April 11th Where were at

Been putting off the additional shade cloth installation till a cooler day. Well can only wait so long and today was a bit cooler around 36Deg... So added in some 80% shade cloth to the steel frame above the raft system, and then Wanna added in the seeds.

I checked the Ph, just shy of 8 and the Nitrates and Nitrites around 0.3 and 0-12.5 respectively. So within a reasonable margin. I also used my hydroponic EC meter.  940 PMM sees a bit on the low side but adequate for salads. Not I suspect for Tomatoes. So wed planned accordingly and Wanna had prepared seeds adding in Bak Choi (Thai) and, Bak Choi (Vietnamese) and some other greens used locally for stir frys. This time we used new seeds. Earlier we used up our old ones and all the packets has a use by date, we exceeded them all by a few years..... So little success earlier and really we cannot be to surprised.

Since we started this second system I had always planned to keep tidy and well organised. However we also started with the premise that we would do it as cheaply as possible not a completely compatible idea out the the garden environment. So slowly we have made improvements. Ive put the tanks on a concrete base and added a small concrete path round the side of the Grown beds.  We also have lighting and spare electric sockets. So now beginning to look the part. All these extras being done while we completed the house, again keeping costs low and using up all the surplus bits from house construction. Amazing have you ever noticed how much waste is generated in house construction, meters of electrical cable for a start and short lengths of plastic water pipe.  Well I think I found a use for most of it.....

Also with the revamp weve drilled holes in the deliver pipes from fish tank to settlement tank to avoid air blockage which was a bit of a problem, Cleaned out the aeration tank and added proper bio balls instead of old plastic cuttings from water pipe...Ive added  a short slide show of todays status. Main thing to watch over coming weeks will be the plant progress. Having been very slack on counting fish numbers and mortality etc I can only guess at food quantities, if they come for food I feed them..

Kids Show Tell

Date:  May 18, 2015

Don’t under estimate the power of “Show & Tell”.

This is where you train your kids to become daring, speak in front of the class, with something that they are very proud of making.

Since mommy is flying off to US this week, so, daddy comes in to help Kay with his homework.

Angler Fish, hmmm… what is that?

Even I don’t know what is an Angler fish.

Therefore, we google it.  

Eweee… what an ugly fish.

It is the fish with sharp teeth and a lamp on their head.

Have the kids seen it before?

Oh yeah… definitely. 

In “Finding Nemo”, Nemo’s daddy swim with Dory to find Nemo.. and they encountered some a sea monster.  

It’s an Angler Fish!

Sometime kids are funny cute human beings.  They need to see cartoons to relate it to the real thing.

So, if this creature happened to appeared in any cartoon, they will instantly remember.  If not, let’s watch the cartoon again to try to recall it.

Can the kids draw it?

The characteristics of an Angler fish is actually the big fat body, with sharp teeth and a hanging lamp/light in front of their forehead.

It can be easily drawn.

Kids will love it.

Can it be coloured?

Of course, yes!

Any colour will do.  Make sure outline the sharp teeth and a hanging lamp.

To have a better show and tell, kids will need to make their own props.

And make sure you use used chocolate box, i.e. Oreo box to make it.

Reuse - reduce & recycle.  This is what kids always learn from the pre-school, so, always you will need to strengthen the concepts.

These hinges are very useful indeed.

You don’t know when you going to use it. 

But one day, you will need it!

Father and son conceptualise this and use the hinge to make a moving mouth.

A moving mouth with sharp teeth.

Very sharp indeed.

We even make a simple Fish home for the Angler fish.  It is a cave.

It is very dark.

So, they can use their lamp in the head to light up the cave.

Very dark inside.

A very simple Angler fish.

With sharp green teeth.

with moving lamp at the forehead.

With moving tails to swim fast.

With black eye.

And a yellow fin.

This is Kay Kay’s small little props for the show and tell.

I am very sure he will have lots of things to talk about.

And this fish stay in the cave.

Very dark cave.

And when he lights up the lamp, the cave becomes brighter.

And the small little fishes will swim towards the light.

And Mr. Angler Fish will “Amb…” eat all the small little fishes with his sharp green teeth.

A 30 minutes time to do the project with the kid and make them feel good.

Feel proud.

and Feel wanting to give the show and tell.

So much to talk about.

A happy Kay.

Ressurected System

Hi,

Having met up with a bunch of like minds Aquaponic types last weekend in Bangkok I decided to get my system out of mothballs.

Started setting it up yesterday and today. Gone away from the high level flood and drain system to a sump tank. I think in my case this should be much easier. Need now to get pump working properly.  The old one  lasted 5 minutes and died. Then I need to add stone to the grow beds and buy some fish. Going again for using Tilapia. Fairly hardy and it gets me up and running. To think Ive been sitting around here doing very little and had all this gear stuck in a store... Oh well no excuses now....

April 24th 2010 progress

Well... Progress. nothing much to report. All going well and no major problems.

I did have a minor difficulty with the flushing system. Seems for no apparent reason to stop flushing and just act as an over flow. Made me loose a few plants which dried up and died as a result. These were leaf plants but the tomatoes and chili plants survived. However it was an easy fix done by reducing the size of the outlet pipe at the bottom of the bottle outlet. Worked well since then.

We ate 5 cat fish a few weeks back and left the Tilapia to carry on in the tank. All fine and seem happy enough. Interestingly the amount of solid waste has reduced considerably. Not surprising as I had reduced the Bio mass by approximately 50%. (I.e removing the cat fish). So much was the difference in water clarity that I decided last week to dispense with the filter system and see if it made any difference. It consists of simple netting and some old geotextile I found laying about on my construction site.

So after 1 week I checked the pH. It was 7-7.5 today so thats OK. I do suspect that the plants are a bit short of nutrients as they appear a bit pale. But that could be me and my imagination just looking for something..... Produce has continued with chili, tomatoes and greens. My single paw paw is still hanging on in there. I really need to make a separate container for it to enable the roots to grow better. New project.

Recently I planted some coriander and last week some new narga super hot chilies. Will wait and see progress.

Jays Golf Lesson Updates April 26

Date:  Apr 26, 2015

This is what Jay Jay likes.  I can see he always enjoying playing golf.  

Being 8 years old, still not fully learning it.  But I think he already did quite well against some of his classmates who is much elder than he is. 

Yes, I know, he has a Science test tomorrow which worth 10%, but as long as he already done his revisions, there is no point not letting him to enjoy his interest.  HaHaHa...

Hole #1.  Still a little bit over-swing when bringing the driver back, but no complaint from his coach.  Coach Muthu actually claps his hand.  So. I guess is OK.  Later, he spent quite a number of putts on the green that has severe slops to reach the pin.   That’s fine. 

Hole #2.  Another claps from his coach.  But this swing is over-swing at the back again.  I think have to teach him more how to control the back swing.

As you can see the Monkeys are all out playing at the field.  :)

The second shots is a bit too light.  He should have full swing the shot.  But he didn’t and he will need to hit another shot.

The third shots of Hole #2.  This time, with a full swing of sand watch, puts the ball on the green near the pin.  He left with 6-7 feet to putt.

Nice Putt Jay!  1 foot from the hole.  The line is correct.  

Even the Komodo Dragon came out.

Hole #3.  Giant shot, but still need to hit his over-swing problem.

Not too bad, but the direction is way off.

He seems to have problem hitting the uphill shot.  Always put in too much strength.

The sky is not looking good at all.

Although raining, another giant shot (can hear from the ping sound of the driver hitting).  

OK.  After this hole, the marshall found me and asked me to leave.  :)  I was not wearing my golf shoe and I was not wearing a collar golf shirts too.  And I am not allowed to follow my son as I am not a player at the time.  hahahahaha  They managed to play hole #4.  Jay tee-off a very nice tee shot at hole #5.  And the thunder alarm finally came out.

Since I am not travelling too much in June Holidays, I think I will bring him to golf course and give him some tips on how to hit a certain shots.  He did good in the stance when standing on the uneven slopes.  Surprisingly.

And The Plants are Growing

Been standing around almost wishing I could see the plants grow. I know every day bit by bit... So Im pleased with progress. I do still need to get a better filter system in place to avoid solids going into the plants.  Ive tried along with bio balls, to add some additional filter cloth and covered the flow pipe to the plants with a fine mesh.  Latter works fine but keeps blocking up quickly. Ill be giving this some more thought. Need a bigger surface area for the filter fabric.

Fish look happy and always ready for a feed. Plants, well I have not heard any complain to me yet....

KWT Winter CSA Month 5 April

Springy leeks and pea greens

Its April. It warm. Like leave the house without a jacket warm, but get home before dark otherwise you will need jacket. I sort of thought this months CSA would be booming after the unseasonably warm weather. I wasnt expecting fruited vegetable (cucumber, tomato, pepper) but I thought, you know salad greens. This months CSA is okay. Its lighter on the daikon. There is one bunch of herbs. Pea greens are here, a sure sign of spring. Cant say no to 3 dozen eggs.

Kensington Windsor Terrace Winter CSA Month 5 - April

3 dozen eggs
5 lb potatoes
3 medium turnips
2 leeks
2 diakons
1 bunch collards
1 bunch parsley
1 bag braising greens
1 bag purple kale
1 big bag pea greens

Im excited for the 3 dozen eggs there is a great article in Bon Appetite this month about eggs. I will definitely try making some souffles to write about. Last time I got this many eggs I made the Thomas Keller quiche and it was such a miserable flop! Leeks are made for soup, so soup they shall be. Daikon and turnips make a great snack sliced up. The rest of the greens will probably be hacked up into salads for lunch. Ive been thinking of writing up some dressing recipes, which Bon  Appetite also did this month. Boy BA and I are really on the same page this month.  

Kimchi Ramps

 

ramp it up kimchi

Ramps are a thing in the New York metro area. They are a wild variety of onion with a unique garlicky and mineral flavor that cant quite be replicated. Ramps cant be cultivated and are only around for a short while in spring.  Or so they tell me at the farmers market where they go for $16 a pound. $16 a pound is more than meat, but this ramp kimchi recipe is pretty undeniable good.  Its a powerhouse of savory flavors that take you on a pungent tour of salty, spicy, garlicky, and then more spicy. I suggest it. This recipe is based on Tigress on a Pickles, whose blog has been leading me to conquer pickling and fermentation techniques for some time now. This ramp kimchi kicked my cabbage kimchis ass!

Ramp Kimchi

1 lb of ramps, root ends trimmed off
2 cloves garlic
1 knob of peeled ginger
1/4 lb daikon
1 tblsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tblsp crushed hot peppers
1 tsp oil

Exihibit A: The ramps

You will need a ceramic or glass large vessel that can hold 1 quart or so. You will need to be able to fit you fist into the jar to pack the ramps and company down. Before you begin pour boiling water into the jar up to and overflowing. This will clean the jar. You can feel free to clean the jars with warm soap and water too, just be careful to rinse very well. 

Almost there

Coarsely chop the ramps and garlic and add to a bowl. Grate ginger and daikon and add to ramps. Mix in remaining ingredients until well coated. Press into a 1 quart jar. Cover with a kitchen towel and let sit in a cool dark place for 4 days until kimchi becomes a little bit sour. I suggest trying a little bit every day to better observe this process. Cover kimchi with a lid and chill. The kimchi should be good for 6 months, and a lot longer. Amazing on eggs, toast, rice, tacos, sandwiches, or any food you would want a good kick in the pant condiment on. 

Flatbush Farm Share CSA Week 6

Ive been skipping out my CSA updates. I have big news. This is my LAST CSA share for some time. I am officially moving to Taipei in 2 weeks for a new culinary venture. Updates on that later. Lets talk about whats happen with the massive range of items in the Flatbush Farm Share this week. On top of tempeh, cheese, coffee and more the Flatbush Farm Share offers a range of products from Milk Not Jails. This now includes things like chocolate ice cream, butter, Hawthorne Farms kraut, bread, granola. So many options I feel spoiled. I bought 2 tubs of butter (THICK and creamy is my complete description), regular sauerkraut (so sour you feel it in your brain), and ice cream (sadly mostly melted and icy sort of like a frosty from Wendys). I traded my half and half for some extra radishes.

This is a great assortment of hard and leafy vegetables. Its the kind of variety that makes participating in a CSA really fun. The fruit has been coming in large quantities too, which seems extra abnormal, but no complaints here. Weve had a lot of lettuce to chew on this year, but I found that sauteing it down like a regular green makes it much faster to eat.

Flatbush Farm Share Week 6

1 bunch chard
1 head romaine lettuce
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch texas onions
4 patty squash
3 cucumbers
1 bunch french radishes
4 potatoes
5 small peaches
15 little yellow plums
6 eggs


Extras from Milk Not Jails 
1 jar sauerkraut
1 pint chocolate ice cream
1 lb of butter
half and half (traded for extra radishes)