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| Lush petolas hanging down and climbing on windows |
Sorry for the long silence, dear friends. I didn't feel like blogging in a long time, and I even stopped visiting all my blog friends here for a while. Right after I posted my last entry, I went to check on my cats and found Yoruichi dead. I was quite sad at her loss, especially after she survived against all the odds. She was a brave, loving girl, and I guess she fought so that she can spend her last days at home with us. Every time I looked at my blog I am reminded of her. Then not long after that we went for Umrah, which was truly a gift from Allah the Most Beneficient. Perhaps I shall write a bit about my experiences there in later entries. And then did some more to-ing and fro-ing due to hubby's work. The heavy monsoon rains derailed a lot of gardening, and my garden began to resemble the Jung-Den (Jungle Garden) it is named after. Haha. And now really I am in the middle of reorganising the house, but that also led to reorganising the garden... and fond memories of my blogging friends... and now I guess here I am.
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| Current partial view of my Jung-Den. In the background is the cat enclosure, its roof completely taken over by a single petola plant. Foreground: The same petola plant on black netting. As you can see it is very cool beneath this green canopy :-) |
Can you tell that the petola plant is fruiting prolifically? I guess it is pretty happy at its present location, right next to the kitty waste + kitchen waste compost bin *wink wink*
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| Top view of petola plant interspersed with kacang sepat / lablab beans on top of black netting. They are fighting over dominion of the skies! |
We were quite pleased that the petola plant chose to clamber all over the cat enclosure roof, as we feel the leaves will provide shade and some odour-proofing.
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| The very first petola gourd I noticed. :-) This was back in early October 2012. |
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| The same baby petola all grown up :-) I gave this baby away. |
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| Freshly cut petola, to be eaten with sambal belacan or enjoyed raw as it is. Surprisingly nice. It took me awhile to learn how to harvest big petolas that have not gone to fiber yet. Leave them too long on the plant and they will have some inedible fibers in them. |
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| What I had for lunch today: petola, kacang sepat, sweet potato leaves and cekur manis leaves stir fried with fermented black beans (taucu) and dried fish (ikan bilis). |
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| Another stir fry: onions, chili, petola and ikan bilis. I have also made soups with petola. |
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| Peeling off the skin of a dried petola. Note the latte colour of the skin. This seems to denote the perfect time to harvest these gourds for loofahs. |
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| Peeled loofah and dried skin next to it. Shake the loofah and you get seeds! |
The above is the first loofah I peeled. It was gorgeous. By Allah's graciousness, the first petola my neighbour chose to peel was the perfect one. The others we peeled were at too advanced a state of decomposition, with grey fungus growing on the fibers.
Now for the giveaway bit. If you are interested in growing your own petola, I have a limited amount of seeds to give away. Just drop me an email at homelychaos(at)gmail(dot)com with your name and email address and I will send them to you. Offer stands while stocks last. :-)
12 comments:
Your lunch with mixed vege stir fry tu look so good! my favorite!
Sorry for the loss of your cat. Your cat sure very happy to be your pet. i have the petola seed too. plan wanna plant one, but no space yet. Ur petola grow so well!
Salam mama ponkey..
lama benar tak dengar cerita yer..dkt 2 months maybe..anyway takziah diatas pemergian yr cat.tumpang sedih jgk..:)..this type of petola not sure pernah makan ker tak..nampak sedap u buat stir fry tuh..:)
Olive, it did taste good, if I may say so myself. Thank you for the condolences, I hope Yoruichi was as happy with us as we are with her. My petola just sprawls all over the place that we have to trim it. Kacang sepat does not take up as much space. :-)
Ummu Aidan, lama tak nampak :-) Terima kasih, Yoruichi tu saya jumpa dalam longkang masa dia kecik, bawa balik dan bela. Dia manja dan suka duduk dalam rumah tidur sepanjang hari dengan aksi penat. :-) Petola ni kata jiran saya jarang dah orang jual di pasar tani. Jiran juga yang kata kalau yang muda enak dimakan begitu sahaja, cicah sambal belacan (buat ulam). Saya makan mentah yang dah besar sikit, buat macam buah. Hehe.
salam kenal mama ponkey..baru saja blogwalking...baca ur gardening entry..then terjumpa entry gutter garden yang awk sketch diagram n etc...heheh sy fikir..sy je siap sketch plan sebelum tanam..rupanya ada yang sama..:D
berminat jugak nak tanam petola sarang ni..tapi rasanya sy tak bleh mkn allergic sesak nafas...
okey get back ur gardening spirit & happy gardening!!
Salam Mama Pongkey..baru sempat jalan2 sini..alhamdulillah selesai umrahnya ya..wah melaut tumbuhnya petola tu.. Banyak hasilnya.. Bolehla buat loofah.. Takziah juga atas pemergian pet yg disayangi.. Nanti mesti ada yg comel juga
Yoruichi will be dearly missed. Wah nampak bersihlah bawah black netting. I usually harvested the luffa very young when they are still very slim as I tend to forget to harvest them if I let them be fat and becoming fibrous.
Nadia, salam perkenalan dari saya :-) Hehe serupalah perangai kita ye. Tapi akhir-akhir ni saya ada sedikit malas nak melukis pelan lagi. Saya tabur je dan harap nanti bila tumbuh boleh main teka-teka hahaha. Pertama kali dengar ada yang allergic kepada petola sarang ni. Tak apa, banyak lagi sayur lain ada untuk dimakan :-)
Kak Mar, terima kasih atas kunjungan. Ada buah petola atas pokok yang saya sedang menanti masanya untuk diproses. Tang seronok masa goncang loofah yang kering, keluarlah segala benihnya.
Diana, yes I still miss her, especially when I look at her brothers and Pongkey, who is a calico like her.
Bersih tu sebab baru dibersihkan sehari sebelum gambar diambil. Lupa pulak nak ambil gambar before dibersihkan (atau mungkin subconsciously tak mau ambil hahaha). I always try to harvest them at the 'optimum' point between the largest size befire they go fibrous. But now am exploring the taste of the younger ones..
Salam mama pongkey,feel sorry for the lost.Lama betul tak bersiaran tertanya2 jugak. Welcome back :)
Jung Den mama pongkey tak masuk rumah jiran ka? Tak pasai2 ehem2 pulak jiran nanti. hehe.
Wasalam Ibu Qistina. Thanks :-)
Hari tu pokok petola cuba masuk ke rumah jiran, tapi jiran tak kisah, dia potong atau naikkan semula ke pagar saya. Awal-awal lagi saya dah beritahu, potong je dan ambillah semua petola di pagar tu, kira kita kongsi ye. Hehehehe. Seronok dia. Dapat 'kusa' (petola dalam bahasa Arab, sebab jiran saya orang Arab) free.
kehilangan yang diharapkan akan berganti ye mama pongkey. saya juga sedang dirundung kesedihan setelah kehilangan sahabat bberapa minggu lepas.
hmm..masih ada lagi ke benih petola ni mama pongkey. nak kecek la kalau masih ada. hehe
Inna lilLahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun. Diharapkan sahabat Wani diterima amalnya oleh Allah dan memperoleh rahmat Nya.
Ada lagi Wani. Boleh email saya di homelychaos(at)gmail(dot)com atau PM saya di Facebook. Insha Allah kalau malam ni dah dapat alamatnya, esok boleh diposkan. Sebab saya akan keluar esok hari insha Allah.
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