My Sweet (Potato) Love is Purple / Keledek Ungu Idaman Hati

My first-ever sweet potato harvest.

A few months back Aunty Kan, my neighbour from across the road, gave me several cuttings from her sweet potato plant. I don't recall how she came by her plant, it was either from some cuttings or a sweet potato she planted out of curiosity. I stuck them in a styrofoam box filled with potted soil and sort of ignored it. I only fertilised it once, with blended fish guts. It grew and grew, and soon threatened to take over it's corner of my Jung-Den. It got quite difficult for me to go into the cat enclosure because it's vines were sprawling all over the pathway. So I had some of the leaves cleared. Then AFTER that, I suddenly felt I wanted to try some of the sweet potato shoots in a stir-fry. And oh boy, did it taste so gooodd.. and I regretted not eating the leaves before. Better tasting compared to kangkung actually. I hear sweet potato leaves can also be juiced and taken raw.

Another neighbour came by with her daughter, to visit my cats. She got curious about my styrofoam-dwelling sweet potatoes, and started digging with her bare hands. Imagine my delight when she unearthed this sweet bounty below:

Purple sweet potatoes, just the way I like them.

We left most of the plant as it is, and reburied a few smaller sweet potatoes in the hopes that they will grow bigger. This is harvesting technique is called 'bandicooting' according to Diana of Kebun Malay Kadazan Girls. Bandicoots are rat-like marsupials resident in Australia and New Guinea. I guess there is also something to learn from nature, and I am kind of amused by the word 'bandicoot' because it sounds like bandits. Sweet potato bandits, to be exact.

Then I hopped over to my neighbour's house, and she dug about in her raised bed and bequeathed me with her own yellow sweet potato. I got curious and wrapped them up in tin foil, and baked them in the oven at 170-180 degrees Celcius, alongside my gluten-free quiche, for about 40 minutes. And the result is here:

Left: purple sweet potato. Right: yellow sweet potato.

I dug into both sweet potatoes with glee. They were absolutely, fantabulously DELICIOUS!!
How do they taste like?
Well, if you are after a creamier and starchier sweet potato, the purple one ought to meet your requirements. If you prefer a sweeter, smoother texture, then the yellow sweet potato is your pal.

As for me, I love them both for what they are: delicious organic food, home-grown with love.

After that food-tasting, I immediately started 2 more boxes of sweet potatoes. ;-)

Urban Hornbills/Enggang near Urban Gardens

Hornbill viewing its domain. Saw this during my morning walk around my housing area. It was a rather chilly (for the tropics!) and gloomy morning, excellent time to go and exercise without sweating too much. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, this was taken using my camera phone, and then enlarged.

Aunty Kan invited me to join her for her morning walk. I was glad I did, it was fun chit-chatting and peeking into other neighbours' gardens (hahaha what busybodies we are!)

Then I spotted the above hornbill on a tree. There were 2 of them. I remembered as a child here I used to see a pair of hornbills often near my school. I guess these majestic looking birds mate for life. As we got closer, its partner flew away, and soon enough, this one flew off too. It has been years since I last saw one. I do wonder whether they can still be found at my old school.

I found an old article from the Star on dwindling numbers of hornbills, due to destruction of swampland and peat forests. There was a swamp not far from my school, and I used to see brightly coloured kingfishers there all the time. There is a reserve forest near my school as well, though the areas bordering it have been replaced by luxurious million-ringgit houses. Sigh.

Finally Getting to It!

After a delay of a few days, I was finally able to get down and dirty in the garden last Saturday 25 August. Perhaps calling it a garden is stretching the truth a bit. There is no symmetry, nor organised beauty in my haphazard planting, raising new beds nor placing of various differently-shaped styrofoam boxes. Suits the name Homely Chaos, indeed. Letting go of my inner Miss Perfectionist means more fun experimenting, learning and exploring.

My parcel from Kebun Bahagia Bersama arrived on Wednesday after Eid, sadly I was not home during attempted delivery by PosLaju. On Thursday morning I managed to pick it up from the post office. It contained seeds, bulbs and some cuttings of tree dahlia. The bulbs especially, really should be planted ASAP. Various errands and engagements made me plan to garden that Thursday night, when I have replaced the light bulbs so that I can work in the dark. Disappointingly the lights did not work despite changing the bulbs, so that plan was postponed to the next morning.

Then early Friday morning, we received the shocking news that my dear cousin passed away, a jovial, healthy male of 38, at the prime of his life. We dropped everything and made for the funeral, which was to take place the same day. Meeting his family was heartbreaking, but they bore their loss well, with fortitude and acceptance. I passed the day trying to keep busy, but it is only today that I really grieved.

So the gardening helped make me feel thankful to be alive, and chased away the clouds of sadness.

I managed to plant:

• 1 Tulbaghia bulb
• 2 Agapanthus bulbs
• 6 Gladioli bulbs
• 1 Oriental lily bulb
• 1 Oriental lilium bulb
• 3 Asiatic lilium bulbs

Agapanthus bulbs in a styrofoam box. What? Because I ran out of pots and it is too hot to prepare a bed. I don't want to put this off any longer.

Asiatic Lilium. This pot formerly held some Tigerella plants, which didn't do well. In the background is my weed-like kangkong, aiming for world domination.

I also sowed:

• White carrots
• Guernsey parsnips
• Cherokee butter beans
• Purple bush beans
• Mixed heirloom beetroot
• Sweet peas

I also repotted:

• Black pepper plant
• Green zebra tomatoes into recycled tyres, with bamboo stakes

Black pepper plant in pot near a pole. Er, 2 poles. Oh well.

Yellow pear cherry tomatoes. I wondered if these were twin mutant tomatoes until a few days later I realised these are the gourd-shaped cherry toms. Haha.

My neighbour Aunty Kan who also got bit by the 'grow your food' bug, invited me to her garden to see the changes so far. She grew these gorgeous looking leafy veggies from the Mixed Lettuce seeds, originally from Pun Pun Organic Farm.

Pretty mixed lettuces from Pun Pun Organic Farm, grown by Aunty Kan.

Aunty Kan also grew some Rainbow Chard from some seed I gave her, but strangely enough hers are all white or green, whereas mine were all pink or red-stemmed.

Pretty rainbow chard.

I feel a Rainbow Swap coming up soon-ish...