a rare special treat.

Life is funny. Kids are happy in the most deprived homes and other kids are equally happy in better off homes. And  there would be people, living through difficult lives finding no joy till the end. I thought happiness is always about  NOW. The past stays as memory, the future is a mental projection.

The post today is about Kangkung, a simple plant. It can grow happily in a clogged dirty drain, and it can also grow well in neat rows in the most immaculate vegetable plot.  I grow them in pots...... special pots. I don't know, but I have tried to give kangkung a rare special treat, a nice home, a happy home, a well decorated pot........

______________K A N G K U N G______________

Any story has it's beginning. The plants were germinated on the 8th of February 2014,  Within the next two days, little white roots appeared.

Kangkung 10th of February 2014.
- A seed germinating in little plastic pot

Kangkung 22nd of February 2014
 - growing in two larger
 decorated pots

Kangkung 8th of April 2014  - had gone through several harvest
"cut and come again technique"

Our kangkung had gone through several harvests, and they keep springing back and be ready for the next harvest. They had been with us for two months. We hope kangkung will stay happy for another week before the final pull out harvest. Other seedlings are waiting for their turn. 

It's a rare special treat. 

What kangkung had offered to us and what we had done to them. 

A reciprocal treat.

__________bangchik and kakdah__________

my little vegetable garden

Kangkung, a different story.

Huh, am I loosing my gardening touch?...........  the earlier attempt at growing kangkung through cuttings failed miserably. Call it zero success, zero luck, or total failure. Kangkung, a new story ends not according to the script.  The weather was extra hot the past few weeks,  and the little shoots suffered even under shade, wilted and died.

Early of the month, 6th february to be exact,  I had something on at Nilai, and on the way back with Nizwan, we made a stop at a nursery. The guy was about to go off for lunch when we arrived.  The nursery was at the end of Dengkil town towards Putrajaya. We went home with 3 medium sized cylindrical pots, potting soil and a packet of kangkung or water spinach seeds.

Now the new little seedlings are doing fine, 

and will definitely create a new storyline.

New pot, new 5 little  kangkung seedlings

New pot of slightly lighter tone,
also with 5 new kangkung seedlings

Kangkung had it's own share of memorable childhood storyline, 

and Annie remembered it well

_________________________

And after all, when I was very young and in school, my teacher once told my class that eating kangkung was a sign of being intelligent. According to my teacher's story, once upon a long long time ago, the Sultan of Malacca was invited for an audience by the Emperor of China. Malacca was a vassal state of China at that time and therefore the Sultan had no choice but to be present. 

The Ming dynasty's court protocols required all those in the presence of the Emperor to bow their head. Therefore, no one knows what the emperor looked like. The Sultan of Malacca had really wanted to see what the Emperor actually looked like and devised a trick so that he could do so.

For the banquet, he asked for uncut fried kangkung to be served at his table. So when it is time to eat, he lift the whole of the uncut fried kangkung above his head, tilted his head backward and slowly started munching at the vegetable dangling above his head from his fingers.

And of course he therefore got to see what the Emperor looked like as others bowed their head throughout the banquet. When the Emperor asked he ate the vegetable that way, the Sultan said "Oh, that's how we Malays of Malacca eat kangkung."    

The Emperor knew the Sultan was merely bluffing, but being a a nice guy that he was, he let it passed as he felt the Malay chap running small piece of land called Malacca was such a smart fellow. The Emperor had even decided to marry one of his daughters from one of his hundreds of wives to the Sultan. Well, it pays to be a smart guy like Sultan of Malacca. 

Refer   Life of Annie: How to outwit a Chinese Emperor using a kangkung

_____________bangchik and kakdah_____________

seri kembangan

Kangkung, a new story

I was watching movie the other day, 

and the actor said, "you know what's life all about. It's about a story....." . 

There is a new story in our garden. 

It's kangkung. Kakdah bought kangkung recently, and I saved a few before all ended  as Kakdah's special kangkung goreng belacan .  The garden space wouldn't allow us to be too ambitious, so four cuttings are enough as a start. Lets see if they can make it in a week time.

kangkung cuttings

________bangchik and kakdah________

seri kembangan

Compost pile to grow things

Not much of a compost heap. I kept adding leaves,  grass cuttings, dead plants, large palm leaves, old soil from pots, top soil  and sand to get to that height. Kangkong as one of the compost material, survived and emerged out of the compost heap. No need for fetiliser, they feed on the reservoir of good natural food, COMPOST HEAP. Kangkong  grown in the normal way, don't look half healthy!


It is quite practical to start off a vegetable bed by piling up organic material to a reasonable height with additional sand and soil. Once the heap look dark brown, with everything almost decomposed, the site can be further ploughed into a good vegetable bed. 

How Compost Works Good compost makes plants resilient. Compost matures into what soil scientists call active organic matter, a dark, flaky soil, that's rich with micro-organisms and earthworms, as well as the useful waste these life-forms release. Adding compost to garden soil increases its water-holding capacity, and provides wonderful plant nutrients. Compost also contains matter that helps plants react well to challenges from insects and disease.

Kangkong seems happy feeding on compost heap

........... b a n g c h i k      a n d      k a k d a h ..........

j o h o r

green leafy vegetables in our little garden.

Leafy vegetables, leafy greens, sayur hijau all refer to the same thing. Plant leaves are eaten as vegetables, either raw as salads or cooked; stir fried, stewed, boiled or steamed.  I love growing leafy vegetables because they do provide exciting view, green, thriving and soothing.  Seeds are cheap and we can grow by hundreds. Most grow so quick that in a matter of weeks they are ready for steady harvest.

bayam

It is always bayam to us here. We can get them cheap at the market, but growing bayam ourselves is something else. It is always nice to have bayam right at the backyard ready to be cut for a lovely lunch or dinner.  Sometimes it is called amaranth tricolour. A friend said, one should buy seeds only once,  then after one should keep saving seeds when the plants flower and produce seeds. The seeds are black in colour, so small that a pinch could contain hundred of seeds.

They are slightly more than two months, and now they are already flowering. That's bayam, at after two months, they are considered old or ancient.

bayam

bayam

ulam raja

We never miss growing ulam raja. It is quite strong against pests and wind. Picking the shoots for fresh salad never kill them, in fact will promote development of side shoots, turning the plant into  bushy ornamental herb.

ulam raja

ulam raja

kangkung

kangkung, or water spinach is known as poor man's veggie. It can propagate by cuttings, but the most usual way is by seeds. And like the above veggies, kangkung will bloom and produce seeds in a short time. This veggie is unique, because once it sets, it will keep growing and crawl where ever it wishes. Heavy pruning will give the plant a fresh start all over again. 

kangkung / water spinach

kangkung / water spinach

water spinach

The three leafy green will always be with us, placed somewhere at the backyard.  I am eyeing at other leafy greens to be included here. The one foot square vegetable bed, will be an adventurous site to trying as many as I can squeeze.

bangchik and kakdah

pasir gudang JOHOR

as white as snow.

Kangkung is water spinach, easy to grow and sometimes known as poor man's vegetable.  It is the purest form of white that attract my attention as I clicked at the flowers.  I thought early morning sun managed to give a little bit of shade... and surprisingly made it even whiter....

white and shadow.

well hidden, so no obvious shadow

Three of them, and white is after all so pure

Kangkongs join chives, white orchids, selom and rain lilies, 

giving out pure white flowers. With a little bit of shadow, 

white is purest.

There goes, as white as cotton, or as white as snow,  
as white as a sheet, as white as a ghost
and right now as white as kangkong's flower.

bangchik and kakdah

Kangkong white flowers and eventual seeds

kangkong
water spinach

White flowers of kangkong

kangkong's fruits.

Once the fruit dry up, it can be opened.

 There should be a few seeds inside.

bangchik and kakdah

Kangkong / kangkung / , second lease of life.

Spelling it as Kangkong brings about its exact  sound.  Kangkung which is more widely spelled, is less impactful. But how can I argue with linguists when they talk with form and substance. But I stubbornly keep on using  Kangkong..., just in case I forget to hit the right note with "o"  rather than "u", which  to me is too subtle  a sound.  Fried kangkong is indeed a very mouth watering menu. A little bit of shrimp paste (belacan) will add to the flavour.

A month  ago, Arief , a friend from Kota Bharu fetched me from the Pengkalan Chepa airport. He laughed looking at our little garden upon reaching home. How do you squeeze your time, he asked. I cut off a few kangkong shoots and put in a plastic bag, as giveaway.  However he forgot to take it along. Much later, after realising it, I gave him a call, asking  if it's alright to use what's rightfully his as a fried menu for the night. Oh.., I have to make it up somehow...

kangkong second lease of life, very bushy now.

Kangkong is coming to the second lease of life. Two weeks ago, I harvested all.... for us, for the neighbours and for the EM ( EM: effective microorganism).  Kangkong just get on with life, pushing new shoots through every nodes.... Cut and come again as a harvest technique, nothing can beat Kangkong on its readiness to push and grow. It's best to put fertiliser upon harvest and give ample supply of water, to get Kangkong cracking again and again...

Kangkong: cut and come again with fresh shoots.

Someone said kangkong is poor man's veggie. 

But we are all poor yea, so let's grow kangkong.

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan

Kangkong, the easiest.

A stretch of dry spell got me worried. Luckily rains come the past few days, to cool things down. Kangkung which is the easiest to grow, had produced enough leaves to be harvested. When Kakdah did fried kangkung menu with belacan, I can tell you, nothing was left!
 Kangkong is the local name for water glorybind, water spinach, water convolvulus and swamp cabbage. The stem is hollow, the character is very much vine in nature, with the ability to crawl and climb. I may not allow them to grow until flowering , not this time. How fast they grow these kangkong. They were all  tiny, last month when I posted  Three rows of vegetable bed on the 18th of February.

first harvest

first harvest

3 rows of kangkung

By the look of it, we may go for a big harvest soon, to share with friends and neighbours. When they start getting too tall, the slender stems cant hold, ending with all of them crawling which will look very unsightly.

Bangchik and Kakdah

Tanah Merah Malaysia

Three rows of vegetable bed

Kangkung, kale, sweet peas, and peanuts are lining up in the raised vegetable bed. Peanuts had been here for months, seems to stop flowering for a while but busy sending roots right from the stem straight into the ground for the eventual peanuts. Kangkung (water spinach), kale and sweet peas are of the same age, sown together and transplanted on the same day. Kangkung don't seem to pose any problem..., they just keep on growing. Some of the kale are adding the third leaves, some simply wilt and fall flat. Lucky that I have so many extras, which is so handy to replace them.

Sweet peas are real teasers. Their game had been hide and seek. I have been trying again and again, but somehow they are not up to it. They simply dry up and die young..... not even with the first bloom. I guess they hate too much sunlight. Now there is netting for the three rows......

 

 three rows of vegetable bed with netting.

 

three rows of  kangkung

sweetpeas at both ends, 

and three rows of little kale in the middle

peanuts / groundnuts / kacang tanah
far left.

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan