Farmers of Singapore : Uncle William

I love to eat, and farmers grow and raise food. We get our food, wrapped and packed from air-conditioned supermarkets, but it starts at the farm. It begins with dedication, hard work, a deep set of knowledge and skills, and a labour of love.

I love quail eggs. They have a delicate texture and elegant flavour. And “Uncle William” is the man I go to for my quail and quail eggs. He has a shop at Farmart, where he sells the freshest quail (and chicken eggs), frozen quails, and a few other meats. He conducts tours there, where he hopes to help children understand that quails (and chickens) have two legs, not four, and that they are raised in farms and not supermarkets.

His farm is at Lim Chu Kang, and due to concerns about bird flu, access to poultry farms in Singapore is strictly controlled. Visitors must observe strict rules to ensure bio-security.   Thus, it was with Uncle William’s kind consent, and my promise to obey all the rules, that I found my way to Lian Wah Hang farm, to write this post and share about farming in Singapore.

And it was an amazing journey. This is what I learnt :

Quails hatch from eggs

Yes, I kinda know that, all along. But to see it was really cool!

The eggs take about 2 weeks to incubate. And yes, newly hatched quailets and really cute!

Quail take 6 weeks to grow up

Once they hatch from their eggs, they quails are transferred, first to a nursery, and then to grow out cages. They mature in 6 to 7 weeks, and the females start laying.  They have lifespan of up to 3 years.

The female quails are transferred to laying cages, where they will lay an egg almost everyday.

Most male quails are harvested for meat when they mature. These are sold as “spring quails”. A lucky few males get to they spend the rest of their days with all the lady quails they ever desire. The laying females are harvested for their meat somewhere between one and a half to two years of age, and these are the full sized quails.

Farm animals are happy

The humans may be overworked and stressed out (see below), but the dogs and cats have it good.

Farming is tough

Think you had a bad day in the office? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Any day in my job is likely better than any day on the farm. The daily work is tough, workers are in short supply. When was the last time you hard a local kid say he wants to work on a farm when he grows up? And foreign worker quotas apply, of course.

And beyond the daily struggle, are far more draining worries.

All that you see on a farm, it costs money,  sweat and feelings. Farmers invest a lot, financially, physically, and emotionally, into their farms. And in Singapore, they face uncertainty over the most fundament issue – their land. Its not like they can hand the land they invested in, and  lovingly tended, to their children – the land is leased, and not for very long.

I imagine in some air-conditioned office somewhere, are a bunch of folks in smart suits and dresses crunching numbers like “productivity per month per square foot”. And farming doesn’t score high, or so they think. As a prominent member of the farming community, Uncle William has campaigned hard for the cause of farmers here. He acknowledges that the govt does listen, and has tried to help. But its an uphill struggle. Farms do not have the appeal of shopping malls. But remember, you can’t have shopping malls if there is no food produced, by someone, somewhere.

A national treasure lives on the farm

His name is Mr Ho Seng Choon, and he is over 90 years old

And he is the father of Uncle William

And he knows what there is to know about poultry farming. He wrote the manuals on them.

He proudly showed us his work from his younger days, when he published bulletins, handbooks and guides to share with other farmers in Singapore.

Sitting there in the farm, and listening to the senior Mr Ho recount his older days and share he knowledge of farming, I felt almost as if the clock had been turned back decades. I was back in a bygone era, when the knowledge that mattered was not learnt in schools, or googled on phones. It was shared in books by those who worked with their hands, and learnt things the hard way.

Quails and Quail Eggs can be fine dining

In Dubeers Kitchen, I gave the local produce the respect and love it deserved.

I got the full sized quails, instead of the spring quails, as I wanted them bigger. I marinated them with Sze Chun peppers, and they sat in a 65 deg oven for 16 hours. Then a quick deep dry.

Here it is, laid out, plated. And quail eggs – yes, you can plain hard boil them, but what about a deep fried lava quail egg?

You will love it.

Recipe : 

Start with Uncle William’s quail eggs. Put them in the fridge so their centers  are cold.

• bring a saucepan of water to a rolling boil
• the eggs should go cold from the fridge into boiling water. Ideally, set them in a sieve, or some kind of cage to hold them off the hot bottom (some eggs may crack, but there is really no other way. Some folks advocate piercing the bottom of each egg with a needle to avoid cracks)
• Boil them for two minutes. Two minutes. Yes, 120 seconds.
• Lift eggs out of boiling water, and immediately shock them with ice cold water. This is very important.
• Peel them. This is a lot easier if you followed the shock step.
• Chill them.
• Set up deep fryer. Fry still a crispy skin forms.

Buying

Not all quail eggs in Singapore are local. Look out for these stickers to be sure you are getting Uncle William’s produce:

They are sealed across the packs.

Uncle William has a shop at Farmart. The best way to get info is likely from his Facebook Page.