Saturday, October 01, 2011

A heart shaped rambutan called Annatto


Annatto, sometimes called roucou or achiote, is as red and hairy as a rambutan. But it has a heart shaped instead of the oval shaped rambutan.

When fully mature, this heart-shaped fruit are brown or reddish brown and are covered with short, stiff hairs. The fruit will split open, exposing the numerous dark red seeds. And unlike the rambutan, the fruit itself is not edible.

The orange-red pulp or pericarp that covers the seed of the achiote (Bixa orellana L.) is used to produce a yellow to orange food commercial food colouring as well as a flavouring. Achiote dye is prepared by grinding seeds or simmering the seeds in water or oil.

It is used as coloring in many cheeses (e.g., Cheddar, Gloucester cheese, Red Leicester, Gouda and Brie), margarine, butter, rice, custard powder, ice-cream, and smoked fish.

Bewarned though, although it is a natural food colorant, it has been linked to cases of food-related allergies.

Wiki says that its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet and peppery". 

Other uses include body paint and lipstick and henna. Thus the tree is sometimes called Lipstick Tree.

The Bahasa Melayu of Bixa Orellana is also known as Inai / Kesumba/ Jarak Belanda/ Kunyit Jawa.
In the Philippines, it is called atsuete.

Source: Wiki
Location:
Pulau Ubin, Singapore
The Outdoor Classroom located along Route 1 of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore

Monday, August 01, 2011

Strawberries

We consist of a cluster of small fruits around the fruit stem; each fruit has a seed surrounded by red flesh.

Our green stem and green calyx are left on when we're harvested.

We're not really a berry but a member of the rose family and the real fruits are actually the tiny seed on our outsides.

Our natural sweetness comes from the sugars frutctose and glucose.

We're an excellent source of vitamin C and just 100g has a whole day's supply.

Credits: Woolworths Fresh Aug 2011 Issue

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Project Semakau

I had wanted to help out with Project Semakau in 2010 and attended their training. Unfortunately a job acceptance took me away from all these activities. I sincerely hope I may be able to help them some time in the future perhaps.

Anyway I did a classroom lesson with them and 2 survey trainings.

The first survey training was a Biodiversity survey training at Pulau Semakau on 31 July (Sat) 5am-12pm

As it was too early for public transport, I had to take a cab in the wee hours to reach Marina South Pier. Being my first assignment cum on the job training, I am totally clueless. This is a hunting trip where we are each allocated a portion to analyze the living specimens and its population in that area. And because of the superb hunting skill of my partner, I saw plentiful actually.

E.g. corals






Crabs







Order: Animalia > Arthropoda > Malacostraca > Decapoda > Pilumnidae
Name: Pilumnus vespertilio or Hairy Crab

The onch slug which at first I thought were snails... 
Further investigation from wildsingapore states that Onch slugs belong to Phylum Mollusca and are snails of the Class Gastropoda that lack shells. That explains my puzzlement...
Mud lobster if I'm not wrong as seems to be

Twinkle Twinkle little sea stars

Hmm.. forgot what these are call.. oopsy...
Flatworm
Algae

 Oh my partner of the day clicks with me as we do share similar interests. She dived a lot, run marathon (she was wearing the bay run tee thus that's how the conversation started) and was a contestant for ultra-marathoner too though she did not participate as she felt she did not train much. In fact she has a friend who is also doing the race in Sahara Desert, fund raising for the Singapore. This lady friend is much more impressive who has participate lots of events and won some.


The second one was a monitoring survey training at Pulau Semakau on 14 Aug (Sat) 5.30am-12.30pm. Another morning taxi ride. It was a bit more boring than the first one as we are more concerned about the growth of the sea grass along the transact lines that we were laying at the reef edge.


So it was lots of pictures of the sea grass




with some occurrences of animal e.g. the crab
then more tape grass
and then clams

think we caught sight of a mangrove horseshoe crab.. reminds me of the horseshoe crab research I used to participate (check out the story here)

Tiny hairy crab (pilumnu vespertilio) staring at us...
This was caught by another team... but I'm not sure what is it actually...
That's the end of the survey. I still am feeling apologetic about not being able to do more for the project. Sighz.

Anyway you can read up more about Project Semakau via here. I do wonder how's their progress....

Saturday, January 01, 2011

Five Lill Ducks


Caught sight of these lovely ducklings while doing duty last year... and suddenly the song 'Five Lill Ducks' came into my mind...

Five little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said "Quack, quack, quack, quack."
But only four little ducks came back.

Four little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said "Quack, quack, quack, quack."
But only three little ducks came back.

Three little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said "Quack, quack, quack, quack."
But only two little ducks came back.

Two little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said "Quack, quack, quack, quack."
But only one little duck came back.

One little duck
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said "Quack, quack, quack, quack."
But none of the five little ducks came back.

Sad mother duck
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
The sad mother duck said "Quack, quack, quack."
And all of the five little ducks came back.