Singapore Farms

No, that title is in fact not an oxymoron.  Last weekend, my friend Elizabeth (another Fulbrighter) and I visited several farms located in the Kranji region in the north of Singapore.  There are actually quite a few farms in the this area, and there's a convenient shuttle bus that drops passengers off at most of them.  We thought that this sounded like a nice opportunity to get away from the city a bit, so, armed with sunscreen and bug repellent, we set off.

The first farm we visited was an organic fruit and vegetable farm called Bollywood Farms.  This farm was completely awesome! 

The owner of the farm, Ivy, greeted us as we arrived and immediately tried to set one or both of us up with another young (male) visitor.  Then, she proceeded to give us her opinions on Singapore and the world in general.  Her conclusion: "too many stupid women and too many greedy men".  According to my friend Natasha, who is my go-to lady about all things Singapore, Ivy is a very controversial and outspoken figure in Singapore (OK, it doesn't really take much to be controversial here).  She used to be the president of the Singapore Netball Association, and, according to her website "she is remembered for her stinging observations about the state of sporting affairs [in Singapore]".  Now, she has become a leader in the sustainability movement in Singapore by advocating for organic lifestyles and local food production.  All in all, a really awesome lady. 

The farm grows all kinds of different fruits and vegetables.  They are apparently the largest banana producer in Singapore.

We saw dragonfruit vines - I had no idea that it grew on this type of plant. 

Also, we encountered a friendly lizard!

After a wander around the farm, we decided to eat some lunch in the cafe, called Poison Ivy.  Elizabeth and I both ordered banana curry, since it sounded so interesting!  It turned out to be really, really tasty.  The bananas were more like plantains than the bananas that we normally eat - if they hadn't told me they were bananas I probably would have thought that they were potatoes.  The curry sauce was super delicious and perfectly spicy.  We finished off the meal with some jackfruit cake.  Since I had heard that the jackfruit was related to the famous durian, I had been too scared to try it in the past.  However, Elizabeth persuaded me, and the cake was quite good after all.

The next farm on our list was called Hay Dairies.  I was expecting to see smelly cows, but this dairy actually turned out to be a goat farm.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to get up close and personal with the goats.  Here are a few of them:

There were also some cute baby goats.

I guess that the goats were kept on those platforms to keep out various tropical pests such as rats and snakes.  But, I found myself wishing that they had some nice green fields in which to roam free.  Elizabeth and I tried some chocolate goat milk (the milk was chocolate, not the goats (mmm, chocolate goats)), but it just tasted like regular milk, but thinner.

Last on our farm tour was the Jurong Frog and Fish Farm.  I guess I hadn't realized that there was such a market for frog in Singapore!  Later that day, however, I did notice "fresh frog" being sold at the local grocery store.  Anyways, this farm raised American Bullfrogs, and lots of them.

The frogs were all croaking in unison and the noise was incredibly loud.  The frogs by my house in Selah tend to make a delicate chirping noise, but this croaking was much louder and deeper.  At first we thought it was some kind of machinery or something - it was hard to believe that all the noise was actually coming from the frogs.  After looking around the farm and trying to feed the frogs (they were completely unmoved by my offers of dog food), we sampled our last dish of the day: frog legs!

Fried frog legs with spicy ketchup.  Mostly it just tasted like chicken, with more bones.

Overall, our farm visits made for a really fun day.  It was really nice to get out of the city, as living in such a dense city is driving me mildly crazy.  I felt like we weren't even in Singapore anymore - no high rise public housing flats in sight!