Amma's Garden and How I Miss It

Posts like these make want to curl up on my bed sucking coconut candy. I start thinking in long lines of 'what ifs' and drive TH nuts! And what do I do to make this better? Have one of my own so that I can look at it next time I feel like turning into a recluse and crying my eyes out.

Or something like that.

My mom has a green thumb. She loves plants and plants love her. I remember the days we used to have dinner on the terrace of our old house and her picking out the leeches from the orchid plants with her bare fingers and dropping them into the coconut shell with rock salt in it. Did I mention with her bare fingers? Yeah, my mom is like that.

Now we have very little space around our house in Kottayam but she still manages to squeeze in maximum stuff. The plot is only 8cents (that's how we measure in Kerala) including the area the house is on, half of which is tiled, so there's very little soil area.

Yet, she has green chillies..

There's nothing like the flavour of fresh green chillies. Nothing! Ok, except fresh coriander leaves. But that's the only exception, really.

She has tomatoes. Whenever she makes sambar, she just steps out of the house and comes back with a fresh tomato in her hand to drop it in. Oh man..

Any self-respecting malayali (aka mallu), even pseudo ones like us, has to have a coconut tree. So we have one. Just one, but its more than enough as you can see.

This papaya plant has a story behind it. Long (a bit longer than I'd like) back when I went on a college trip to Ooty, I brought back some seeds from a roadside seller. That's right, papaya seeds. He claimed its for seedless, hydbrid, short papayas that are red inside and I, of course, believed him. Although it turned out nothing like he described, amma swears they taste "different". She loves me, that mother of mine!

Bananas! But of course. This is njaali poovan. And I am too lazy to find out what its called in English.

Bougainvilla. I hear that these days, bougainvilla are no longer considered fancy. But I love them. Amma says if you give them some good chaanakam (dried cow dung), lots of sunlight and enough water, nothing is as low maintenance and they are so pretty. Sadly, she only has about 4-5 pots now and this orange is a rare colour.

Ah. Drumstick leaves. They are painful to prepare before cooking and smell horrible when raw (or is it just me) but you gotta love them drumstick leaves.

Psstt.. this is our neighbour's tree. But they share. In fact they insist we share. True story.

Betel leaves aka vetta. Although we don't have any 'chewers' in the house and we are not very religious back home, amma loves having this around. That's the base of the coconut tree, btw, next to which she also has curry leaves.

These are my doing, these basil shoots. Thanks Deeba! Amma is helping me take care of them because I knew for a fact that without sunlight, I'd kill all the ones I try to grow in Singapore.

Now let me go grab the coconut candies and hit the bed.

Happy weekend y'all ;)