will emerge and multiply and the lesser the unruly thickets get.

Reference:

Holttum, R.E.(1982) Plant life in Malaya. Longman Malaysia SdnBhd.,Kuala Lumpur.

Hoe, Voon Boon, Sim P. & Hon, Chin Thim ( 1988) Sayur- sayuran dan Buah-buahan hutan di Sarawak. Deparment of Agriculture, Sarawak.

Kambatik Eco-farm Panoramas

View looking WEST.

It's a Kambatik World out there! Kambatik = Kampung + Batik. Kampung connotes rural, Malay traditional lifestyle, and batik represents colour inspirations, active composition and Malaysian identity.

View looking SOUTH

View looking EAST.

Here are some scenic shots of my "Kambatik eco-farm" taken from higher ground. Notice the bright orange/red/yellow colours of the Eugenia longifolia young leaves in stark contrast to the dark green leaves of the oil palm trees. Eugenia longifolias are medium size trees ( max. ht. 5 m), that were planted here about two and a half years ago as "advance growing trees".

They were planted earlier than the oil palm trees for many reasons. They prevent soil erosion on steep slopes, home for wildlife, shade and beautification purposes ( avenue/boulevard look) thus helping to delineate the un-tarred roads better, especially when you have to manouver the roads in heavy rain at night. Some would call this fuction as engineering pupose!.

The oil palm trees are now mostly 15 months planted in-situ. That means another one whole year t0 wait before they bear fruits and producing the commercial success our " blood, sweat and tears" are looking forward to.

Heliconia Harvest

A florescence bract of heliconia latispatha, palnted "wildly" next to an oil palm tree.

A spray of " sassy pink" as cut flowers to thrill any unsuspecting visitors to our cottage.

While clearing Zone D this morning, I stumbled upon masses of heliconia plants. There must have been about five varieties just at one location. Next to the oil palm tree I was tending my eyes were caught by a small clump of heliconia latispatha ( having tiny green flowers) . And since the weather was very perfect for working this morning, I decided to have a heliconia harvest. I got hold of a few long stalks of pink heliconias , commonly named " sassy pink ". I placed them inside a big jar outside the cottage door as cut flowers, ready to thrill my visitors.

Heliconias are said to have originated from this part of the world ( South East Asia) besides tropical America and some Pacific Islands. I my eco-farm, there are planted as exotics. I particularly admire its dramatic large leaves and spikes of colourful bracts. The actual flowers are tiny and insignificant. The inflorescence bracts are usually bright red, yellow or both but some may have greenish tints or pink. At present , I have six varieties of heliconia plants here at the farm. There are grown here "wildly", replicating its natural growth conditions. Best grown under shade or semi-shade, though some species prefer too the direct sun.

Heliconias are very easy to grow. They love humus- rich and well-drained soil. They are easily propagated by division of the root stock or suckers. They bloom all year round. Heliconias are excellent for ornamental planting especially the heliconia humilis( lobster claw), heliconia psittacorum, heliconia latispatha and heliconia rostrata ( fire crackers). For landscapers , heliconias are preferably planted in a group or en masse planting composition.

Nowadays it makes commercial sense to grow heliconias because the demand for them as tropical exotics are great in Europe and the US, used primarily as flower arrangements. A check online, I found that there is a Heliconia Society International founded in 1985 and a website address at http://www.heliconia.org/.

For a considerable time, heliconias have been variously associated with the banana family or the bird-of - paradise family, but are now placed in their own family, i.e. heliconiacae, in the order of zingiberrales. There are more than 100 evergreen perennial species in this genus and hybrids are created now and then.

Be ever prepared to stumble upon newer heliconia hybrids the next time you visit a plant nursery.