Vegetables from the Cameron Highlands

My father is visiting us at the moment and while my husband is back at work the children are still on holidays so in between visits to the vet (the younger pets were spayed last week) we are taking trips to see the local sites.

The children acted as tour guides

Last week we had a hot morning with beautiful sunshine and we decided to drive up to our nearest Boh tea plantation Sungei Palas.  On the way back we stopped off at one of the many commercial garden and vegetable centres to pick up some strawberries which are grown in the Highlands.  While they are still a treat food for us they are much more affordable than many other places as they are locally grown.

It is fun to get out and about with them

Just as we arrived the heavens opened and as I did not fancy driving the steep, winding roads back to Ipoh in the torrential rain we decided to wait it out and take a walk around the centre instead of just picking up stuff from the shop.

Beautiful Gerberas are a treat buy

Touring the garden centre was, it turned out, every bit as fascinating as the Tea Plantation.  The strawberries are grown hydroponically and are elevated so that more plants can be fitted in to a smaller area.  This hydroponic system has the advantage of meaning the fruit is safer than when grown in local soil and while I still need to wash them (of course) before eating, I don’t need to disinfect them which does impact a little on the taste of soft fruits.  

Tending the plants is a full time job and each section
has a dedicated manager and picker.

While many growing centres offer a pick your own option on strawberries (or self plucking as it is called here), the one we usually visit did not.  This means that the plants and fruit are managed by experts and the quality is very high even if we do not have the fun of collecting them ourselves.

Strawberries are grown hydroponically

The  fruit are luscious, they are picked as soon as they are fresh and brought straight to the shop for sale.  The plants are for sale as well but I can’t see them lasting a long time in the heat of Ipoh.

Every spare bit of space is utilised

In addition to strawberries the centre grows beautiful lettuce, grapes and a whole range of other vegetables.  They also grow gerberas which really cheer up the home and I always pick up a bunch as a small treat.

The lettuce is tasty and clean

There is a small café attached to the shop which sells (mostly strawberry based) treats.  We settled down to a chocolate ‘steamboat’ or fondue.  It came with the usual strawberries, marshmallows and biscuits but also with tiny cherry tomatoes.  We were a little perplexed at this choice and almost did not give it a try but the combination was surprisingly tasty and one I would have again.  The tomatoes were perfectly ripe and very sweet and the chocolate quite dark so they complemented each other very well.

An unusual chocolate fondue.

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Tea from the Cameron Highlands

We have had a glut of visitors lately.  The other weekend two friends and colleagues from Astana, now based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, came to visit.  It was lovely to catch up and, in what I believe is the hallmark of true lifelong friends as opposed to posting acquaintances, we spent a lot of time talking about life as it is now.  That is not to say that we did not reminisce over shared memories, we would not be human if we did not do this, but we were interested and able to find common ground in our new, separate lives too.

Tea along the approach road to the Sungei Palas plantation

Picking with shears on the high slopes (where the machines can't reach)

We only had a day together so we decided to drive them up to the tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands.  We had tried to get to the plantation a few weeks before but been stymied by bank holiday traffic (note do not drive anywhere on a Malaysian Bank Holiday) so the sunny day of the visit looked like the perfect time to take them.  An added benefit was that the highlands can be difficult for visitors to access if they do not have their own transport so it was a place they were only likely to see with us.

Sungei Palas Plantation Village

There are a number of major tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands, they belong to the ‘Boh’ tea company, a common brand in Malaysia.  The most northerly plantation Sungei Palas is a short 2 hour drive from Ipoh taking in a spectacular mountain climb and the more northerly of the fruit farms and visitor attractions along the way.  The weather is noticeably cooler here compared with the lowlands, reminiscent of the English summer weather (ie it rains a lot but is pleasant when sunny).  As you move off the main road and down to the plantation itself the tea becomes the dominant crop on the mountainside.  The plantation is huge, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Visitor's centre and tea rooms

All you ever wanted to know about tea

As we drove down into the valley of the main part of the estate it was possible to see workers harvesting tea on the high, steep slopes that are inaccessible to the mechanised pickers.  The drive down to the visitors centre ran through the small village of estate workers’ huts complete with a prayer room and temple, playing fields, a school, community centre a café and small shop. It was just after lunch when we arrived so we went to the tearooms which are in a purpose built observatory platform giving a commanding view over the estate.  The rooms serve, not surprisingly, tea in many and various forms, pastries and cakes and is pretty good value for money. 

Factory weighbridge (and one of my favourite photos of
the two older children)

Sample testing

After a short break we took a walk around the information display.  The information provided was detailed and interesting, explaining the tea making process from start to finish and providing a lot of background and marketing information on the ‘Boh’ brand, our older kids (8&6) certainly managed to get a lot of information even though they did not read the full content of each poster.  We gave the gift shop (which sold packets of branded tea that are easily bought in our local supermarket) a miss.

Machinery as old as Granny and still going strong

Original brass cutting plate on display

 The real highlight of the visit, however, was a tour around the estate factory.  It was established in 1935 and much of the machinery in use is still original (in design at least if not in components), it was rather like walking into a living museum.  The guided tours were finished by the time we arrived but the factory is so small and the signage and information so detailed that it was not necessary to have a guide. 

Exploring the tea slopes

Once we had finished our brief tour we walked down through the plantations, enjoying a stroll amongst the tea and being out in the sun without the oppressive humidity that we get down in Ipoh at times.  The way back included an obligatory stop at a vegetable and fruit centre.  We will certainly be back (probably with more visitors in tow) and will also make an effort to drive down to the other, larger, plantation where the larger factory will offer a different insight on the tea making business.


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