Finally my FIRST Mangoes!!

 I bought my first mango tree from a local nursery last September 2013, it was less than 50 cm tall. It was a grafted tree of a local species called Harum Manis (literally translated into Sweet & Fragrant). I asked the guy at the nursery, how long would it take to start fruiting. And he answered about a year! I could hardly believe him, a dwarfie tree like this would fruit in a year? I just smiled and thanked him.

Later at home, I searched the internet, and to my surprised, the source said that at least it takes 3 years for a grafted mango tree to start setting flowers and fruit. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. Though I didn't buy what he said, but I somehow really wanted it to be true... :-D

My mango tree continued to grow and got taller. So one day in spring, when my mango tree started to grow unsual shoots, I was very intrigued. I wait and voila! It set flowers!! Just in about 7or 8 months! My jaw dropped! The guy was RIGHT!! Yippie!!

Since mango doesn't need a hand pollination, I let the nature do it's job. The wind, the insects, everyone was busy doing the task for me! It sets hundreds of small flowers and many I believe got pollinated, but in the end the nature will also screen those which are not well-pollinated. They will eventually dropped from the trunk.

The monsoon period in the Summer brought a lot of rain and high speed wind. That caused many of my baby mangoes to drop since the pot sat in the way of the wind. That's a very hard lesson to learn. Any fruit trees shouldn't be exposed to a lot of wind (especially strong one). It will cause a lot of stress for them and will cause the fruit to be aborted by accident. So, I move it instantly to a spot where it is more protected from strong wind.

Only 5 mangoes survived this season, but it was already amazing given the size of the pot which is only size 5.

Herbs and Veggies

My goal for gardening is mostly to produce edibles, though along with it some roses, marigolds, and indoor plants are added into the list as companion plants or just to add more colors and varieties to attract beneficial insects.

I've always wanted a kitchen garden, where I can have fresh herbs and veggies available. Curry leaves and kaffir lime so far have been on the top of my list along with leeks, scallion, basil and oregano because I love to use them in my cooking.

Can anyone of you identify this plant? I bought the seeds from a local seed seller. It's supposed to be oregano, but I'm sceptical since the shape and fragrance are different from that of Italian oregano.

My first success with Eggplants

I was so thrilled to find out that my eggplants were finally fruiting. My previous crop of Turkish Eggplants, which seeds I bought from an online seed seller based in the US, failed to produce any fruit, though I had helped with hand pollination. It seemed that all my effort was a total failure. 

Scratching my head, I wondered what's going wrong. Was it the heat? Well, in tropical country like Indonesia we only 2 have seasons, which usually divide the all-year-season into rainy season from Oct-Mar and hot season/summer from Apr-Sep, but blame it on global warming the season has been enigmatic. From last December up to March, where the rainfall should still be high, we were struck with drought and high temperature up to 37-38°C (98-100°F). During this period, many of my plants were struggling to survive because at some point during the hottest temperature of the day, the sun was scorching. Many of my tomato plants got sick and didn't make it. And that also makes my chilli plants stop fruiting because the flowers refused to produce any pollen. And I suspected that it was the reason behind my failure with Turkish eggplants. 

As far as I know eggplants is usually self-fertile which means the blooms have male and female parts and thus self-pollinating. Though wind, insects and hand pollination can also help to enhance the process.

This one is a regular purple eggplants, which seeds were purchased by my student's mother from her trip to China. Thus, I don't know whether it's heirloom or hybrid, since the packet information was given in Chinese. But just like its nature, it's very easy to plant and the germination rate is high. It was germinated in only several days.

I noticed that it has two kinds of blooms, males and self-fertiles. I did give them a hand pollination but I believe the nature has its share in it. My first harvest was 4 moderate size eggplants. And now, I saw 3-4 eggplants are in the making.

Cookies or Scones?

These are actually scones but for practical reasons I mixed the ingredients in a large bowl and form the dough with hands. That's why the end products looked like cookies. The original recipe calls for apples & raisins but at one occasion I used strawberries and raisins. This has become a new favorite of my family!

Apple Scones
Ingredients:
380 gr flour
1 tsp baking powder
110 gr butter, at room temperature
80 gr icing sugar
1 egg
100 ml sweetened condensed milk
2 apples, diced
75 gr raisins
1 egg yolk, beaten

Method

1. Sift together flour and baking powder onto a clean surface. Push flour outwards o form a 25 cm round wall.
2. Place butter in the center. Add icing sugar and mix well with fingers. Add egg and mix well.
3. Add milk slowly and mix well with the butter mixture and flour to form dough. Add diced apples and raisins and mix well.
4. Roll out dough to 2 cm thickness. Stamp out rounds with a 5 cm cookie cutter. Arrange on a greased baking tray spaced well apart. Brush with beaten egg yolk.
5. Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C/400°F for 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

It's perfect for a tea party or just to accompany your quality time at afternoon tea .

Yoghurt Fruit Cake

After a morning visit to the garden, how about making some cakes for tea? Here is the new recipe I tried a couple of weeks ago, taken from Ruby Bakes. This recipe calls for yoghurt, almond oil, blueberries and lemon  rinds. As usual, I can still do without the ingredients I don't have in hand, and this time it's the almond oil wich I substituted with vegetable oil and as for the fruit I used canned peaches and fresh strawberries.

This is one of the most delicious cakes I have made. I really like the texture that's loose and tender. I believe the taste and fragrance will be more interesting with some almon oil. Highly recommended!