Every once in a while, we really need to step back and visit some farm somewhere… this would be because farms can be pretty interesting places…

 

But yes, to be totally honest, when I was going through the itinerary and read there Zenxin Organic Farm.. I was scrunching my forehead and sighing… preparing myself for a boring visit.. like duh… who wants to go take photos with vegetables.. Might seem silly right taking selfies with vegetables.. hahahah

But little did I know I was in for an adventure…

 

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Zenxin Organic Park is the first open-to public organic farm in Malaysia, combining the educational and recreational purposes. Visitors can explore the farm on their own, on foot or by bicycle. We had a guided park tour with one of their tour guides…

This scenic 100-acre park comprises of a greenhouse area (vegetable farm) and dragon fruit farm,other crops are tropical fruits, such as passion fruit, papaya, pineapple… and more than 100 types of herbs.It is special because all the plants here are organically grown, so that visitors can witness our hardworking farmers growing organic crops, without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Zenxin Organic Farm is an organically-certified farm in Malaysia which has undergo stringent certification checks from National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA)…

It was a lovely sunny day, and perhaps a tad too humid for a field trip, but then again, well….

Our little trip started with a cup of freshly-brewed organic mulberry tea before we were forced to watch their video briefing… yada yada yada… it is cutesy and well, we soon got to know how Zenxin organic farm has started. They began as a company that produced organic fertilisers but eventually used their own fertilizers for planting instead… so the rest is history…

 

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We headed to the dragon fruit farm where we learned that the dragon fruit is from the cactus family.. and its flowers only bloom at night for one night… before it turns to a fruit…

 

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From the dragon fruit fields, we headed to the mulberry fields.. on the other side… and some fields with pruned or ‘botak’ trees which are somehow pretty fascinating also…

We passed by the 40-day banana orchard.. where our guide told us these particular bananas only take about 40 days to ripen… They are much smaller in size than regular bananas due to their quick maturation period but it is said that these bananas are pretty sweet…

Just across the road from the huge old tree next to the banana orchard, there are some little creepers with tiny fruits… and omg… they are actually itsy bitsy teeny weeny cucumbers that taste exactly like a cucumber… and it is still juicy and crunchy despite its tiny size.

 

From here, we are given a plastic bag each and told to harvest some of these herbs to make a salad..

 

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We had a fun time plucking ladyfingers, sweet Thai basil leaves, mint, butterfly pea flowers, dill, and of course the itsy bitsy teeny weeny cucumbers…

 

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Then we got to head to the animal farm side where you can find ducks, geese, chickens and rabbits … we get to feed the bunny wabbits who practically surrounded us as we enter the enclosure with the vegetables in hand… hahaha….there is even a hospital for the bunnies…

 

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From there, we headed out of the farm and into a side garden where we were given milk bottles… errr… what???!!… filled with fish food.. I was stupefied for a moment.. but when you just tip the milk bottle to the nearby fishpond full of hungry “piranhas”.. ehhh… I mean kois/carps, they sucked at the bottle like nobody’s business…

 

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Once done, we were invited to sit down at the wooden table and given white linen cloth…and some flowers and plants… and a hammer…I was slightly confused again, but it sure was fun… arranging the flowers and ferns, clipping the cloth to hold it in place and what else… vent all your frustrations if any on the cloth with the hammer…. And the result… kinda pretty flower prints after you have to remove the icky squashed remnants of the plants..

Just before we left the workshop area, we were given a pot to fill up and then a lemon grass stalk.. and told to fill the pot with soil before sticking the lemon grass stalk in…

 

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From the workshop, we were ushered to the restaurant area where our tour guide collected all our plastic bags of herbs… to wash and arrange on a plate.. we were given additional carrots, tomatoes and salad.. and it was fun watching my team mates… all those macho guys slice carrots and pluck herbs… before mixing it with some of the kewpie sesame salad dressing.. oh… yummy…..

 

Just when we thought we were done, oh no… they brought out curry puffs ingredients and I was shell shocked for a bit as we were already kind of running late and my ‘boss’ was trying to get me and my team to hurry up to the next destination… but well… never mind, the boys end up making attempting to make their curry puffs, some which were pretty successful and some which were errr…. a little less nicer…  Once done, they took the curry puffs to the kitchen  where it was deep fried…

And we were told we had to have lunch there at the Chef Garden restaurant

This steamboat ingredients are all organic vegetables of course and very fresh, and even though we had to rush, we could not resist it.. besides that, we had carrot juices, spinach juice with honey and pumpkin juices… pretty healthy stuff…  before ending our trip there…

It sure was an adventure not to forget, with plenty of activities and fun for everyone.. and I daresay it is highly recommended and you won’t have a dull moment for sure…

Address – Zenxin Organic Park, Jalan Batu Pahat, 86000 Kluang

For more information, check out http://www.zenxin.com.my

Colours of Lives Travelogue Malaysia is organised by Borakkita.com, and supported by Tourism Malaysia.

Special thanks to Tourism Malaysia Melaka for accompanying us, and also thanks to Canon Malaysia, Yushaz Car Rental, Kaseh HQ, Avox Streetwear, Marini Naturale Magic, 888tea for being our sponsors and believing in us…