Farmseries01: Farm & Forest Walk

Everyone was settled,
Ready to explore the farm and its surrounding.
We had to begin the walk,
Filling our lungs with fresh air and eyes wide open.

Blueboots Farm was divided into several plots where we plant different crops. Sometimes they rotated, sometimes they stayed the same. In this season, plot 1 was filled with chillies of different kinds. Cabai keriting and cabai rawit would be the most visible ones this time and they added up to about 480 plants. Samantha was explaining how these chillies were planted and taken care of, also the challenges in growing them organically. Everyone harvested some chillies which they put into their tote bag. This tote bag was made by Taneuh from upcycling 1/15 Coffee’s coffee sacks.

From the chilli plot, we went pass other plots as well. Plot 2 was butternut pumpkin, which we have just started trying to plant but haven’t been much of a success. Then we went to plot 4 where it was filled with vegetables from kale to sorghum. Walking pass the poly tunnel, we were then greeted by red cabbage and we couldn’t resist to harvest some.

Walking a bit further and taking the steps down, we finally got to plot 5, which we called the “Corn Maze”. It was indeed like a maze where we were surrounded by corn crops ready to be harvested. When you harvested these corns, the juice of the corn came out and drenched on your hand, making the surrounding smelled like fresh corn. It was something that’s quite enchanting for everyone so we spent a bit of time harvesting the corns that we needed for our afternoon snack while Samantha was explaining about the corns.

Edamame plot was next. Some of you might have tasted our fresh edamame which you could order from Blueboots Farm Shop when they are in season. Not everything from our harvest batch would turn out nice though. Those who did not pass the standard to be sold fresh would be turned into edamame milk. They are not any lesser quality, just simply better if processed into its byproduct so nothing is wasted from our harvest. On top of that, the leaves of edamame would be turned into compost at the farm which we will then use to fertilise the soil.

Everyone was also having an exciting time at our 8th plot, which is the potato plot. The thing with potatoes is that you have to dig the soil and get your hands on the crop. You wouldn’t get it just by lifting it by the branch or the leaves. It was almost like a treasure hunt! We walked further and found some moringa trees which we used to make moringa powder. Not something that you would see everyday too.

To refresh ourselves, we refilled our bottles with some infused water and then continued walking to the forest…

Blueboots Farm is surrounded by forest where we took everyone for a little forest walk. It was amazing when you walk into the forest, suddenly it felt so different from the outside. You could hear the insects and the air just smelled more fresh. We kept walking and went pass tall trees like cloves, teak and durian, also some understorey trees such as banana, cassava and teas. Scents were also coming out from teas like cloves and nutmeg, we felt like we were in someone’s kitchen!