wild boars at lim chu kang

picture from wikipidea

when i mentioned my sightings - i have seen wild boars on three occasions - to mr lee, a farmer in lim chu kang, he shared with me enthusiastically his experiences with wild boars on his farm and its vicinity.

first saw wild boars here (in lck)

he confessed that he used to trap wild boars with metal cages that he constructed himself. he would have the assistance of his two thai workers and his dogs. the heavy penalties, especially the jail term, has deterred him from carrying on this activity. according to him, you are not even allowed to keep the little wild boar if it happens to stray into your compound. a neighbour of his was fined for keeping a young wild boar which had fallen into one of his ponds.

they used to be so plentiful that he could get four piglet wild boars in one cage. however, he cautioned that it could be a dangerous or even fatal experience if you encounter an enraged sow wild boar. one of his dogs was charged at and gored by a sow wild boar. the dog died.

although some of the wild boars breed locally, quite a number of them come from across the causeway. wild boars are good swimmers and they do not need any flotation device to make the more than one kilometre crossing across the straits of johor. (wonder if mas selamat ran into any sounder of wild boars while swimming to stulang.) mr lee said he had seen as many as twenty-four wild boars making a beach landing at one time.

wild boars usually make their appearance at dusk, especially after a period of heavy rain. out of the three times that i have seen wild boars at lim chu kang, twice they appeared after the rain had stopped.

young wild boar meat is tastier than the meat of domesticated pigs. according to mr lee's wife, you must slaughter them the correct way if you do not want to end up eating meat with an overpowering smell. the female wild boars do not pose any problem; it is the male that you have to exercise care. you have to castrate the two testicles before doing anything else, then the smell will not get to the meat.

the fully-grown wild boars do not give tasty meat. the best meat comes from those that are about 10kg in weight and aged about 5 or 6 months. one of my friends who used to be a regular soldier told me that the commandoes, in their jungle survival training, learn how to slaughter and cook wild boars. wonder if they also know how to get rid of the smell.

according to mr lee, the number of wild boars has decreased over the years because of culling by the authorities. over at ivy singh's bollywood, wild boars have reportedly been spotted in the vicinity.

i have eaten wild boar meat but not in singapore. i had it in my curry noodles in a coffee-shop in kulai, johor. one of my friends used to get to eat wild boar meat when he was serving as an instructor in a leadership camp on tekong island in the early 70s. another friend told us that the meat was sold by his neighbour in his kampong in sembawang.

padi growing in singapore?

now, you do not have to travel across the causeway to see padi being grown. it is not just a few sample plants grown on a small plot of land like the one at fort canning park but a big field of it which has attracted lots of birds to feed on the stalks of maturing padi.

i did a self-conducted tour of d'kranji farm resort at neo tiew lane 2. what i like about most farms in the kranji/lim chu kang area is that most of the owners welcome visitors and they let you explore the farm on your own, unhindered. they do not follow you around or restrict you from venturing into certain sections so long as you do not intrude into their living space.

the 5-hectare d'kranji farm resort means that you have a lot of room to move around. apart from a seafood restaurant, beer garden, spa and some retail outlets, the main attraction to me is the 21 plots of farming land. there are the usual fruit and vegetable crops like dragon fruit, guava, kedongdong, soursop, mango, banana, jack fruit, sweet potato, sugar-cane, soya bean and many others.

however, i was particularly attracted to a section where lots of corn are grown. as i was approaching that area, a very big flock of small birds took off and flew around before settling on some stalk-like plants. as i got nearer, i found that the field was actually flooded; that was when i realised that it was a field of padi plants. the birds were attracted by the ripening padi.

i also found out that d'kranji farm resort has 19 farm-stay villas and two 1000 sq m fields, one set aside for growing corn and the other, for padi.

work is still being carried out to add more facilities and attractions to the place. when it is fully completed, it should be attracting more people to the kranji countryside.

(look like they are burung pipit but i am not sure. like i said earlier i am not serious bird watcher, much less an ornithologist.)

this small patch of padi at fort canning park's spice garden

pumpkins grown in singapore

visited this farm featured in seenthisscenethat's blog. the farm - kin yan agrotech - located at 220 neo tiew crescent is not at the road level; that may explain why i have missed it all this time that i have been touring the kranji area. the farm is open every day of the week, from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

after viewing the wheat grass and the different types of mushrooms in the special enclosure, i went to look at the plants that were outside. the aloe vera did not really interest me because i had seen similar ones at kok fah. the mexican cactus was also not something i was seeing for the first time. on seeing the pumpkin vine on the ground, that perked me up.

the pumpkin plant has male and female flowers. the second picture shows a male flower and the one below it shows a female flower. the female flower can be identified by the bulge at its base.

these days, with fewer bees and other pollinators around, humans can play a supporting role. when the birds and the bees do not do it, then man must come in and play his part. to hand pollinate, pick a male flower, remove its petals and then dab the pollens on the stigma of the female flower. the pollens have to be mature. you can tell if the pollens are mature when they readily come off the stamen and onto your finger.

i talked to one of the helpers on another farm and he was telling me that this has been the way - hand pollination - when they were growing pumpkins in the 70s.

red hibiscus behind the left ear

i enjoy visiting spring orchard at lim chu kang lane 4 and taking pictures of the colourful hibiscus flowers. so far, i have come across purple, white, yellow, orange and pink hibiscus flowers on this farm.

the hibiscus is the national flower of one state in the usa and at least two countries in the world, one of which is our neighbour malaysia where it is called the bunga raya - the flower of celebrations.

when i visited hawaii many years ago i observed that some of the local and native women wore the red hibiscus flower behind their ears. then i did not know the significance of wearing a red hibiscus. now i know.

wearing a red hibiscus behind a girl's right ear means ' i have a lover'; behind her left ear, it means 'i seek a lover'; and if she wears one behind each ear, it means ' i have a lover and i seek a lover'.

young men should focus on those with a red hibiscus behind the left ear.

roadside fruit trees of lim chu kang (3)

the jambu mawar (rose apple) trees are also found along neo tiew crescent as well as along one of the lane 6s - there are lanes 6, 6c, 6d and 6f. i am surprised that quite a number of adults have neither seen nor tasted its fruit. as a boy, i would help myself to this fruit on my neighbour's tree.

surprisingly, not many mango trees have been planted at lim chu kang. in fact, i have come across only three mango trees in the whole area. could they have been planted by mistake? over at sungei tengah end, the road is lined by many mango trees.

on the other hand, the langsat appears to be the most dominant tree among the varieties of roadside fruit trees at lim chu kang. the langsat's fruiting season usually coincides with the durian and mangosteen, sometime in the middle of the year.

the surinam cherry is not a common fruit tree. i do not think many singaporeans have tasted its fruit. when the fruit first appears on the tree, it is yellow. it becomes bright red when it is ripe. you should pluck it only when it is so ripe that a touch by your hand will cause the fruit to fall. you will come across some of these trees along the sides of lim chu kang lane 4.

the butterfruit is native to the philippines. a medium to large evergreen, its dense canopy reaches to a height of 25 m. its slightly scented flowers produce fruits which ripen from a pink to a deep red, and is usually eaten raw. characteristically, the fruits are covered with short reddish-brown, silky hairs which are slightly irritating to the hands.

roadside fruit trees of lim chu kang (2)

the tall meninjau trees are found mostly along the sides of lim chu kang lane 8. on the female meninjau tree, when the fruit first appear, they are green. then they turn yellow and eventually red, when they are ripe. the male meninjau trees do not produce fruit. the indonesian emping, which we call belinjau, is made from the fruit of this tree.


the monkey/velvet apple trees are found along lim chu kang lane 6. my friend once asked me if the fruit was edible. i told him that the ava would not plant something if the produce was inedible. it is just that the people here are not familiar with the fruit so they do not go for it like, the way they go for langsat, mangosteen and soursop.

the abiu trees are found growing along neo tiew lane 3, the road that leads to the golf course in kranji. the abiu is a smooth, brilliant yellow fruit with sweet translucent flesh. its delicious flavour is reminiscent of crème caramel and it is sometimes used to flavour ice cream and make other desserts. the taste of the fruit is a cross between a mango and a persimmon.

the egg fruit is not the same as the egg plant. the fruit is yellowish to orange with somewhat meaty pulp similar in appearance and texture to a cooked egg yolk embedded often with a single large seed. at maturity, the strong odour of the pulp is musky and the skin colour turns from glossy to dull. there are many such trees with fruit along lim chu kang lane 2, the road where the fire flies health farm is located.


this rambai tree looks very much like the langsat tree and the fruit also can be mistaken for langsat but it does not belong to the same family. like langsat, the fruit hang from the branches and trunk of the tree. there are two rows of rambai trees, one on each side, along lim chu kang lane 3, where it joins with lane 5.

roadside fruit trees of lim chu kang (1)

there are at least 15 varieties of fruit trees planted by the ava (agri-food and veterinary authority of singapore) along the many roads - most of them are actually called lanes - in lim chu kang. if you are not familiar with that area, you can end up going in circles because of the many lanes.

the miracle fruit trees are found mostly on both sides of neo tiew lane 2, where the soon-to-be-opened farm-stay chalets are located. the fruit is also known as magic berry because after eating this fruit, sour or bitter food will taste sweet. i have yet to see any of the trees bear fruit.

there are not many kedongdong trees and these are usually grown interspersed with the other fruit trees. you can find a few along neo tiew crescent, the road that leads to the sungei buloh wetland reserve. i used to be able to buy the fruit from bangkit market on weekends and from sheng siong supermarket on some occasions. in my kampong days, we called them buah long long.

the sour soup trees in lim chu kang are mostly planted along one of the side roads off lim chu kang lane 3. like most of the fruit on the trees in lim chu kang, they hardly get a chance to reach full maturity. once they reach the near ripe stage, some kiasu will quickly pluck it for his own safe keeping.

mangosteen trees take about 9 to 10 years to bear fruit, so most of the trees at lim chu kang are about that old. the ones that have started bearing fruit are found along neo tiew crescent and lim chu kang lane 9. by mangosteen standard, they are considered young. incidentally, there is one outside the visitors' centre at bukit timah nature reserve which is older and much taller. the older mangosteen trees tend to produce more fruit. a mature tree can bear a few thousand mangosteens.

i first came across nutmeg trees when i visited penang in the 70s. so, i was quite excited when i came across them at the lim chu kang area. like the kedongdong, there are not many of them and they are also interspersed among the jambu mawar trees along neo tiew road and among the duku langsat trees along lim chu kang lane 6.

dragon fruit farm in lim chu kang

today, i took victor and helen to the dragon fruit farm in lim chu kang that seenthisscenethat blogged about. this is the first time that they did not have their home-grown dragon fruit on sale. last year, they were selling the fruit at $5/kg, which was slightly higher than the price at ntuc supermarkets and sheng siong. a fortnight ago, when i visited it was $4/kg. my friend still bought because, according to him, the farm's fruit was juicier and sweeter than the bland ones sold at supermarkets.

i enjoy visiting this place because, like kok fah at sungei tengah, they allow you to explore the place on your own. dragon fruit is not the only thing sold on this farm. you can get to buy local passion fruit as well as thai passion fruit, ribena, dried sweet leaves (stevia), papaya, orchid flowers and potted plants.

although dragon fruit is the main produce, they also grow plants like the red longbeans, red sweet potatoes, pepper, basil, kangkong, passion fruit and even grapes among others.

victor bought four packets of local passion fruit and two thai passion fruit. he had also asked the owner, mr lee, if he grew a herbal plant, which is a traditional treatment for those with diabetes. victor wanted to buy two pots of 'hempedu bumi' but mr lee gave them to him for free.