Site Visit II for 2009 was to the Herbal Farm in Balik Pulau. Kenny, Javer & I met the guides coming from Gelugor at the Fire Station in Balik Pulau and then convoyed it down, using some rather poor instructions of how to get there. Of course Kenny, my husband, would claim I was the poor navigator but I can assure you I was given very contradicting sets of instructions!

We finally turned down a little dirt road that brought us about 500m from the main road. We parked our cars at a little brick house and sojourned further in on foot to a deeper set little pondok. We were greeted by a waif Malay girl who asked us to wait a while for Paksu Dino – our guide and mastermind of the farm operations and various concoctions both medicinal and edible.

Our 'mystic' guide - Paksu Dino

On the wooden table in front of us, we were welcomed to partake in wonderfully thick and sweet calamansi juice served in little shot glasses. We were soon coming back for more with full sized paper cups it was so delicious! Plastered all over the brick walls were poems of, I presumed, Paksu’s relationship with his herbs and medicines – truly a gift from God.

A true gift from God - heavenly calamansi!

He finally made an appearance – a clean shaven, braod smiling and bright eyed man in a crisply white pressed shirt. His eyes were dancing as he warmly greeted us. He beckoned us to be seated as he regaled us with a history of the place and a sharing of his God-inspired wisdom for his medicinal recipes.

The small herbal operations he had on site made health juices for men and women (take a wild guess what he used!)/ perfumed scents / yummy juices / and of course herbal preparations for the suana he has set up near the entrance to the road.  He explained the distillery process to us and explained that he derives the crops from several other locations other than just his farm as 1 ton of serai wangi would only produce about 1 litre of essential oils.

His recipes for blending the sweet fragrances of 7 different types of lemons and limes were all, he claimed, God inspired and dreamt. He knew many years ago that the future of our medicine lay in a revival of traditional herbal practice. Until today, he services many sick people who seek his advise and remedies for various ailments.

However he admitted that he can’t afford to go into large scale production as there simply weren’t enough human resources and plant sources and thus was quite happy to remain an experimental, research unit happy with the small output for visiting passer bys – quite like ourselves.

We walked around the roughly 2 acre garden which he explained was being looked after by only 2 of them – and sadly it showed. He plucked a leaf of the ‘daun dua rasa’ and urged us to sample. Although starting out bitter, within 3- 5 minutes the leaf left a peculiar sweetness in our mouths! ah..much better.

He had lots of vanilla orchids growing in numerous places around the garden and I also noticed lots of the seven needle plant – a plant that was popularly used for cancer treatment within the Chinese community. Paksu told me he grew lots of this plant as the flower was used to add to moisturizers and body lotions for the softening effect on the skin.

I was also interested in the ‘real’ kampung ‘kacip fatimah’ that was used by the Mak Bidan or midwife in the kampung. The ‘kacip fatimah’ we grow at our gardens was merely a commercial crop.

Me next to a 'real' kacip fatimah

The seeds of the ‘lengkuas kecil’ were edible too although hot like a cardamom to burn out all your bad breath.

Paksu entertained all our questions for the next hour or so and before we left we invited him to visit us at our gardens. Thank you Paksu for sharing your knwoeldge and insights to patiently with us. I was pleased when I got an email from Danny, our guide, the following day telling us that he thought we had a much nicer garden. Well thanks Danny Although, we are better equipped with human resources and a business model which Paksu just didn’t seem interested in – so fair enough. I think it’s also important to see and learn what others are doing – we don’t alwasy get it right.

So no doubt 2 very different gardens with 2 different outlooks. But nonetheless the outing was valuable and I learnt things about some of our plants I hadn’t known before. It’s ever growing this wonderful world of plants we inhabit.

TSG team and Paksu saying goodbye

A steaming bowl of laksa in Balik Pulau awaited for us…no further comments!

** Pictures courtesy of Danny Beh & Beatrice Teoh

p/s for those interested to find out mroe about the Herbal Farm or indeed other unique locations in Balik Pulau don’t hesitate to call Tropical Spice Garden or drop by and pick up a map. This special Balik Pulau map is designed for those travelling without a taxi to discover the serene, rural life of surrounding areas of Balik Pulau and the town centre. It was researched by children from Arts-Ed. We stock the maps!

Pick one up for free today!