The Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

My daughter is mesmerized by trees and loves to paint them. She requested I sent her close-up shots of my huge trees here in my Gardens at Chateau Du Mer. All I can think of are my two Ylang-Ylang trees, one tamarind tree, one bangkal tree, several mango trees and more than ten talisay trees near the beach. They are not colorful at all and are very common, so I am posting a picture of the Eucalyptus Rainbow tree and a video instead. I hope she will get inspired viewing the rainbow tree and after watching the video.

One of the several Talisay trees giving shade here at CDM. This one is by the side of the chaple under construction.
Here's a six minute video with a relaxing backgroud music by Bach-Concerto in C Minor
Video by Johan Koss uploaded 2012

Eucalyptus deglupta is a tall tree, commonly known as the Rainbow Eucalyptus, the Mindanao Gum, or the Rainbow Gum. It is the only Eucalyptus species found naturally in the Northern Hemisphere. Its natural distribution spans New Britain, New Guinea, Ceram, Sulawesi and Mindanao. Now, this tree is cultivated widely around the world, mainly for pulpwood used in making paper. It is the dominant species used for pulpwood plantations in Philippines.

This tree is also grown for ornamental purposes, due to the showy multi-coloured streaks that cover the trunk. Patches of outer bark are shed annually at different times, showing the bright-green inner bark. This then darkens and matures to give blue, purple, orange and then maroon tones.
Music: J.S.Bach: Concerto In C Minor For 2 Harpsichords, BWV 1060 - Adagio - Lisa Stewart, Christian Hommel; Helmut Müller-Brühl: Cologne Chamber Orchestra.

Avocados and Chicos in my Orchard Garden

Today, we harvested about a dozen huge avocados and two dozens of Chicos in my orchard here at Chateau Du Mer(CDM), Boac, Marinduque, Philippines.

This is the first time that I was able to harvest the fruits of the avocado tree that I planted in my garden here at CDM in 1998. There is only one tree but the past years according to our Resident Caretaker, hundreds of fruits have been harvested by them. According to the manager the fruits are tasty( maligat) but a little fibrous but it is still excellent for making avocado shake. Today’s harvest is still not ripe. It will be a couple of days for it to ripen and for me to taste the fruit of my labor. I have my own recipe of Avocado Shake. The ingredients are as follows:

1 ripe large Avocado ( Hash or Philippines variety preferred)
2 teaspoons white sugar( or 1/8 cup condense milk)
1/4 cup Half and Half ( or milk if less fat is desired)

Blend the mixture until all the avocados chunks are homogenous and creamy. Add water if you want the mixture not too creamy. Refrigerate for one hour and served cold. Blend the mixture with ice cubes if there is no time for refrigeration.

Green mangoes, chicos, papaya and Avocados from my Garden

On the other hand I have two chico trees that are prolific. Every year during our snowbirding sojourn, we harvested more than 100 fruits from each tree. This year the big fruits are on top of the tree which required climbing. More often by the time we realized there are fruits ready to be harvested the fruit bats and birds have already taken a bite so that we have to discard the fruit. Today however, I requested our 18-year old gardener to take 15 minutes off from his gardening duties and devote this time climbing the chico tree. He was able to harvest 2 dozen mature fruits. I was able to eat one chico that ripened in the tree without the birds and the bats leaving their mark. Tree-ripened chico fruit is delicious and sweet, indeed. Yum, Yum, yum..

Bislad and Ampalaya with Shrimps for Dinner

The other day I posted about the distinguishable screams of the fish vendors in our neighborhood. Today, I was lured by one of the vendors booming voice shouting isda...isda.. lagidlid etc...that I could hear 4 blocks away. Our cook mentioned once that lagidlid is an excellent specie for sun dryng. So I ran to our front gate in time for the vendors bicycle passing by. I asked for the price. It was 120 pesos per kilo. I told the vendor I need one kilo. The vendor has a scale and bingo I had 12 fresh medium-sized lagidlid in one minute. Along with the bislad, we had ampalaya with shrimps, and tocino for dinner. In the table are the newly harvested huge avocados and chicos from my orchard.

Drying fish is a lost art in modern times in the US, but here in the Provinces of the Philippines it is still part of daily living specially in towns with plenty of fresh fish available daily. Drying fish removes enough water from the final product so that the growth of microbes that cause spoilage are retarded, but drying isn't the same as dehydrating, which removes all but 3 percent of the moisture. My cook used a similar procedure for drying fish as outlined by ehow.com as follows:
My cook however soaks the fish in 50% vinegar/water mixture with salt for 40-60 minutes and do not remove the head prior to drying. The vinegar helps preserve the fish and give it the delicious/unique flavor and odor when fried.
Instructions

1 Choose the proper location to dry your fish. Drying works best in low humidity and drying fish requires an area sheltered from animals and dust.
2 Prepare the fresh-caught fish the same day of the catch for drying. Remove the gills, guts, back and ribs. Leave the skin and head intact.
3. Wash the fish in cold water and scrub away any remaining debris. Soak the fish in a solution of salt/vinegar/water mixture for 30 minutes. Drain the fish and rinse the flesh again.
4. Place the fish on wooden drying racks outdoors. You must not use metal racks, as they can corrode and contribute an off flavor to the fish.
5. Sun dried for 4 to 6 hours. Wrap the fish in a sealed ziplock and keep cool in the refrigerator until ready for frying.

Note: The fish is only partially dry, but the vinegar mixture help retard spoilage. It is best to fry the fish in the next couple of days.

Only on Sunday-Beef Soup with Vegetables

We can have beef soup( nilaga na baka) with vegetables only during Sunday here at Chateau Du Mer. The reason is that beef slaughtering is only done once in the week on Sunday morning at dawn. My driver has to drive to the slaughter house very early in the morning before 5AM so he can have first choice of the best beef meat and bones for the following recipe used by our cook. It is similar to the one published by www.food.com/beef soup. Enjoy and Share!

Ingredients:
1/2 kg beef (for stewing) and 1/2 beef bones with marrow
2 big onions (diced)
1/2 head garlic (minced)
1 pinch salt and pepper
6 medium potatoes (cut to the same size as the beef)
10 pieces bok choy (cut into 2) or pechay
1/4 kg of green beans, cut into 6" in length
2 tablespoons patis (Asian fish sauce)( optional in my recipe)
2 tablespoons oil
Calamansi

Directions:

1. In a soup pot, saute garlic and onion.

2. Add in beef, water and bring to a boil, lower the fire and let simmer until beef is tender for about an hour or two (longer for more flavor). Alternately you can use a pressure cooker( 20 minutes) to insure beef is tender.

3. Remove all the resulting scum that will rise to the top of the pot and keep the stock clear.

4. Add potatoes and bring up to a boil to cook potatoes.

5. Season with salt, pepper and patis ( optional in my recipe, since I hate patis).

6. Add in vegetables, green beans first and cook uncovered.

7. Serve hot with steam white rice, soy sauce and calamansi to taste.

Bon Apetit!

Our Cook Pancit Palabok-Thank You Helpers and Relatives

Let me start this article by saying thank you to all our relatives, friends and helpers for this year snowbirding sojourn here in Boac, Marinduque, Philippines. We have several helpers this year, but the one we appreciate very much is our cook, housekeeper and Macrine’s Caretaker. Let me call her Helper V. Helper V not only cooks, but also do the laundry, sometimes market but also is Macrine’s primary caretaker during the day, 6.5 days during the week.

I wished I could take Helper V to the US but I know that is not possible with all the visa restrictions as well as Helper V family responsibilities

The other day, Helper V cooked us sinigang na prawns, and eggplant omelet with shrimps. Today she cooked us my favorite pancit palabok. ( see photo above). There are several recipes of pancit palabok in the web, but Helper V has her own secret recipe with one ingredient, that makes the taste of this dish very special and different from the other published palabok recipes.

Our other helpers are our Resident Manager and Driver ( Helper E) and his industrious wife, Helper C. Both are in charge when we have special events here at the resort such as wedding receptions, birthday parties and seminars. We have several temporary helpers- 2 gardeners, an electrician ( Helper R) and Master Handyman/ Mason/ Carpenter( Helper JJ). Thank you to our temporary and special helpers also.

I can not end this post with out mentioning and thanking my two sisters-in-laws. One sister-in-law is my financial manager here in Boac when we are in the US. She does an excellent job managing my accounts being an accountant. Again, thank you very much, Sister-in-Law, Helper S.

I also want to thank my other sister in-law (F) and her condo mate, HN. We stayed at their condo ( 3.5 days) during our arrival last February and will stay at their condo again ( 2.5 days) prior to our return to the US next week. I hope we can repeat our snowbirding sojourn next year, but with Macrine’s health status, this may be our last snowbirding here together. Let us pray and hope for the best and that Macrine's health condition will improve. Good Bye Marinduque for now!