A beautiful day at blueberry farm

Living in Malaysia, as hot as it is, growing blueberries and raspberries other than in Camerons are impossible. No matter what ADIDAS or NIKE says bout "impossible" growing blueberry in Malaysia, especially in Melaka is IMPOSSIBLE. Well, this explains about me being a "jakun" when it comes to blueberry trees.

Just as I thought life cannot be anymore dull than this, my friend's host family called and ask us to go to a farm that grows vegetables and berries. So, being a jakun that have never seen or taste berries other than jam before, jumped at it like a happy dog wagging it's tail. Went to sleep early the night before and woke up to a beautiful Saturday morning, took a shower and prepared myself for my first pick-blueberry-from-tree experience.....yes, that includes skipping breakfast. (Actually, I woke up late and missed breakfast, not because I'm greedy!)

The drive there from my campus took only about 10 minutes. We reached a house that is beautifully decorated, jap style, all wood and paper. The main stucture is made of wood and the walls are of paper. It's very cooling in there amidst the sweltering summer. Think I'll build one just like it when I get back to Melaka




...anyway, as we are entering the house, we saw a snake trying to slither it's way in, yep, the long slimy monster with that split tounge and beady eye....no one dared to reach out and grab the snake's tail....and Randy no hero too. He forgot his blue sweatpants, bright red underwear and his cape. So, no hero to save the day. The snake mocked at our cowardice, jeering it's tounge at us.....psst...psst...psst...




Well, the lady owner of the house, presumely bored of the snake said, "Oh, to hell with that sanke, let's head back to the back, we've got blueberries to chow on." Everyone nodded eagerly....girls because...come on, there's a freakin' snake there! and guys.....hmm, to compare snake and blueberry, we all just couldn't wait to put our hands on those blueberries...guys be guys.

At the back, there were about 9 blueberry shrubs, about Kenny's or Fook Hi's height.....the blueberries is about the size of mata kucing, have blue skin (obviously! why else would they call it BLUEberry?!), the flesh have the same colour as grape, have a gazillion little seeds..... and they tasted wonderful, sweet and a lil' sour. So, the mob were all busy, eating berries and taking pictures and eating more berries and snapping more pictures.





K, all the "ripe" berries are now swimming in Hidrocloric Acid in our stomachs. All's left are the unripe green ones. My senior, Nadia suddenly came up saying...."Hey! Let's try eating the green ones...we don't know what they taste like right? Who knows they are sweeter than the blue ones? Why not take a harmless bite?" jumping up and down looking all excited...(Can't help but think that she look a lil' bit like me at that moment, suggesting crappy nonsense). Well, the MGS girl said...."but the lady just now said that the green ones are sour....." Man, I was thinking ...isn't ALL unripe fruits green and sour? so why bother taking a bite? But then again, I got a lil' too curious and joined her with her quest for truth...... Well, ehem...we were...uhh....confirmed that green blueberries are indeed sour and not for eating. I, of all people on earth should have known that crappy nonsense are never good.

Anyway, the rest of the group were already headed to the raspberry farm ....we rushed to catch up with them..... giving them sour faces when they asked why we were late...

And oh, raspberries looks like this...




heh heh...can't think of anything better than a cute model with a cute fruit!



It's actually.....quite hairy and it looks like a bunch of small fruits camping together but it's not, it's a ..a...uhh...umm...together, all in one piece. The core is rather thick and when you pick the fruit from the stem, the core remains and you have yourself a hollow, red hairy piece of raspberry. Did i mention hairy? Yes, it's hairy and quite ugly...one of my jap friends said, yuck, It's got more hair than your leg!! Uh uh...Bad thing to say, I had SERIOUS doubt putting that piece of fruit in my mouth....took a deep breath, close my and eyes and here goes...chew, chew, chew ,Oh, ok, this lil' hairy berry is tasty!! It's sweet and oh, I don't know how to describe it, raspberry taste. They give your hand a red dye too...just like mangosteen gives you a purple dye.

While we're eating, a lil' girl that was along with us found two cute little frogs, one from the leaves, one from on top of the fruit. She so excited she ran around showing everyone her discovery and telling us where she found them (why is everyone trying their best to disgust me from eating the raspberries??) Anyway, that lil' kid manage to disgust evryone and had raspberries all to herself. By the way, she played with the two frogs all the time, tugging at one leg, squeezing their bellies and forcing them to kiss....eating berries seems to give that kid bright ideas...




Well, the trip ended like all trips to fruit farms end...eating jam. Not that I mind anyway. Jam's different from the ones they sell at stores. This jam taste just nice and not too sweet. It's so nice i bought myself two containers of them! Cost me RM28... And a pack of blueberries too....



So, there goes another wonderful saturday...this time purely dedicated to Blueberries.