BOUNTY OF OUR LAND: A photo journal of tasty things you can grow
Despite being heavily urbanised, there is an amazing variety of edible plants we can grow at home in our Garden City. Let’s take a look at some of them!
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The sheer number of food reviews required for this food issue has thrown our writer into a contented, semi-comatose state. Even so, we still needed an article to showcase all the edible plants that can be grown in our town.
Enter our photographer. Being the awesome team player that he is, he’s stepping up with this verdant photo journal of good eats growing around Our Tanjong Pagar.
Without further ado (and since our ‘words’ guy is out of commission), let’s dive straight in to discover all the fruits and veggies we managed to snap!
Apple Loofah & Loofah
When fresh, these can be boiled in soup. Once dried, they make great grease-resistant sponges for washing dishes and can even be used to scrub yourself in the shower
Banana
From nasi lemak wrappers to a quick, energy-packed pre-gym snack to banana blossom curry – there’s a culinary application for nearly every part of this plant.
Bitter Gourd
We found two varieties in our explorations – both great when stir-fried with egg!
Bottle Gourd
Like the loofah, this gourd can be boiled in soup when fresh. But if you dry it, saw off the top and shake out the loose seeds inside, you will end up with a cool-looking natural water bottle! Be sure to have a cork ready to prevent spillage.
Brinjal
We love these stir-fried with sambal or stewed with meat!
Broad Bean
This is also called ‘sword bean’ because of the shape of its pods.
Butterfly Pea
Practically the entire plant is edible: from the flowers to the leaves, pea shoots and tender pea pods. The beautiful flowers are also commonly used to produce a natural blue food colouring or as a textile dye.
Calamansi
This is believed to be a lucky plant in Chinese culture. The juice has a pleasant fruity flavour so its sourness is not as sharp as that of limes.
Cili Padi
This special variety is a beautiful deep indigo in colour before turning red when ripe. None of us felt brave enough to have a taste, so we’ve got no idea how spicy it is.
Kaffir Lime
The fruit and its leaves have a distinct aroma and flavour, and feature prominently in beloved local dishes across South-East Asia.
Kedondong
Also known as ambula, the young or ripe fruits can be eaten directly, or pickled, or juiced. The juice pairs very well with asam boi (preserved plums).
Lotus
Used as a wrapper when cooking, the leaves impart a wonderful fragrance to food. The seeds can be roasted to make a healthy snack or processed into a paste used to fill various pastries, including mooncakes.
Mint
Besides bringing a fresh flavour to both sweet and savoury dishes, mint is also known to help purify the air.
Mulberry
This fruit has many health benefits, is a rich source of Vitamin C, and looks really cool, too!
Papaya
This fruit helps with digestion and contains an enzyme that can tenderise meat. And don’t discard the seeds! They are edible and have a spicy, peppery taste.
Passionfruit & Wild Passionfruit
Both fruits have sweet-and-tangy, exotic flavours – although the wild variety tends to be milder in taste.
Pineapple
Plant the top of a pineapple to grow a whole new one – endless pineapple hack unlocked! Each one takes up to three years to grow, though. 😶
Ulam Raja
This local herb has a taste reminiscent of green mango. It’s one of the key flavours in nasi ulam, a delicious and healthy dish of rice mixed with various local herbs and flakes of fried fish, served with spicy sambal belacan.
Winged Bean
Besides looking really cool, this bean is also highly nutritious and can be enjoyed both raw (we love it dipped in sambal belacan) or cooked (we love it stir-fried with sambal belacan). Yeah, we might have a bit of a sambal fixation.
Winter Melon
This is our last entry, and also the third one where we recommend boiling something in soup. And why not? Soup is yummy and healthy! For a less healthy sweet treat, you can also make candied winter melon strips.
A note on manual pollination
If your plants are in a greenhouse, like the ones at City Sprouts, they may not be accessible to natural pollinators like bees. But never fear – pollination can be done manually. Just follow these four steps.
STEP 1: Wait for female flowers to bloom. They generally grow at the ends of a tiny version of the plant’s ‘fruit’. Do note that the one in the photo has not yet bloomed.
STEP 2: Pluck a male flower and remove its petals.
STEP 3: Reveal the stamen at the centre.
STEP 4: Lightly brush the male flower’s stamen against the pistil at the centre of the female flowers – as many of them as possible. And you’re done! Simple, right?
Thank-yous
Many thanks for visiting our photo journal.
Obviously, our photos were not taken out in the wild. We are grateful to be able to snap our shots at The Giving Garden Community Farm, as well as City Sprouts (Henderson) – an urban farming community with four locations across Singapore.
Even with our limited access to farmland, edible plant varieties can clearly thrive here. We hope this encourages you to try growing your own tasty harvest!
Finally, we’d like to give special thanks to Queenstown resident Mr Wong for generously sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge of these plants with us. A retiree who maintains a plot at City Sprouts, Mr Wong is the reason we are able to identify many of the plants in this photo journal, and had so many interesting tips and info tit-bits to share with you.
He declined to be photographed, so we’ll just end with a big “THANK YOU, MR WONG!”
