Lettuce and Strawberry in Thrissur Kerala

Lettuce although a Winter type Leafy green is surviving at my home in Ollur. Strawberries are growing in my home for the last 8 years. Recently I replanted them into a PVC Pipe in a vertical garden style. May be they will flourish in a year and I hope it will cover the whole PVC Pipe. 

Bush Pepper and Ginger at Ollur

Bought 100 Bush Pepper saplings for Rs. 150/pc. Transplanted them into grow bags. Lost some 20 plants by now due to some unknown reason. Hope some of them will survive and give me the 'Black Gold'. Also seen are Ginger grown in Grow Bags with no soil but only Coir pith and manure. They are growing up vigorously and even flowering. You can see the Pine Cone type flowers which has some lovely lilac-purple tiny flowers on it.

Organic Ash Gourd and Pumpkin harvested at Ollur

Organic Kumbalanga and Mattan at my home in Ollur. We shared some of the Kumbalanga with our relatives and the Mattan is getting ready to be harvested. Both of them had germinated by themselves in my backyard. Probably from the leftover vegetable waste.

Breakfast with Rice Flakes or Aval and Banana

Rice Flakes or Aval is a staple in Kerala long before. It is not trendy now. But it is a very good breakfast cereal loaded with Iron and other minerals. Here I made it more palatable by adding some local ingredients. Boil some water in a pan. Add a cup of Aval with some crushed Jaggery. Add some mashed Banana (Nenthran) plus Cardamom, Raisins and grated Badam or Almonds. It makes a sweet breakfast dish in the morning.  

Karela or Bitter gourd masala curry

This is a yummy karela or pavakka masala curry made by my wife. She marinated karela in red chili powder, salt and corn flour for 1 day. It is fried in oil. Onion and tomato are sauteed in oil. Garnished with coriander leaves. Very good for chapati or rice.

Shallots or Chuvanna Ulli in Ollur Thrissur

Shallots are a good veggie which is having lot of medicinal powers as well. It is easy to grow Chuvanna Ulli. Just plant the Bulbs in a grow bag with the roots touching the soil. It will automatically grow and steep some soil to cover the bulbs later. The leaves are used in soups and the bulbs for curry and soup as well. Shallot juice are very good for cough and cold. Also seen are African Malli and Kanthari Mulagu(Birds Eye Chilli)

Strawberry in Thrissur Kerala

Strawberries are cold loving fruits. But these plants on my terrace survived many years battling the summer heat, the pouring monsoon rain and the mildly cold winter climate in Dec-Jan of Kerala. Seen here are Strawberries in the Monsoon of August 2017. The poor plant thought it is winter already when it was cold for some days in last August when it rained for some days together. It flowered and gave me some bright red fruits. Love you Strawberry.