My Edible Garden: Dill

Dill, Also known as dill weed, this is a green herb with wiry, thread-like leaves that grow in clusters. It has a strong, distinctive taste that is like a combination of fennel, anise and celery. 
In some country it is one of the most popular herbs used in the kitchen, and, along with parsley, is used for various purposes. Fresh, finely cut dill leaves are used as topping to various soups...
In Chinese dill is colloquially called huixiang (茴香), or more properly shiluo (莳萝). It is used to cook fish.

My Edible Garden: Ruta

• Ruta graveolens
• Rutaceae family

• Commonly known as Rue
• Also known as herb of grace and herb of repentance
•Chinese Name 臭草, 别名臭艾、小香草

Rue is a herb I have been growing on and off for many years. It is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20–60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia and southwest Asia. I love their bluish-green, fern-like leaves which have a strong aromatic scent,  but their sap causes skin irritations in some people though not all.

The leaves taste bitter, but The bitter leaf can be added to eggs, cheese, fish, or mixed with damson plums and wine to produce a meat sauce. In China, where it is known as chou-cao or "stinky grass" in Hong Kong,  In some Chinese cantonese soup recipe, it is used to cook with green bean.

In Italy the leaves are used to flavour grappa della ruta, a form of brandy and also make their way into salad mixes as the Italians are fond of their bitter greens.

Recently I do some research on this herbal plant and find something interesting beside its commonly known as cooking green bean use.

From my research know that the flowers on the rue herb are yellow with petals that are frilly on the edges and the center of the flower is normally green.  The flowers attracts some types of butterflies...



Most of us in Singapore grow Rue in a container, I never seen its flowers locally here. However rue normally grows to a height of 2 to 3 feet tall, a nice strongly scented evergreen subshrubs in the garden. It grows well with full sunlight  in well drained soil.  In its native range on the Balkan peninsula and southeast Europe, it grows in dry conditions in shallow, rocky soil. So do not overwater the plant especially the potted rue. Some said that rue should not be planted near basil, sage, or cabbage. (Not sure why)

Rue can be harvested and used in the house as an insect repellent. Simply cut some of the leaves and dry them, then put the dried leaves in cloth bags. These sachets can be placed where ever you need to repel bugs.

Love the blue green leaves

Some online article talk about its Medicinal uses: Extracts from rue have been used to treat eyestrain, sore eyes, and as insect repellent.
In folk medicine, rue has been used as an antispasmodic, sedative, and as a treatment for menstrual problems, to treat menstrual disorders,  circulatory disorders, inflamed mucosa, toothache. In some cultures, rue extracts have been used as abortifacients. Documented adverse effects, including emmenagogue and abortifacient effects.

Rue has been used historically as tea to induce miscarriage by thousands of women all over the world from the Mediterranean, and Europe to Latin America and North America. Rue is a traditional abortifacient used by the Hispanic people in New Mexico.

Newly discover for the last point. :) Updated on 12 May 2105

Portulaca Oleracea (Moss Rose) 马齿苋

Portulaca oleracea (common purslane, also known as verdolaga, pigweed, little hogweed, red root, pursley, and moss rose) is an annual succulent in the family Portulacaceae, which may reach 40 cm in height. Approximately forty varieties currently are cultivated
Although purslane is considered a weed but it may be eaten as a leaf vegetable. It has a slightly sour and salty taste. The stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible. Purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews.
        

马苋菜，属于马齿科一年生肉质草本植物，学名“马齿苋”，民间俗称“马蜂菜”，在上海被称为“保健菜”，是一种特色野菜。因其生命力极强，又有“长寿菜”之称。通常匍匐，无毛，茎常带紫色。叶对生，倒卵状楔形。夏季开花，花小型，黄色。果圆锥形、盖裂。常生于园地或荒地。中国各地均有分布。马苋菜为药食两用植物，全草可供药用，有清热利湿、解毒消肿、消炎、止渴、利尿作用；种子可明目，可作兽药和农药；嫩茎叶可作蔬菜，味酸，也可作饲料。

Potted Roselle Pant

Finally, I have my own potted Roselle plant.

 

 

Roselle flower look  like sea hibiscus

 

I like Roselle, I called them Ribena Plant before knowing the name, Actually it is, till today, conveniently referred to as Ribena. However, Roselle and the store bought Ribena syrup are two different things although similar in taste. Roselle is in actual fact, a wild hibiscus cultivar.

 

Roselle, I love this name, it is feminine, and the beautiful pinkish flower is definitely feminine too.  The flowers have a blood red centre, opening light yellow in the morning and turning a gorgeous pink as they wither off by mid-day, and then close up and drop off  later in the day. Fruits start to grow bigger and bigger.

 

I bought the plant in seeding, it has grown into a really bushy plant after 2 months time. It is now producing many dark red buds on the stem. However this plant needs as much sunlight as possible, I had failed the previous growing experience as I placed the potted Roselle in a shady place. Roselle requires well-draining soil, Water regularly when young but mature plants are quite drought tolerant . When the plant was about a foot in height, I fed it with some fertiliser once every 2 weeks. Stop fertilising once it starts to bear fruit buds.

I have seen a Roselle plant grow to a height of more than 7 feet tall and send branches out to 3-4 feet wide. There are limited growing in a container, so try to get a bigger container for Roselle, as it can get rather bushy, do not prune it,  fruits will grow all along the stem right to the tip of each branch.

Each fruit is made up of conjoined calyces with pointed tips which enclose inside it, a pod that contains many black seeds when mature.

Harvest time...

I plug out the calyces from the fruit capsules and soak them into water for about half  an hour before making Roselle juice, which  is rich in vitamin C.

 

 

Wash, drain and cut calyxes (mine is about 20 pieces) into smaller pieces and put them into boiling water (about 2.5 litres). Add some sugar. Done!
The taste is just like Ribena drink.
Unused fresh calyxes can be sun dried and stored in an airtight container for next time use.

 

Thank you for visiting my blog. I would like to hear from you, follow me if you like gardening too. Cheers.

 

ABC Wednesday-B for blue pea

Clitoria ternatea is the botanical name. (Family : Fabaceae) I have written about this beautiful blue flowers before. The Blue Pea Flower, also popularly known as Bunga Telang (in Malay), also called Butterfly Pea, is a common ingredient used as natural food dye for making nonya kuehs. Read my previous post here: Nonya Cooking Ingredient - Bunga Telang

In today post, I will share with you some of my collection photos and more information of this edible plant.

Clitoria ternatea, such an imaginative name, but yet most of us only remember it as blue pea or butterfly pea. It is a perennial herbaceous plant. The pea-shaped flower is a bit hairy on the back. Though attractive, but I hardly see insects attracted to this flower, lacking of nectar I suppose.

Its leaves are elliptic and obtuse, with three leaflets growing from the slender stem. It grows as a vine or creeper, doing well in moist neutral soil. There are also white, pink, light purple and double petal variants of Butterfly Pea, but the the common one is the blue single-petaled flower variety.

This is the butterfly Pea that has double-petaled flowers in vivid deep blue color. They are about 4 cm long by 3 cm wide. This striking blue flowers demonstrated it's beauty on the roadside fence when I took the photo.

They are commonly and easily grown from seeds, they are so easy to bloom beautiful flowers everyday under full sun conditions and needs only a little attention.  It is commonly found on open fields and wastelands.

As I know the blue flowers variety is used to extract its dye to colour the Nonya Kuehs, the white variety is known to treat goitre.

The fruits are 5 – 7 cm long, flat pods with 6 to 10 seeds in each pod. They are edible when tender.

I am linking up this post with ABC Wednesday

Pandan

I found many huge and tall Pandan plants near venus drive, the path that leads to the Treetop Walk. Those pandan plants gave a lovely fragrance to the area! I am not sure if this is the pandan plants we use for cooking or the seashore pandan.