Yes, you can say that my rambutan tree is my pride and joy especially when it is the sole survivor here out of so many trees in my grandpa’s garden in Sungai Merah a long time ago and some 10 trees or so in our own at No. 96, Race Course Road (now renamed Jalan Awang Ramli Amit). You can read the complete history of the tree here.
I never took good care of it – it did bear fruit regularly but most of the time, they were small and not very juicy and there were a lot of ants so more often than not, we did not even bother to pluck the fruits. It was in March last year that I noticed that the tree was not doing very well because of the wild orchids and parasitic plants growing on the branches so I got Peter and his boys to come and help and it improved by leaps and bounds after that and was growing really well since then.
I did get Peter and his boys to come again one more time to trim the branches that were touching the roof at the back of my house for fear that the ants would use them as bridges to cross over and go indoors. It was already flowering and bearing fruit by then, lots and lots of them but for reasons unknown, many did not stick – they all dropped to the ground, turned black and simply dried up but thankfully, a lot were spared…
I gave a lot away to family and friends and it most certainly swept everyone off their feet. The flesh is thick and crunchy and at the same time, so very sweet and juicy…
…and the best part is how it does not stick to the seed and no, unlike some rambutans, the hard outer layer of the seed does not come off with it at all…
However, one fine day, I discovered that those fruits growing closer to the ground had simply disappeared into thin air! I did not see anyone taking them nor do I have any proof so I shall just let it rest at that and will not say anything more about it. Thankfully, there were still a lot of fruits higher up so I was able to pluck those and distribute left, right and centre.
Unfortunately, eventually, only the ones very high up in the sky…
…were left and no, there was no way I was going to climb up the tree to get to those…
The only way I could get them down was to saw the branches…
…and pluck the fruits.
Of course I had to dispose of everything properly and no, I would not burn them in my backyard and pollute the air. What I did was to saw the branches into shorter lengths, short enough to fit into my car boot…
…and tie them up in bundles…
…and I would pack all the leaves in one big plastic bag.
Once I was done, I would take them to one of those places with the refuse disposal bins placed there by our municipal council for the public to use and I would throw everything in one of those. I would get rid of the leaves and take the plastic bag home and reuse but more often than not, the twigs would cut slits and leave gaps by the side so in its condition, there is no point taking it home and I will just have to use a new one instead.
Yes, that sure was a lot of hard work so don’t you say that I am badly in need of some exercise – I sure get more than enough of it doing this!
The tree is rather bare now…
– it probably will be worse once I’m through with it but hopefully, with tender loving care, new branches will grow soon and by the end of this year, there will be another round of my pride and joy…
…for all to enjoy – guaranteed 100% organic, pesticide-free, no chemical fertilisers used.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Thick flesh, crunchy, juicy, sweet and does not stick to the seed, it sounds awesome. That stool looks very familiar. Did you get it from Ikea?
Definitely the best in the world – I’ve had others, not bad, quite good…but no, mine is still a lot nicer. Last time in that old place of ours, my mum also planted two trees – they called it agriculture rambutans, probably came from the department, the hybird – R4. Also ok, nice but no, not even half as nice as these. Then, we also had one tree, a big one – they called it the local rambutans – jelly like flesh and nobody wanted to eat those.
No, the stool’s definitely not from IKEA. My missus bought it from some shop here and I’ve been using it all this while to do my gardening. My neighbour says it’s too high, will cause backaches but so far so good. The problem is if I use those regular low stools, I would not be able to get up when I’m done.
I’m not surprised you find pride and joy in your rambutan tree. So do I with my orange tree. When we moved into this house, it had a plum tree, which gave us very nice plums for many years till it died.
Oh!!! How sad!
We had two big quinee (our local mango) trees when we moved in, very productive – I would give the fruits to family and friends at least two rounds and send the rest to sell to people at the market – every season, I would make at least RM200-300. My neighbour kept complaining about the leaves falling into her yard but she never said anything about taking and keeping the fruits that fell over to her side. 😦 Eventually, I had a problem with the swarm of bees that would come every day and hang around the trees and leave in a big dark cloud at sunset so I got people to come and get rid of them.
Gosh, how I wish I had a basket of rambutans to enjoy right now! One of the things that I dislike is when the skin of the seeds stick to the flesh. That is most annoying and as a child, I avoided rambutans because of that. Looks like the variety that you have in our garden is a good one, no sticking and fleshy and juicy. I hope you continue to enjoy an abundant harvest every year.
Next season I will post some over to you – if it is dijamin sampai hari esok, the fruits should still be ok – a day or two in the mail is fine but not too long.
I envy you because you have your own rambutan tree. I like eating rambutans. How I wish I can have sone from your tree.
Almost all gone now, will have to wait till the next season now. 😀
It has been a long while since I last took rambutans… buying them here is not cheap… and they dont look half as good as yours shown above! :))
Not cheap? Maybe next season I should export to Ipoh then. Worse in Oz though – witch shared a pic she took at a supermarket, AUD19.90 a kilo the rambutans there. Red gold!!!
I just a got a bag of organic rambutans from a friend’s garden. So much better than what I find in the supermarket.
Nothing beats own homegrown, of course!
A very fruitful time for you. I had few last week.
So pleased that there were so many of the fruits to go round and everyone loved it – some were big and nice but some were rather small though. Will work on it, take good care of the tree and hopefully, next season, it will be even better!
Now I can imagine those rambutan meat in some ice kacang…
Nice, eh? Don’t think I’ve tried that, lychees in ice kacang, yes.
I didn’t buy rambutan for a long time as those I bought before, always stick to the seed…
Ironically, these were called “Singapore rambutans” in the old days. Maybe it was because my father and his father brought in the seedlings from Singapore but my father did tell me once that actually, this variety originally came from Penang.
Wow you have a rambutan tree! so jealous as that is one of my favourite fruits. I so miss it by now, here I can have it only in cans
😀 😀 😀 All gone now. Hopefully I will have some more to harvest when the next season comes around. Lots this year – I saw many trees full of fruits and the people did not even bother to go and pluck, an overkill.