Becoming a Swiftlet Rancher

 My friend had been telling me that this business should be a viable one for retirement. ....Swiftlet Ranching. The crazy Chinese love to take the Bird;s nest as a health supplement. It was supposed to return your fountain of youth. These bird's nest are the collection of the saliva of the swiftlets. And it is VERY expensive. Notwanting to be left out of a lucrative money making chance, I built my first Swiftlet hotel in my orchard.

 The bird house was ready last April . Normally we check on a new birdhouse when it is about 6 months old and then when it reaches 1 year old.

 To attract the swiftlets to the house so that they build their nest in the bird house, recorded bird music has to be played . Although we cannot understand the music, the bird house sifus can know the various type of music

I think we must be playing the correct music as the birds have actually started to build their nest near the speakers.

And after a nice meal with good music they shit in the house! Like a good Boy Scout I was taught a lot about the bird shit today. No bullshitting but the bird experts know a lot from the bird shits.

The fathera nd mother birds are in this nest. Normally the nest is harvested once the birds fly away. The next time we come we will be harvesting some nest.

Our Garden of Eden

Our house is located at the bank of the Chukai River in Kemaman. It is the local laws that there must be a buffer before the river and any house. This buffer belongs to the government. Since my house is the last house before the river, I had the previlege of using this land to grow some fruits and vegetables fo our own consumption. It had been designed so that our house is about 3 ft higher than the plot so that from the house compound we cannot see the vegetable plotI had several bunds of Kai Lan, Lettuce and Spinach ( sawi). I do not need to buy greens from the market for about 8 months every year. Those bright looking vegetables sold in the market are full of chemicals . Greens from my garden esp the letuce are normally eaten raw or just stir fried. Home grown greens do not have a bitter taste.I make my own compost to be used as plant food from the grass cutting of my gardenWe have several lime and lemon trees to provide us with all the sour contents of our cookingBananas trees that we grow are the gigi gajah variety which is almost extinct now. It looks something like the pisang montel and is very tasty.These star fruits are the honey variety but I have to compete with the squirrels to get the fruits. My Alsation dogs will scare the monkeys away but they don't seem to mind the univited squirrel guest!Five dragon fruit trees provide us with fresh juicy fruits that are full of anti oxidantsThe dragon fruit flowers are real nice.However when taking the fruits one got to be careful. My wife just got ""stung" by the tree! Ouch!!I have also discovered that by allowing the weeds to grow in between the veggies I can actually have worm free veggies. The worm maybe like the weed more than the veggies.I got to report this new discovery to the University Pertanian!

Durian Season Again!

The season for the King of the Fruits is on again. I have "sufficient" fruits in my orchard this year to feed me, my family and guest.The short cut to my farm is by crossing a big river. This man here, En Bakar has been helping me in my orchard since the time when I bought the land in 1986 (a blog on that later). From the river we have a make shift jetty very cleverly constructed the Kampong style so that we do not have to wade through the mud during low tides.

My orchard is located on the banks of the Kemaman River and I take pride to maintain a clean outdoor park atmosphere in my orchard. You can almost play golf in my orchard.Most of my friends who followed me to my orchard gets excited by the fruits hanging from the trees. If they are lucky, some fruits will drop when they are around and we can have a feast of fresh durians.These are some of the designer type durians that I have. The variety at the time when I planted was supposed be the best but nowadays there are a lot of other very good variety.Not bad for day number 1 of this year's season!Most of the time I do not go by boat but drive in so that I do not have to carry the load of fruits up and down the boat. Easier to just throw in the boot!Being the orchard owner also mean I am the chief coolie..I have to open the fruits to serve my guest but money cannot buy the happiness in me when I see them enjoying my fruits. The extra fruits are hygenically packed into plastic containers and deep frozen. In this way, even after a few months we can have some fresh durians. Also those in other parts of the world can taste some kampong grown organic durians when they come home! Just too bad that my Mat Salleh friends do not know how to enjoy durians. One of them told me eating durian is like eating custard in public lavotary!

Growing Grapes in Kemaman

When we mention grapes we always visualise that they are grown in some Mediterranean countries. Very few people know that it is possible to grow grapes in our country. I have a friend Soffian a retiree who stays in a hobby farm near to Kemaman and he has been successfully growing grapes for the last few years. Of course growing these grapes are not commercially viable but it does add some sense of excitements when visitors see bunches of grapes hanging down. And he has never bought any grapes since growing his own.


Soffian takes great pride in explaining the cultivation of grapes in Malaysia.
He grows the grape under a plastic shelter and has a drip watering system.I think he told me that the species of grapes grown is the Isabella variety. Don't these bunches of grapes look tempting?

As for the taste you got to ask this sweet looking girl. She seems to be comparing these grapes with the Australian variety!
Besides grapes he plants a whole lot of other vegetables and fruits. His durians are also very good.