Popular Local Veggies
DURING the Movement Control Order (MCO) because of Covid-19, growing backyard vegetables has become the norm for gardening friends. My ex-colleague’s Urban Home Gardening chat group has been very active, promoting their specialised success with various leafy and fruit vegetables, plus whatever strange new fruits they come across.
AutoPot inventor Jim Fatt had given a demonstration and talk late last year in Kuching. It has become a popular pastime with benefits for all members now. It is now time to report on the success of growing veggies, especially for me.
Today I’ll choose some fruit vegetables for backyard gardening that all readers can try easily at home. Here are some examples that will be great additions for the kitchen garden.
Winged bean
We do often see these winged beans in vegetable markets, and it is easy to understand why they are named so as winged beans have edges lengthwise that are extended with serrated margins. It is also called four-angled bean with pale green pods about 15cm long. In India, it is known as Goa bean, suggesting the possible origins of this bean.
The botanical name of this bean is Psophocarpus tetragonolobus belonging to the Leguminosae family. It is cultivated all over the world from India to New Guinea as it is highly nutritious, containing both protein and oil.
The flowers are either in pale blue or white. They look rather pretty among the green foliage. Remember the bean is a climber with its long tendrils, which will grow over the fence or scaffold put up for the vines to spread on.
It has tuberous roots suggesting the natural soil bacteria provides some nutrients to the plant. Both the shoots and roots are all edible too. It is eaten raw as a salad or blanched.
For Malaysian-style cooking, the beans are cut into half inch pieces and stir fried with ikan bilis (anchovies) or belacan (shrimp paste). The blackish seeds are also used for making a bean milk, which looks a bit dark and is not as creamy as soybean milk.
Twisted cluster bean
This is a curious bean from the tree called Parkia speciose or petai. It belongs to the Leguminosae family and is found growing wild in the forests of Southeast Asia. The bean grows in clusters of several pods with swollen seeds. These seeds are the beans that can be opened by pulling off the two sides of the pod and twist the beans out of the pod. The seeds should be peeled for food.
Now you’ll get the strong smell and bitter taste that some may find offensive, while others love and cannot get enough of. The peeled beans can be blanched and eaten with a dip or cooked with a spicy sauce.
Nowadays we have the dwarf varieties that are cultivated by many farmers for sale. However, this is something to plant only when space or land is not a problem. Otherwise you may wish not to try this at home.
Snow peas
We can quite easily buy these peas as they can be grown locally. The local tropical variety of the snow pea has tiny immature peas inside flat pods. The botanical name is Pisum sativum var saccharatum. There are now several similar snow peas imported for sale and locally grown.
The peas grow as creepers and should not be allowed to mature or will be fibrous and not suitable for the table. The tender shoots known as dou miao are highly esteemed greens at eateries. The seeds for growing can be obtained from nursery stores for trial.
Out of the three beans mentioned above, the easiest to grow would be the winged beans. I hope some readers will try them soon.
Do send me an email if you have questions, comments, or suggestions. Wishing all readers a Selamat Hari Gawai and happy gardening.