My First Skool @ Oh's Farms and Butterfly Lodge

A clear blue sky as the backdrop coupled with soothing gush of wind ushered in 3 bus-loads of VIPs from My First Skool on 26th February 2011.

The arrival of our many little angels.

It was a family outing. The little ones were led or accompanied by their love ones, all ready to tour the Farm.

First stop is the Packing Centre. This packing centre handles not only 1000 kg of hydroponic vegetables daily but also the full range of soil-grown vegetables for our local supermarkets.

The next stop, the young and the seniors were taken to our Production Greenhouse to see how we grow the 6 types of leafy vegetables and 10 types of culinary herbs.

Hydroponics is the science of cultivating plants without using soil. The term hydroponics was introduced by William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley in the year 1937.

The Cold Room, the most popular stop in the tour, is kept at a temperature range of 4° to 8°C to keep the harvest fresh and to ensure a longer shelf life.

Next, Tony one of our most experienced guides, captured the attention of our VIPs, enthusing them with the life cycle of butterfly outside the Butterfly Lodge.Butterflies do not have teeth. Come on, don't not be afraid to come in to get close contact with them. We were sure that these kids experienced that butterflies after all are so harmless and pretty. Hey, what was on the Peacock Flower that attracted you ? Take as many photos and capture all the good memories but do not take away anything from the Lodge.Boys and girls, observe the butterflies, how they feed and fly.... You see, this was what I mean by being up-close and get intimate with the butterflies.To take or not to take, that is the question. The butt(butterfly) or the butt...

Please be gentle with me.

Smile, you are on camera...While the juniors were having their breaks the seniors did some shopping.Farm produce, growing materials and potted herbs are on sale in our very own FARMART.

Shopping is therapeutic. Seeing the smile it brings on the faces of the visitors is worth more than what the sale has brought. Totally satisfying!

ACS Junior @ Butterfly Lodge

Over a period of 3 days began from 21st February '11, ACS Junior visited the Hydroponics Farm and the Butterfly Lodge.

Most of these young pupils dressed in striking red T-shirt paid close attention to the tour guide describing the 4 stages of the life cycle of a butterfly. We could see that an outdoor experiential learning could really engage these young minds.They were waiting orderly and eagerly outside the butterfly enclosure for their turns to come face-to-face with the flying jewels. "Lastly, please follow these instructions. When you are inside the Lodge - no pushing, no screaming and no catching of butterflies... " The photographer being photographed.. "Let me see, let me see..." "Which is prettier, the flower or the butterfly?" "Anymore butterflies landing on my head?" "Hmmm, should I or should I not try catching a butterfly ? " I think I just stand here watching its beauty. "Look! It's a plane, it's a bird, no it's a butterfly..."

"Come, land on my hand, my beauties..." "Awesome! I must take a photo of this beauty..." Now they were ready to answer quiz questions and win some prizes back - of course they brought lots of beautiful memories and photos home as well.

More photos of the learning journey can be found here.

Vegetable Packing Machine @ Oh' Farms

Oh' Farms has been using a vegetable packing machine (Model CXW07A) to increase productivity. This machine was imported from Japan's Suzuki Machinery Co LTd. Oh' Farms also acquires the distribution right of this machine in this region.

Here is a close view.

A longer video here, well you need a bit of patience to see this video.

The following video consists of 3 segments - first segment showing the manual mode, 2nd segment the semi-automatic mode and the last segment fully automatic mode.

If you are interested in finding out more about this machine, please contact Oh' Farms

Hydroponics @ Home

A session on how to grow vegetables at home was conducted on a fine Saturday 22nd January 2011 - a collaboration activity between Hortpark and Oh' Farms. The response was so overwhelming that Hortpark had to turn down some enthusiasts - what a pity !


The first group of eager learners arrived early and they could not wait to take a good look at the package.

An instructor from Oh' Farms, Ai Ling demonstrated step-by-step how to use the hydropic kit to grow butterhead lettuce. With good care, the butterhead lettuce will be ready for harvesting during the last day of Chinese New Year(元宵节).
Butterhead lettuce (奶油生菜/玫瑰生菜), is an auspicious vegetable to have during new year. Lettuce in chinese is 生菜which has the same pronunciation as 生财which means growing wealth.

"The shape of the butterhead lettuce is like a giant rose, so gentlemen, during Valentines' Day, if you have difficulty getting roses for your loved ones, you can replace roses by butterhead lettuce," teased the instructor.
The growing media used are leca and vermiculite. These two materials are inert which can also retain water and produce capillary action - water touches the base of the pot, it will travel up to the top.So easy, even juniors like me can handle this kit....

Hey, seniors also has no difficulty growing the vegetables. Its as easy as ABC....The last step of the set up is to add in the nutrient solution. Remember to place the setup at a sunlit spot but without exposing to rain. We don't need to water or fertilize the plants - just observe and wait for the plant to grow.

After the demonstration Ai Ling conducted an appreciation session on culinary herbs. All participants were able to smell, touch and even taste 5 types of the herbs that the instructor brought along with - these 5 herbs were Sweet basil, Lemon balm, Italian parsley, Dill and Arugula. Especially Arugula, commonly known as rocket, is very low in calories and a good natural source of Vitamins A and C, folate, calcium, and magnesium. Folate is the natural source of vitamin B9. When taken as a supplement, it is called folic acid - important for foetal development during pregnancy or for woman planning to get pregnant or during nursing. Research seemed to conclude that that adults who consumed the daily recommended amount of folates (Vitamin B compounds) had reduced 50% risk of getting the Alzheimer's disease.

The Q & A session offered quick answers to the enthusiasts' doubts.

The workshop was a huge success as participants had shown great satisfaction at the end of the workshop. It is our pleasure to be able to share and learn from one another in this workshop and hopefully more people especially retirees will pick up hydroponics or gardening as a hobby.