This past month, many good developments in the garden, primarily, with the papaya trees, Hawaiian tomatoes, eggplants, hibiscus, basil, cucumbers, and kang kong.
Let's get started with the sweet papaya tree in the back yard. You might be thinking, "Sweet? I thought all papayas are sweet." That's what I thought the first year in the Marianas. Papaya trees are everywhere here, grow just about anywhere, and thrive even under the worst conditions. Thing is, most of the papaya trees on the Mariana Islands are wild or jungle papaya, their fruit is not sweet at all, and they're good to block the wind, or provide shade only. They grow just about anywhere. Papaya tree seedlings can be pulled up out of the ground and transplanted easily, They are super robust. The one in my backyard is not a jungle papaya; the fruit is very sweet. The flesh of the fruit inside is a bright reddish orange, with many black seeds, about 2-3 mm in size. Papaya is especially good for the human digestive system. Have a problem using the bathroom? Eat a papaya and make sure you have plenty of toilet paper. Living in Taiwan 10 years, drank a lot of fresh papaya smoothies - favorite of all was a lemon-papaya smoothy (so healthy).
Collected all the seeds from the last papaya I ate from the tree in the backyard. Air dried them, germinated some, and succeeded in getting four healthy papaya tree seedlings. Took the seedlings, after they had matured a little, and planted them very close to the mother tree. Its not a sure thing that all four seedlings are female - that's why Hawaiian farmers plant papayas three at a time. Once it's determined which ones are female, the rest are destroyed. So, if all four of the new seedlings turn out to be female trees, wouldn't that be cool? The probability of at least one of the four seedlings being a female is extremely high.
The sweet basil, under the rainwater spout, has already grown to about three feet tall. It's very likely they will be harvested in the next couple of weeks. The stalks will be cut, bundled, and air dried. It will be nice to have dried basil sprinkles for cooking and eating.
The lemon basil is completely at home now and already starting to produce seeds. It will probably also get harvested soon.
Looking through a big jar of seeds the other day, found a packet of old cucumber seeds. Bought the packet of seeds at the local hardware store at a discount for 10 cents. The expiry date on the seed packet was already overdue two years. The other day, when coming across the old seeds, I remember the attempt at germinating the seeds a year ago failed. So, growing cucumbers was no longer a consideration. But, the other night, when I saw the cucumber seed packet, I just got something like a gut feeling, like, "plant all the cucumber seeds." Grabbed the seeds, the pick axe, and made a good grow bed for the future cucumbers, right beside the Hawaiian tomatoes. Didn't even bother to germinate the seeds first, just planted them directly into the ground. Every day, early in the morning, I like to look to see if anything "cucumber looking" has popped up out of the ground yet. Cucumbers will be loads of fun, especially in the building of another treliss.
Have to admit, eggplant has not been an easy veggy to grow. In the past year, have lost track of how many seeds were attempted at germination with no results. Planted two eggplants at the last place I lived - that was 10 months ago. Once a week, I go back to those two eggplants to harvest. Both are almost 5 foot tall and have been pumping out the eggplants, non-stop, for several months. Those two plants inspired me to not give up growing eggplant. For the past three months I have germinated about 30-40 eggplant seeds, with no success (not even one). Finally, got one good seedling. Then a couple weeks later, four more eggplant seedlings popped out of the soil. Lost one of the seedlings the other day, and now have only 4 healthy seedlings.
Here's the biggest of the four. From the get go, something was munching on it's leaves at night - sprayed the leaves with soap water, and the munching on my eggplant has stopped. This eggplant has been growing very fast, and is way ahead of the other three seedlings by three weeks to a month. The Thai basil is gone now, and this sole eggplant took its grow area.
Took the remaining eggplant seedlings and care for them at the kitchen windowsill. Really don't want to lose anymore eggplant seedlings. When they get much bigger and stronger, I'll plant them in the garden (in about 2-3 weeks).
The kang kong has exceeded all expectations. It truly is an extremely prolific veggy. Already lost count how many times the kang kong has been harvested. Kang kong has already replaced my love for spinach. Here on Rota, we don't see much spinach in the stores, because it has to be imported, which also means, it's expensive. Kang kong on the other hand, tastes more delicious, and now, is always available, fresh, from right outside my front door. Was considering possibly exspanding the kang kong grow area one more time, albeit, the kang kong grows so fast, and keeps spreading, there's really no need for a larger grow area at the moment.
Keep it simple with the kang kong, stir fry it on high heat, with minced garlic, salad oil, and a little sea salt. Stir fry about 3 minutes only, drizzle a little sesame oil on the kang kong, and eat (if you have it, add a few drops of oyster sauce before serving). Kang kong is also good in instant noodles. The flowers, leaves, buds, and stalks all taste very delicious.
Three months ago, when I first moved into this house, noticed an old dead bush in the front yard. It was black, covered with mold, and had ants all over it. Many times thought of taking the machette and wacking it down. Instead, just kept watering it, week after week. Surprise, surprise, a hisbiscus plant busted out of the ground - so green and beautiful. The ants continued to swarm it, so they got the soap water spray (major anticide). Very anxious to see the first hibiscus flower and even more anxious to see what color the flowers will be.
The three chili-pepper plants have fully recovered from damage caused from swarms of flying insects. All three are pumping out peppers. Not even sure about the taste of these peppers. Time to taste one.
There are other things in this garden to check out, such as the banana trees and the madarine orange tree, but this time, we'll finish up by taking a look at the Hawaiian tomatoes. All 16 tomato plants have been growing well - the tallest tomato plant is at least 5 feet tall. Putting 3 stakes around each individual plant, helped in guiding their fast growth. A treliss was slapped together with tang-en tang-en poles (from the jungle). It's almost like a big cage to contain the rapid growth of the tomato branches. Just in the past few weeks, all the plants started flowering, but very few bees or butterflies could ever be seen in or around the tomato grow area. Sixteen flowering tomato plants, and only one small tomato. A friend told me to get a q-tip and pollinate every tomato flower. Every other day, I have a routine to check for any new flowers, and to pollinate them. Only been doing this a few days, so I'm a little anxious to see more fruit.
Hoping to start making dried tomatoes - had many delicious dishes in Southern California with dried tomatoes. The one dish that stands out more than any other is an appetizer my daughter and I often ordered - dried tomatoes with fresh mozarella cheese and balsamic vinegar.
Hope you enjoyed your visit to my home garden on the Island of Rota, truly a Pacific island paradise. If you want to share this blog site with friends and family, please do. If you happen to visit Rota, then "Welcome, welcome!" Come by and visit - would love to cook you some delicious kang kong, or share some fresh Hawaiian tomatoes with you.
Take care.
