Just behind the popular pomelo farm in Tambun is another farm to table experience that visitors can have.
Site tours are free, and you can even pick the fruit yourself if it’s the right season. We think it’s a neat little gem if you have some spare time in the area.
Here’s what to expect!
Getting Here
Buses can’t go down to the farm like normal passengers can. If you want to take the bus, the closest stop is opposite Go Chin Pomelo Nature Park. And that bus service apparently only runs on the weekends or by private charter.
There’s plenty of space to park on the property although the terrain is rough and not shaded.
Tin Mining Lake
Directly beside the visitor car park are toilets but also a small lake with greenery all around. They’ve done a little bit of landscaping to make the surroundings more attractive too.
Like other lakes in the state, this one is a remnant of Ipoh’s tin mining past. Sometimes, the lake is still enough to get a great reflection of the sky and tall trees by the edge of the lake too.
Farm Tours
Farm tours are currently by the owner, Steven. He’s a friendly guy who knows some English and Hokkien.
The tour started from one side of the visitor car park, beginning with where he gets seeds from. There’s also a small seedling shack that we passed by during this quick briefing. You can’t enter the shack, but the mesh is fine enough to view the seedlings from the outside.
Next, the tour took us through the greenhouse. We could see sections with empty bags as well as others which had mature plants growing.
Steven explained that the bags were awaiting the batch of seedlings we saw. The time between the growing process to harvest is about 70 days.
What surprised us the most was that each plant could only produce one fruit in its lifetime. Which means the plants must be continually replaced.
There are 3 different types of melons grown here but the main type is the Japanese musk melon.
Normally, these farm tours are very short as the greenhouses are uncomfortably hot (up to 50°C between July to September, according to Steven) and visitors cannot stay in them for long.
Because we went on a cloudy morning and during a rainy week in mid-January, the temperatures inside the greenhouse were bearable.
We followed Steven to where the ripe melons were. These, he said, would be ready for harvest in the following week.
There’s a lot of other interesting facts that Steven shared with us during the tour – like how pollination must be manually done by his workers since bees cannot enter the greenhouses. This is a very tedious task with a time crunch too since the female flowers do not stay open for long.
Farm Animals
At the end of the tour, Steven invited us to have a look at his pet call ducks behind the visitor sitting area by the lake.
We couldn’t enter the poultry pens – there are two types of ducks and some very special chickens too. But we did see some goats here and they had a more spacious pen to roam than the ducks and chickens.
It does look like they are building a pond for the ducks nearby. There’s also a small children’s playground and what looks like preparation for fake grass to be layed out.
What We Bought Here
If your timing is right, you can harvest your own melons. We bought some ready-cut chilled melon slices and Japanese lemon infused water for RM16 total.
We sat down to try both with a view of the lake.
Both fruit and beverage are very refreshing – the melon is juicy, sweet, and crunchy with a delicate aroma that Steven says sets these melons apart from others in the market.
We liked the melon and ended up buying a whole fruit for RM48.
The lemon infused water has an interesting flavor. These citrus fruits have a more squashed appearance than regular limes we are used to seeing. And according to Steven, they contain 30% more vitamin C than regular lemons.
By scratching the surface of some sample fruit, Steven showed us that they have a distinct smell too – not unlike curry leaves. We tasted this in the infused water as well.
Conclusion
We think Tambun Musk Melon farm has great potential to be a worthy attraction to visit in Ipoh. We spent just under an hour here and learned some cool facts about growing melons.
It’s nice that you don’t have to pay any parking fees or entrance fees to visit the farm too.
Plus, the owner is well-mannered and personable. We never felt pressed to buy anything while we were here, and he was always ready to share more information. We can tell that he truly feels passionate about his craft.