Making Good Progress

It has been a week since my last post. Yes, one whole week.

I have been busy - to get some work done, and to distract myself from worldly worries. Unfortunately I find the latter best achieved by doing the former, as opposed to sitting at the computer or reading a book. Having said that I did manage to visit and left comments on a number of blogs, and was able to respond to your much appreciated comments on my earlier posts. So it wasn't so bad.

I have a string of lovely new followers too! Thank you all for gracing this humble blog of mine.

My Latest W.I.P

Title: Stairway To Heaven;  Genre: RA

Final Cover: Design - none;  Colour: Light Grey

There were three of them to begin with. Like triplets really. For except for the fact that they were grounded in different places, they looked exactly alike. They served the same purpose too.

And then there were two. The one outside leading up to the front veranda succumbed to the vagaries of nature. The incessant rain had caused it to rot, slowly but surely. Like cancerous cells the rot spread and it finally collapsed under the weight of its own ruins.

Which is a pity. And quite untimely really, considering the durian season is around the corner. The steps were the most frequently used among the three by friends and family alike - the main stairway to the veranda, the favourite part of the house.

Romancing the Durian

Do you still remember the great fun we had trying to guess what these tiny green berries were? 

And then more clues were given to help you figure out?

Finally the amazing secrets were revealed to much awe and gasps!

But before people went crazy over the fruit, a warning and caution were issued.

We were then introduced to the Queen of fruits, in case things got too hot.

Now let's revisit this subject and look at the progress in the development of The King of Fruits. (Due to the frequent interruptions of normal posting, the following is not in real time but about a month behind).

This is a good time to enter a durian orchard (apart from when the fruits actually drop, of course).

As you take a walk around the orchard your senses are awaken by the sweet aroma permeating the air. It is not unlike you walking in a botanical garden of blooming lavender or roses. 

The scent of the durian flowers is really nice - sweet and refreshing -   not like the smell of its fruit at all.

The 'berries' had burst open

Exposing the stamen (anthers and filaments)

After pollination the petals and other parts
drop to the ground

Where proper pollination had taken place young fruits are formed;
Minute spikes which later become thorns are visible

For a full description of flower parts and the pollination process go here. If you have children or grandchildren studying fifth grade biology, of if you yourself would like to recall what you learned (or missed) in your biology class, it's worth a visit.

Will keep you posted as the King of Fruits develop further.

The Birds and The Bees

Sunrise on The Farm. It is going to be another glorious day!

It is the start of the fruit season too.

The King of fruits as you know had started flowering earlier. I can't show you much progress except that there are now more and bigger flowers.

The next stage will be anthesis - when the anther will burst open exposing the pollen-covered stamens. The birds and the bees (and moi) are all waiting for this. With proper pollination there'll be heavy fruiting.

The first fruit will drop (remember, we don't harvest durian - they drop by themselves when ripe) ninety days from anthesis. I'm predicting anthesis in about a week. So we will get some durian around March 2011. You can start placing your orders for the King now... ;)

Another great pollinators of durians are the bats (Eonycteris speleae). A couple flew into the Farm House to start nesting, but unfortunately for them, and pour moi, they were hit by the ceiling fan. Hopefully their next of kins will come by. I need all the help I can get.

Do not however confuse the bats with flying foxes (Pteropus vampyrus). You do NOT want them on your farm.

The bees in the meantime are not without food. The rambutans and longans are flowering too. So are the cikus (sapodilla). Take a look at the busy bees, while I snap photos of some birds, from a distance...

Pollinating the Longan

Flowering Rambutan trees amongst the Durian

Insects having fun time with the nectar

And the Bees helping themselves, and making sure
we get abundance of fruits later - Fair dinkum?

Sapodilla is another fruit found in abundance on The Farm. Locally it is known as Ciku, or Sawo Nilo. To the botanist it is Manilkara zapota. It is available all year round at various stages - flowers, young fruits, and matured ones - shown below:

Birds - various species of birds have come to make The Farm their home.

So far with the 55 - 250mm zoom lens attached to my Cannon 550 D, I'm only able to take tiny images of them, sometimes only silhouettes! Obviously I need bigger zoom...take a look at these anyway:

Can you see the yellow bird?

It then flew off and landed on this dead branch

Here it is again

Those on the fencing pillars are Pigeons - normally one
then joined by another. Can't get much nearer to them
than this (about 30ft), I'm afraid

For much better and really beautiful pics of birds (complete with names) pop over to bird enthusiast John Saunders.

My follower Cheryl, from yesterday's post, can be found here.

OK dokay, all that's left for me to do is to extend a big WELCOME to The Farm to Rosalie Rigby, my brand new follower. She does beautiful artwork by the Australian countryside. Check out her paintings here.

DURIAN - A Quote and A Warning

Writing in 1856, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provides a much-quoted description of the flavour of the durian:

“

The five cells are silky-white within, and are filled with a mass of firm, cream-coloured pulp, containing about three seeds each. This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. ... as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed.[22][a]

”

Quote from Wikipedia.

My Indonesian friends told me the 'saying' is no longer true, so for the sake of good neighborliness I'm taking it out - bisa aja pak!. Durian being an aphrodisiac has not been proven scientifically, so I better don't make any statement which can be construed as a claim. You will have to try it for yourself to find out.

DO NOT however, over indulge: too much of this fruit will overheat your body. Drink plenty of water if you do. Folklore has it that if you drink the water using the husk as a drinking 'cup' your body will not feel the heat. Again this has not been proven scientifically as far as I know.

It is not advisable to consume alcohol after eating durian.

Next: how to balance it all up...

DURIAN - The KING of Fruits

Heavenly - the thick, creamy flesh that everyone's waiting for

It took the husband of blogger Pat, who blogs at The English Cottage to figure out what the Green Berry was. Congratulations!

Who would ever imagine that these tiny berries will develop into huge thorny fruits weighing as heavy as 4kg each!
You can witness the transformation right here, as I walk you through the stages of this amazing, most popular fruit in Asia.

It is the start of the durian season on The Farm. Families and friends will be eagerly looking forward to the 'feast' when the fruits finally ripen. But they will have to wait for the fruit to drop, and then struggle and  manoeuvre their fingers through the sharp thorns to open it, before they can finally savour the divine flesh. It's worth the wait and the struggle, they'll assure you.

Here are the trees from where the photos of those berries were taken:

The kitchen window looks out to the backyard where
a durian tree grows, the afternoon sun shining through.