Project Carrot – kickoff

Back in hubby's hometown to end a week long Chinese New Year holiday. While looking for some veges in the fridge i found a fat carrot with healthy top. Perfect for kids project!

So here I am trying to regrow a carrot top, first with water and then hopefully to plant it in the soil once i see some roots. If this trial works, i may be able to start a carrot tops bed for the bunny to munch.

As always i would google around to find the tried and tested methods, and i would land on Mr EastCoastMan youtube videos. 

i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duV2Mit_uf8 

ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3DEo1rRSg 

Steps in pictures below:

find one good carrot preferably organic

a small container, or a plate will do

toothpicks at work

balancing the angle

pour water in, carrot half submerged. i actually changed the toothpicks angle so the carrot top submerged more

place it somewhere with sun lights

While anxiously waiting for the greens, bear mind growing carrot top will not produce the orange carrots. The carrot is a taproot itself which cant regrow.

From www.carrotmuseum.co.uk:

The carrot top in time might flower and it is very nice for beneficial insects and butterflies. Carrots are a biennial and will flower when they are 2 years old. The plant will eventually produce a flower and then seeds. If you are lucky the seeds will be viable and you can plant them in the ground to grow real carrots.

Honeydew – a week later

Seems my honeydew "angpow" pack had been left in the drawer for a little bit too long. When i checked, the sprouts already measured about 3 inch. That's how easy it is to sprout honeydew seeds in paper towel, all the seeds made it through, and i guess 3-4 days should be enough next time.

The baby honeydews closely resemble bean-sprouts, looked really fragile. I had to carefully transplant them as some already showing leaves and growing very fine roots, that i just tear off the paper towel and bury them altogether under the soil. I don't even know if this is the right way doing it!

After five days i've got a full tray of healthy honeydew seedlings. Light spray and watering from bottom seem to work (i had the soil at the center like an island on a tray, so just pour water from the sides).

Honeydew cheers! :)

My fat pack of ang-pow :)

Sprouting happily. That's 24 hours on soil

(left) after 48 hours (right) after 5 days!

Lemon - After two weeks

Two weeks, almost forgotten about this pack after the long holidays, we can see the strong tiny roots developed..

The lemon germination pack almost slipped my mind after the two weeks holiday. They're still alive! Upon picking up i instantly spot solid tiny roots already breaking the wet paper towel that was initially surrounding them. So i'm just glad that all the seeds made it good.

I carefully transplanted the seedlings into a seeding tray, while being total meticulous to avoid breaking them. Due to hot weather, spray the tray with water often. We keep the seeding tray under shades at the patio, where we can clearly see the impressive progress of  tiny leaves breaking through the soil for sunlight.

On top of that i keep the soil moist by watering from bottom. Just pour water into the container which holds the tray, but keep in mind that stagnant water can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I read somewhere about a blogger who attached his seeding tray on top of a fish tank! I guess this way you wont need to worry about mosquito breeding and keeping the soil moist, self sustain :D

24 hrs... 48 hrs... 4 days...

Under the shades

My parents lawn consists of wonderful, various sizes of foliage. The same month that i had finally moved all my stuff here and eager to start gardening activities again, El Nino sets it. That certainly didn't help, with most of the plants being somewhat abandoned weeks after moving, some withered due to very hot temperature and no rain.

Except that i've noticed that our potted herbs and plants outside the kitchen are progressively showing new signs of life. Miracle! no. I found that my husband have been showering those pots daily with rice-water (water leftovers after rinsing the rice prior to cooking).

Here's my Belalai Gajah (Sabah Snake Grass) plants, they were just skinny and sticks before, now abundant with leaves.

Left: Early this week, they started growing new leaves. Right: Now a week after

A greater surprise, my curry tree was only holding on to its last leaves when i noticed new buds coming out.

New buds

the week after we can see the buds were all thriving. And look at them now growing  so well...

Papaya, another skinny chance. Now showing new leaf after leaf..

Growing new leaf each time i checked

With that i am officially content :)

Next post i shall write about our cactus garden we have just by the gate. The succulents came from Cameron Highlands. We can get them with more or less same price here in the "lowlands", with limited options available tho.. Til next time..

Succulents corner...

Project Honeydew - kickoff

It's Chinese New Year and festive season kicked in full swing as the week holiday follows :) This week i wanna try the paper towel method on honeydew. Now after reading more on sprouting, grafting, growing quality fruits and cross pollination, I've becoming more conscious on finding organic and heirloom seeds.

But for today, this is a honeydew that my MIL bought from the seller along the highway. I believe it's not organic otherwise the price would've been expensive. I'm just gonna give it a go let's see how the fruits turn out to be.

Get some honeydew seeds preferably organic

Spread them on paper towel and spray the towel with water to keep it wet

Label the plastic clearly. Gong Xi Fa Cai huat ah huat ah!

1. Cut the honeydew into two, get a few slices and eat :) you should already be getting a handful of seeds. Slimy, shiny, pretty, seeds.
2. I then cleaned the seeds to avoid mold forming.
3. Place the seeds down on a kitchen towel. Fold the towel so the seeds wont fall out from the sides.
4. Sprinkle some water to wet the paper towel.
5. Again i have run out of zip-lock bag so i took a plastic bag and seal it with masking tape. Put date and name label on it.
6. Put aside in a warm, dark corner. I keep mine in a drawer.
7. Set a weekend reminder on scheduler, and wait....

Project Lemon - kickoff

I love my lemons. They may not be the cheapest but they smell great, so i i always keep some in my pantry. I would have them sliced in my drinking bottle, have them squeezed on seafood for cleaning, even fixed me buttermilk for baking. I use lemons often, nonetheless i only need just enough at a time. In that sense i think it is a good idea for long term to grow the tree itself so i can pluck when i need it rather than buying a few and keeping them.

Again the steps below was adopted from Mr EastCoastMan youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57XoFG0QuMI

My daily lemon treats :) here's some of the seeds i had picked out, lose the gel with paper towel

Peel the white coating until we see the brown seed. Distribute evenly on paper towel, then fold the towel

Just pour some water on the towel, and seal in zip-lock bag

1. Cut a lemon to half and pick out the healthy looking seeds. I collected 14 seeds. I was not sure which were healthy so i picked the plump ones :)


2. The seeds were slimy with gel so i used kitchen towel to hold them. Some sites recommend sucking the seed until the lemon gel or flavor is gone which i did not do.


3. Peel off the white seed coating carefully, cause the seeds sprout easier without it. I used my nail to peel the coating from top to bottom, exposing the brown-colored seed. I came across a website that peel off the brown coating too but again i didn't do that. Probably will try that next time.


4. Peel all the seeds and place them down on a kitchen towel. Fold the towel so the seeds wont fall out from the sides.


5. Sprinkle some water on the towel. Many blogs mention that the towel needs to stay damp, but mine was quite drenched in water.. oops


6. Also i have run out of zip-lock bag so i simply took a plastic bag and seal it with a tape. Put date and name label on it.


7. Set aside in a warm, dark corner of your house.


8. I've set a two weeks reminder on my scheduler, so now we wait....

My bonnie is over the sea...

So hubby went to a pet store with the kids looking for some quail chicks to breed. They came home with a white bunny...

I prefer to let my pets run free cause cleaning their cages would be a nightmare for me :) But considering all the thug-cats we see daily in our compound, we keep bunny in her cage at night and let her free during the day when we're outside.

That brings the idea to rationalize growing a bunny-garden. Sure i can't rely just on just carrots. Plus, carrots are slower growing than water spinach that the bunny munches all..day..long. I'm saving my thoughts for another day, will post them once i have something in place.

we named her puteh

love it when bunny does the binkies!

Exfoliator – Rice and Honey

Daily cleansing for me is easy breezy as i don't use any makeup other than lip balm. Besides the place i work is not as dusty compared to the city so i keep it simple and held on to my trusted Body Shop aloe line, or as lately just rice and honey!

I ran out of my trusted Body Shop aloe exfoliator recently. Considering it is only a small amount i needed once a week *cheap* i might be able to whip up something while not having to buy another tube. So I googled, headed to the kitchen and....

Blend a handful of rice

I sift to separate the powdery from the sandy texture. My first attempt was rice powder and honey but nowadays i add in milk powder too

1. Grab a handful of rice. I have two types of rice so i took a little bit of both.


2. Using dry blender grind them finely as suited to preference.


3. Some will like it coarse, but I prefer extra-fine texture that doesn't scratch my face, much like the Body Shop gentle exfoliator that i've been using. So out of the blender and into the sift it goes, to separate the fine texture from the sandy texture.


4. I then poured a few drops of honey enough to form a thick paste.

I have been using the rice honey scrub for quite some time now, exfoliate as usual and leaving it for a few minutes afterwards. Sometimes i added milk into the mixture.

Just as the same recipe seen all over the place on Internet, i presume it works for many others too. Although not to all. I believe the mix and match very much depends on your skin needs. Now this is just right for me, it's inexpensive, cleans as needed, feels all natural and smells good :)

The recipes are adopted from https://beautyhealthtips.in and avalaible for reading in lot of other websites too, i'd say lets give it a go.