When the battle of Grandson took place in 1476 the Swiss general in charge did not have enough meat for his soldiers. So he added cabbage and boiled grind to a newly created sausage. Needless to say, he won the battle, probably due to that excellent “saucisse aux choux” that has since become a specialty of French speaking Switzerland. At Discovery Garden Pattaya we prepare such sausages in this episode.

Poucheria campechiana, Canistel, Eggfruit or Mon Kai are just some names for a yellow tropical fruit we grow at Discovery Garden Pattaya and Nong Khai. The consistency of the yellow flesh reminds one of boiled egg joke, though it is sweet. It can be processed into creamy deserts, cup cakes or eaten in a yoghurt. The eggfruit can be easily grown from seeds or from seedlings. We can send eggfruit plants within Thailand to your place.

It took nine years until a rare nut tree from Venezuela delivered first flowers today at Discovery Garden Pattaya. The so called “Money Tree” aka Pachira insignis is the rarest tree of the Pachira family. And the stunning flowers that appeared now for the first time was well worth the extended waiting period. Now we wait for the first edible nuts of the unique Pachira insignis.

If you want to eat home made smoked ham in Thailand, you first have to cure meat for ten days in the fridge. Hans Fritschi picks the smoking wood from his luscious tropical garden and thus turns ordinary meat into delicacies. Adding a home made potato salad to that simple meal turns the whole culinary experience into a feast.

After drilling a new well, we finally have enough water to install a brand new, but very simple sprinkle system. By watering our cocoa trees when necessary, we can expect a higher yield and chocolate production can start in earnest. At Discovery Garden Pattaya we build simple, but effective new things almost on a daily basis. The Thai brother in law just constructed a new incubator and some stone elephants were integrated into a water fall. Tomorrow is another day and we plan to build a safe and spacy encroachment for our younger geese.

If hatching goslings cannot break a hole into the protecting egg shell, they will suffocate. At Discovery Garden Pattaya we carefully help them to crack the shells and getting out of the egg which is protective, but also often a deadly straight jacket. It is always a difficult or delicate task, but this time around we are successful and can save another three goslings.

Mother goose at Discovery Garden Pattaya sat 28 days on her five eggs when four goslings hatched as expected. But there was a problem with egg number five. Hans Fritschi could hear feeble beeps from that egg and made a small hole into the egg shell to prevent suffocating. After several hours in the incubator he helped that weak baby goose to get out of the egg. This lonely gosling is now recovering well from its difficult start into life and can be joined soon with the four siblings and another baby goose.

When our first attempt to drill a new well failed, I was blamed, since the ignorant Farang had not adhered to the local Thai customs. We had not performed the animist rituals of offering goodies to the local spirits. This time around we offered boiled pig heads, rice liquor and other delicacies to the invisible powers inhabiting our land and this second drilling not only went smooth, it was a huge success. What does this tell the non-believer?

The canals and ponds at Discovery Garden Pattaya get more dry by the day. The existing wells deliver too little wet stuff to water the plants. An attempt is undertaken to drill a new, much deeper well. But unfortunately three days of drilling a 60 meter deep hole are futile. One worker has an accident and brakes his arm and the hole cannot be secured due to a stubborn rock in the way. The whole work was in vain and has to be restarted in a different location.

ANALYSENVIDEO BEARBEITENHans Fritschi loves home smoked bacon. He uses exotic and tropical wood like Cinnamon, Cocoa, Nutmeg and many others – all stuff organically grown at Discovery Garden Pattaya – to artfully smoke cured bacon. That is not difficult and the results are very satisfying, indeed!