(We have Suzhang to thank for this post. This follows from my reply to one of her comments.)
Can we be a green farmer in Singapore? Tell us about your experience in agriculture, horticulture, growing things or simply potting around.
Tell us about about your experiments with ecological and environmental friendly technologies and self-sustaining biospheres. This could be energy (eg solar power or getting your mother-in-law to pedal the power cycle saying its good for her health) and water (collecting rain water to recycle to toilet flush, washing and watering plants.)
Actually a modern farmer is a beautiful retirement model. Think of the real estate potential!
Here’s an interesting article showing how Green Mark Gold recipients City Square Residences, St Regis and King’s Centre Plot 3 and Sail did their thing.
http://www.cdl.com.sg/cdlData.nsf/newspdf/6F827604AE4092F7482571550020D436/$FILE/FINAL%20190406%20Press%20Release%20-%20CDL%20wins%20biggest%20share%20of%20BCA%20Awards%202006.pdf
We can learn and turn their technology to our own benefit.
Joy
Aaargghhh ……….
Which medical journal did you say your recommendation came from?
Next big all time supplement seller
Joy’s Crab Shell Slimming Tea.
Dry the crabby shells, pound them to fine powder, store that in a Tupperware (which you can win at Games Day or Talentime) and add one level-headed teaspoon to your drink each day.
Cheap and good source of glucosamine for aging joints.
Read this with a pincer pinch of crabby powder..hee..
Hi wong KT,
I am INTERESTED to vist IVy LIM’s ORGANIC FARM.
When are you ORGANIZING this trip for we SHCians?
Looking 4 ward to the visit,
Pls. put in your POST.
Steven Chan
( Garden Lover)
\
Mary, you grew exactly the same types of fruits as that fierce but cute pony-tailed neighbour of mine so I thot maybe she finally has hunted me down but if what you wore then was those amah tails then, heeee, I am safe.
KT, therte shd be 22 chitins but you only gave us 16 chitins so you were cheating so you’ll hv to cough out the 6 chitins together with all the exoskeletons, nematodes, enzymes, chitinases, flea egg shells and fertilizers you keep in yr waist pouch.
Soak overnight / wash the shells before putting into soil………cant remember so much lah, would rather let the crab crawl in itself, shell, pincers, confused eyes and all.
Tim,
Shows you no teochew. They have a traditional gourmet dish, complement of the famous Teochew porridge, made of raw crabs and vinegar. Same as cockles. Can’t get it here now. But plenty in Thailand or Malaysia.
Remember to soak overnight / wash the shells before putting into soil. But since you don’t plant can I send you a forwarding address…..
http://www.dirtworks.net/Organic-Fertilizer/Crab-&-Kelp.html
There’s more to crab than black pepper and curry. You can spot the smart ones easily from the crowd in a seafood restaurant. He is the one who is licking and “ta pau” the crab shells home.
The crab-flower connection. (Tim note : This is different from the amor-amoress also known as crap-flower connection. Hee-hee.)
Crab shell is not a fungicide or nematocide. It’s a great fertilizer with calcium and some extra benefits not found in other fertilizer products.
Crab shell is high in chitin, which promotes the growth of chitin eating bacteria. The exoskeletons of fungus and harmful varieties of nematodes eggs are high in chitin. When added to the soil, crab shell helps to create a hostile environment for the fungus and root destroying nematodes by feeding the biological life that eats chitin and chitin based organisms.
The chitin in the crabshell stimulates soil organisms to secrete enzymes called chitinases. These enzymes degrade chitin, which is a component of flea egg shells. The presence of chitin in the fertilizer makes it a natural biopesticide that is non-toxic to birds, animals, fish, and plants.
Heehee, Mary, I thought those amahs’ are plaited and are called pigs’ tails, like the Mandarins in ancient China.
Tim, what pony tails? You talking about those “black and white amahs”?
Mary, I planted nothing in the kampong I stayed; my my pony-tailed neighbours did & there I feed (fed) & eat (ate). Since then I hv been on her wanted list.
Aslamak…..you got pony-tails huh ?
Tim,
How did we get from Green and Grin to angmohs to sumokong to crab at Labrador Park? Better do a “gostan” and get back to the actual topic.
I used to plant my own fruit trees, mangoes, rambutans, jackfruit, starfruit, bananas, guavas, even custard apples. I also had herbs and lots of flowering plants, but eventually gave up. It’s not easy. It’s hard work. I much prefer to get them from the market. No need to water, trim, fertilize, spray insecticide, sweep and clean.
Heeee, will leave the to you at labrador beach if they let you start a fire there; for that, you will be treated to a feast of glucosamine minus the crab shells……….ai mai?
Tim,
Ya right.
Catching crab in the afternoon? Ya the cooked kind.
Mary, heard of sumo? Heard of Zai Kong (the mad monk)? Put them together, wait for 10 months, you get sumokongs.
Will be taking my kiddo to catch crabs in the afternoon, and will send KT all the shells for him to analyse for glucosamine, glucose, grubs, sesames, sammyboys till he gets paralysis for his next thesis………
Hahaha Tim.
But what is “sumokongs”? I’ve heard of sumo kings though.
Heeee, Mary, KT caught me (a male, what for?) but I am luckier, I caught you……..”Amor” was a carefully considered word used by KT (clever old boy) which I too adopted.
“Angmoh”, heeee, a bit off-beat & easily recognisable.
Yes, you’re quite right with what many amors do to or hv in mind for our SPGs. As we become more globalised with SPGs getting more adventurous, it’s just days b4 we see these gals dating & mating with apes & sumokongs.
Was it prophesy or clairvoyance that movie directors had made filns on Planet of the Apes?
True, there’re exceptions.
My butty recently married a Caucasion after a flitting dating and it was big news splashed in the papers. Very happy for her, a very sweet gal……….
Um Tim,
I don’t think these “angmohs”, as you call them, marry those “SPGs”. They play with them and most frequently discard them afterwards. Only the not so smart “angmohs” get stuck with them.
There are many local women who marry “angmohs” and they are far from the SPG sort. Many of them are high flying professionals, not airheads like the SPGs you are referring to.
There are smart “angmohs” and not so smart ones like there are in every race. Like those old guys who get taken in by “fair and sweet” young China girls, haha.
KT,
Had to plagiarise what you wrote “You didn’t know… I thought it is common knowledge”.
Pls dont say no to me that yr google for “Both glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are……..cartillage.” was for confirmation but the actual desire was to ogle the naked crabs (read it in canto) shown there.
I shd not hv omitted yr first sentence “If you want your plants to flower try putting in crab shells to the soil” which might hv put my earlier rejoinder in perspective.
Still, I cant make out a connection btwn plants, their need for glucosamine supplements for cartillage build-up…and where, in the plant’s head or backside, do I find cartillage?
And you plunged me in the deeper end of the bottomless blue sea.
Btw, I did a boozer search with the fisherman picking craps in the net and eureka !
Again, let truth be told. The crab has to be cooked for its shell to turn red for good luck, and so closer to and thru CNY, many households hang these shells on their plants……..heee, glucosamine transmitting wirelessly and thru ultra high requencies?
(Seriously, if plants need the glucosamine from crab shells, then pls dont destroy the glu by heating the shell but bury it in the soil where the roots will absorb the nutrients faster)
You’re quite right to see aplenty in what the amors cant see even 1 in so many. So they hv no 2nd thots marrying our SPGs, and that’s also really very funny cos these gals only know how to party, know nuts abt the ABCs of seafood, and like that, their marriage sure go mati.
Heck care, it’s their problem…..this thread is supposed to make us grin till green.
So KT any more crab talk? (Ooooops, you caught me again………me unwittingly abetting you with this very serious discussion on craps
Tim, Tim
You didn’t know… I thought it is common knowledge.
“Both glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are sold as dietary or nutritional supplements. They are extracted from animal tissue: glucosamine from crab, lobster or shrimp shells; and chondroitin sulfate from animal cartilage, such as tracheas or shark cartilage.”
Just google “glucosamine crab” and you trawl a sea of info on the subject.
It is really very funny.
Asians love to eat fish head, shark fin crabs, prawns and sotong in its natural form. We eat them whole or find such delight in chewing them up.
Amor don’t eat as we do. They don’t have such refined and cultivated cuisine practices. We were gourmet prawn head eaters served in fine porcelain long before they learned to cook with fire. They are forced to invent supplements to their diet which they call some fancy chemical name. And Asians completely confused by the re-branding and re-packaging, gets fooled into thinking it is some new miracle drug. In actual fact, all of us had all of it, all along. It is all in our traditional gourmet seafood diet.
The next time you are tempted to buy glucos and condrits, just head for the nearest seafood restaurant. Remember to lick the crab shell until they are clean and ask to “ta pau” home for the plants.
QED. Check and mate.
Hee hee
“Crab shells is an important source of such supplements like glucosamine”. Let truth be told, I dunno.
But I do know that plants hv no cartillage problem, and glucosamine helps build cartillage.
But of cos, this is supposed to be a Grin thread as well so what brings on the grin, do……..
Btw, anyone see my crab, 4 legs on the left, 4 legs on the right, 2 pincers and it wears a shell on it back, prominently red and……………………it’s cooked.
Here’s a green thumber. This is an old wives recipe made true.
If you want your plants to flower try putting in crab shells to the soil. The surface of crab shells is an important source of such supplements like glucosamine.
By the way, eat the crab meat, wash to clean before placing the shell. Don’t mix your black pepper or curry sauce in.
(Boy, do I have to say everything!)
KT,
I spent the last 2 hours telling the titanic builder to convey my canton greetings to his father, mother and their respective parents. See, i can tell him who the assignor, assignee were but was it a trick qn when he also asked who the builder was?
5 solid postings on eco protection from you so how else can one look at it than to say that KT was in a serious mood? How else wd one interpret it when, having seemingly exhausted yr forebearance, you wished to steer it back on track?
So while the ape king is feeding the lion with bananas, let’s discuss the subject most seriously.
In the name of eco awareness, jokers here started hiding plastic bags on wednesdays even as the forest fires in sumatra raged with fresh hot-spots added on everyday. One fire in Greece add millions more cm3 of greenhouse gas.
So?
Unless uncle sam decides to focus not on nuclear disarmament but eco protection, and send his elite marines to ensure it happens, how much can a municipal law requiring car exhaust to be released into plastic bags do to reduce pollution?
Ivy is doing a good job growing organic vege but did anyone listen to her and keep the stockpiles of granites under their beds and away from her farm?
Talk is cheap and that must be the reason why birds dont talk; they chirp.
So, let us all burp together thereby signal a msg to the power-that-be what really has to be done to protect this mother earth.
If that still wont work, we will have to use toilet papers on all 4 sides….yes, I jumped the gun without first explaining why this conclusion.
Tim @ 16
Hai ! Caught u there. Thought I was really serious, huh.
Survival of the species does not depend only on brain to body mass. If it was, lions would be eating bananas and ape would be king.
So don’t expect think the subject to death. Sinply get involved and start by doing little green things.
Caroline @ #18
You are in the right thread for entertaining, educational and hands-on green activities. We will be trying to organize Ivy Singh tour as well as other alternative technologies and gardening tours.
The tours are easy. It is getting people involved hands-on that takes a bit of planning. Let’s see if this is an area of serious interest here.
Saving the world is not a task for the faint hearted.
Terence
What category? Don’t see anything about botany, ecology, alternative technologies etc. Shall we start one.
KT,
Dont forget to find a suitable category for your post.
Terence Seah
Hi,
I think I take back what I said as I feel I have gone into the wrong thread para #7.
I apologise for the error.
Ah, sorry Mr Wong KT. My comment was for you.
Hahaha, alright alright, KT, I shall take my leave of absence but trust me, it wont take off too far…….it’s just too profound a subject for general liking, I think.
(But when you’re ready to invite me back for a sojourn to the bushes, do bust the buzz………)
Seriously Susan,
I think it’s a great idea. I know there have been small fruit,herb and vegetable gardens within HDB estates, taken care of by senior citizens. It would be good if a group, within the same estate, could be formed. Then the fruit of their labour could either be distributed among them or even sold to the neighbours.
For all those talking nonsense, we have the special rose bush.
After you finish, push your bum in and shake it all about.
Looks like the SHC’s green movement is heading towards an early unmarked grave.
Hahaha. Tim, you have quite a ripe imagination. I was quite grossed out when I first learnt about it years back and still am. I think I’m going to stop talking and thinking about it. I much prefer to think of nicer things, like planting…yes, okra and tomatoes and strawberries and…..
Mary, it’s a deal. I plant, you come….you happy, I happier and the well-fed bushes, happiest…………..lalalalalala…….
KT,
A piece of paper has 6 sides……..heee, did I catch you there when I recommended using only 4 sides?
Yes, leave 2 sides unused for your fingers to hold. No water is necesasary…..leave it to the next fella to flush away what’s literally yr descendants for the moment………..
So it’ll still be safe to shake my hands altho I wd be happy if you add a bow to it, which will be reciprocated of cos.
Perhaps we should save on toilet paper. Plant some of those “Bushman’s Bum” bushes? No need paper at all. Clean and Green”. Hahaha.
Aiyoh, all this talk about tissue paper and washing (or not washing) hands!
Think I’m going to adopt the Thai greeting. Clasp my hands and bow. No touch hands.
Tim,
Water can cost more than toilet paper. Depends on use. Unless you use rain water.
The challenge is not how many half-sides. You can still wash your hands and cheat. Try using only half a cup of water and no more.
We shuld revive bowing as a greeting and forget this handshaking thing.
Hi KT,
I would like to attend this gathering at the Organic Farm run by Mrs Ivy-Singh Lim and her husband Lim Ho Seng.
She is one woman I look up to for her guts and purpose. It would be great to meet her.
I try to play my part in nature conservancy but have a lot to learn.
Thanks KT for all the information you have provided and please include me if you ever decide to organise an SHC gathering there.
Warmest Regards
Caroline Gee
KT, phew and what a relief it must be to let it all out in 5 quick instalments.
Conservations, preservations talks are no more than hypes unless environmentalists start the lead doing the basics, and what can be more basic than to stretch the maximum use of that something which consumption is only second to oxygen?
Yes, the toilet paper.
How many sides of an unfolded toilet paper do you use? How many in our midst – kings & commoners included – hv already done the good work of using all 4 sides?
We hv had many campaigns and it’s not too late for our elected leaders to show the home-run of all conservations.
Zero Impact In New York
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/no_impact_man.php
Why not Singapore? They can, you can too.
Colin, his wife Michelle, and daughter Isabella have committed a year of their life to serious experimentation with lightening their environmental footprint. Their goal: zero net environmental impact at the end of that year.
In a BBC interview they talk about no power, no modern amenities and no lifts in their 9 floor apartment. Also no toilet paper which is a big thing in the West although this would not cut much shit here.
In addressing their small share of this urban problem, the Beavans have embraced William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s concept of “eco-effectiveness”: “We will … figure out what our world can productively offer us rather than considering only what we want.” The specific tactics they plan to employ include year-long experiments with reducing waste, consumption and energy use, but also engaging in activities with positive impacts: “…we’ll volunteer with the Nature Conservancy to clean up garbage off the beach. To help sop up our share of the year’s CO2, we will take part in a reforestation project to help plant trees.” Everything’s an experiment, and Colin claims he’ll be researching throughout, and trying to find more effective means of lightening the family’s footprint while still maintaining “a life of abundance.”
It cost a lot of money to recycle New water only to use it to flush the toilet. Its like throwing Good Shit after Bad.
We are not in the middle of a desert. We are in the midst of the equatorial rain forest zone. Why don’t we collect rain water for secondary use. Water straight from the heavens is cleanest and zero cost.
The downside are mozzies and the govt ban on gutters for new buildings. How are you managing if you are into collection.
But the point is you don’t have to trip to a remote island to be a hippie. It is your mind and in your heart. In Singapore it could also be in the money. Big money. If Pat schoolhouse can command $110 mio, imagine what a farm in Ponggol will fetch in 10 years.
I have friends who are very much into eco living in Singapore. With what land they have, they use solar power and grow veggies / herbs etc. They gather manure from the Turf club to convert it into organic fertilizer at home. I think its madness use prime real estate to grow what amount to half dozen stalks of lady fingers. But I respect the principle. And as Ron says. To each their own.
We should have a SHC meet at celebrity/showwoman farmer Ivy Ling’s bollywood veggies http://www.bollywoodveggies.com/location.html Bollywood Veggies “Organic fruits, vegetables and herbs grown in a lovely 10-acre farm run by nature lovers Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim and her husband, Mr Lim Ho Seng, former CEO of NTUC FairPrice. If you’re hungry, the farm’s restaurant “Poison Ivy Bistro” will whet your appetite with tasty dishes using produce straight from the farm! ”