A Singaporean In Australia

I felt I had to write this post after Miss Lifen sent me this article [link] about sugar. She didn't leave a message so I assumed she wanted me to read it and I did. She's a kind soul and want me to know what exactly a sugar addict like me should be avoiding. Under the "better than sugar" (the lesser evil) list, I saw Stevia and that brought back some recent memories.

Robert gingerly dropped a lot of Stevia seeds into my hands 2 weeks ago. I ended up in his garden after Jen popped a small portion of its leaf into my mouth and gave me a large grin. It was a leafy herbal taste for first five seconds, then a strong sugary after taste followed.

I knitted the brows, frowned and asked Jen, still wearing the large grin, "What was that?"

"Stevia, go to the garden and take a look." So I did.

"The taste is still in my mouth Rob," when I told him I had a very small dose two minutes ago. Robert then proudly introduce his Stevia plant to me, along with the rest of his home produce such as Sweet Basil, Broccoli but nothing as impressive as the Rosemary hedges abutting the wall along his swimming pool. Those bushes were anyone's lifetime's supply of Rosemary. Make that 3 generations. The fruit trees were great too but the spotlight is on the herbs for today's topic.

Ah. So I went back reading about Stevia after Rob's virtuous wife Shamirah told me more and got me interested. This plant has a low germination rate, perhaps about 2 in 10. Thus it may be hard for me to produce anything despite the generous amount of seeds in my care. It looks like stem cuts are the way to go, just like I did for the Thai Basil plant I pinched from Patrick's yard at his new rental place. I managed to root it in just tap water and it appears to be growing well at my balcony.

Any chance with the Stevia? I didn't have a good record dealing with seeds but we never know do we? A week ago, I couldn't cook a decent chicken breast chunk and now I can. These Stevia seeds are so fragile, they can be blown away like Dandelions. Hardly hardy at all. To my surprise I managed to get a sprout last night. It may be still early stages because a seedling can very well die within an hour if transplant to a proper pot does not go well. Take a look at what I saw last night anyway: