You wouldn’t expect to come across an organic farm in the countryside of Singapore. Actually, you wouldn’t expect Singapore to have a countryside! That’s why a visit to Bollywood Veggies will prove you once again that Singapore has more to offer than just shopping malls and great restaurants.
Bollywood Veggies is located by the Kranji Reservoir, on the north western part of the island. As you drive down the PIE (pan island expressway) and then onto Lim Chu Kang Road, you slowly distance yourself from the urbane environment and move into the Singaporean countryside. HBD’s and highways give way to small roads and large fields. The large sky gives no sign of urban civilization close by, for not one high-rise is in sight on the horizon.
On the way to the organic farm you will pass the very large Choa Chu Kang Cemeteries. It is a vast cemetery situated in a beautifully green and calm part of Singapore, divided into Muslim, Chinese and Christian areas (at least those are the ones I noticed). I’ve always known Singapore as a multi-cultural society, where people live happily side-by-side, on a very confined land mass. In true Singaporean style, the after life is no different. Due to a lack of space, the different cultures live harmoniously together even when they cross over. This is very well represented by this cemetery.
When you arrive to the Bollywood Veggies organic garden, I highly recommend you have a meal at their restaurant (we had a delicious breakfast on a very hot Sunday morning) and a walk through their garden. You will find all sorts of plants, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. But most of all, make sure you meet Ivy, who together with her husband runs the place. She’s a feisty, vocal and opinionated (in a positive way) Singaporean woman of Indian-Chinese origin. On her business card she refers herself to ‘gentlewarrior farmer’. Somewhere else on the farm I noticed the name ‘Poison Ivy’. Hmm! Ivy is also one of those people that you can’t help but listen too. She said ‘my opinion counts, after all my mind represents a third of the world’s population’ referring to her ancestry. She’s entertaining, interesting, with a lot of stories and is the antithesis of what the Singaporean stereotype is.