It was a drizzly morning, and Joy Chee was feeding me leaves straight from her little rooftop garden in Sin Ming – freshly plucked, unwashed and still glistening with raindrops.
These were plants I had never seen in the supermarket produce section. According to the 33-year-old, they grow so well in Singapore that some of them literally line our roadsides without us even knowing it.
“This is wild pepper. You have probably seen it growing under the highway,” she said.
“In Singapore, they are usually grown as ornamental plants. Many Singaporeans don’t realise this is a key ingredient in a traditional Thai dish called miang kham (toasted coconut, peanut, lime and chilli wrapped in these leaves). In Vietnamese cuisine, it is used to wrap and grill beef.”
Chee points out another roadside plant she grows – Chinese violet, which tastes a little like mushrooms and can be stir-fried.
There’s also Brazilian spinach, used in stir-fries and soups. And sayur manis, which some traditional hawkers used in ban mian and mee hoon kway but has now mostly been replaced by Chinese spinach.
Brazilian spinach is fast-growing plant that can be harvested within one to two weeks. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Chinese violet is good in stir-fries and has a mushroom-like taste. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Sayur manis was traditionally used in ban mian and mee hoon kway. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Wild pepper is a roadside plant in Singapore. (Photo: Joy Chee)
“Because these edible plants are not available in supermarkets, most people don’t realise they can be eaten and commonly think of them as ornamentals or weeds,” Chee said.
In 2024, Chee joinedThe Freestyle Farmers, an urban farming and sustainability social enterprise, as co-founder. One of her missions is to help Singaporeans grow their own vegetables by planting edibles that naturally grow well in Singapore.
Chee conducting a gardening workshop at her office in Midview City. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Through workshops and community engagement, Chee hopes to change the mindset that growing your own food is something left to professionals. Anyone can grow their own food, even from a Housing Development Board flat window, she told CNA Women.
Farming was not the career path Chee originally intended. A psychology and English graduate, she had originally wanted to be a teacher.
While studying for her degree at Tufts University in Boston, she landed an internship with Lex Hippo Family Club, a global network offering multilingual immersion programmes through language clubs, guided activities and exchange programmes.
Upon graduating in 2016, she
Chee facilitating a nature camp for her former company Lex Hippo Family Club in the Nagano Prefecture in Japan. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Part of her experience included a series of homestays with Japanese families, for language and cultural immersion,
“There is an onion in Japan that grows only during the tail end of winter and early spring. They call itshin-tamanegi. It means ‘new onion’,” Chee said. “I remember the mum from the second host family I stayed with
“She was like, we got the harvest! It’s going to be so great! And I was like, what’s so good about this onion?
“All she did was peel it, cut it, and put it in the microwave with a bit of dashi stock and bonito flakes. It was one of the sweetest, most delicious onions I had ever eaten,” she said.
“Another one of my host mums has a friend who lives in Shikoku (a region in south-western Japan). We stayed the night there.
“This was February and it had been snowing, but she was still growing spinach in the snow. She said in this part of Japan they grow vegetables in the snow, and the snow makes the flavour sweeter.
“In the morning, she went into the garden and harvested the spinach, and blanched it in a bit of water with dashi stock. It was the best spinach I had ever eaten in my life,” Chee said.
A self-confessed foodie, Chee always appreciated how food was cooked and presented, and its power to gather people around the table. But she had never witnessed such love for ingredients, she reflected.
“Most of us grow up with a supermarket culture. We don’t really know where our food comes from, how vegetables grow or how they look like in the original plant. There isn’t a lot of respect for the food as a result,” she said.
The first pumpkin Chee grew in her backyard garden, which she steamed and enjoyed with her family. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Wanting to experience the joy of planting and harvesting her own food, in end-2019, Chee resigned from her coordinator job and returned to Singapore with the intention of moving to different farms around the world to learn organic farming.
However, the pandemic in 2020 disrupted her plans. Undeterred, Chee started a little vegetable patch
Because pumpkin plants have male and female flowers, Chee hand-pollinated them by transferring pollen from the male flower to the female with a paintbrush so the fruit could develop. Finally, she harvested her first pumpkin and enjoyed it with her family.
“It tasted like a regular pumpkin,” she laughed. “But there was still something very special about it. I think the joy came from watching the plant evolve over time.”
That same year, Native, a concept bar focused on hyper-local and regional ingredients, had a job opening, and Chee joined as a gardener, tending to the bar’s two gardens at Gillman Barracks and Cecil Street, while also working service shifts at the bar.
She learnt most of her gardening skills on the job, from volunteering at various gardens and at Edible Garden City, a social enterprise that champions growing one’s own food. She also learnt about fermenting and upcycling, which Native practised.
Four years later, in 2024, she decided to move on. That was when her friend Christopher Leow invited her to join The Freestyle Farmers.
Chee with co-founder Christopher Leow at a garden plot they worked on together at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School. (Photo: Christopher Leow)
Founded in 2023 by Leow, The Freestyle Farmers offers urban farming and sustainability workshops. Leow planned to migrate to Canada in 2025 and was not sure if the company would continue after he left. Despite the uncertainty, Chee decided to join the startup as its co-founder.
Chee helms the company’s farming and sustainability workshops. These include crafting workshops using scrap cardboard, as well as upcycling food and horticulture waste into DIY fertiliser. Leow supports business and curriculum development from Canada.
Chee conducting a soil lesson for students at CHIJ (Kellock) primary school. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Anyone can enjoy urban farming, even from an HDB flat or condominium, Chee said. All you need are a few pots in your balcony, on racks along HDB corridors, or beside a well-lit window, she said.
Don’t worry if a plant you care for dies, she added. “Every good gardener has killed multiple plants.
“When I first started, I kept killing plants too. A friend who works in NParks told me every green thumb is stained with the blood of a thousand dead plants,” she laughed. “It’s through the killing of the plant that you learn the most.”
Oftentimes, plants die because our home conditions do not match their needs; you just need to find the right plant for your space, Chee explained. For instance, if you have less sunlight, choose shade-tolerant crops like sweet potato leaves or kangkong, she said.
Sprouts and microgreens have a high success rate and are a simple way to begin growing your own food, Chee added. She also recommended sayur manis and
“Brazilian spinach grows really fast, so within just one or two weeks, it can be harvested. And it will grow back after you cut it, so the same plant can sustain you for many years,” Chee said.
If pressed for time, herbs like basil, laksa leaves and pandan leaves are great options, she added. Because they are perennial plants, you can harvest a bit of the herb at a time to enhance your meal, and the plant continues to grow, she said.
Chee also conducts fermentation workshops, showing participants how to add sugar and water to herbs, allowing naturally occurring yeast on the herb surface to ferment the sugar. This produces carbon dioxide, which, when trapped in a sealed container, dissolves into the liquid and creates carbonated, probiotic herbal sodas.
Chee conducts fermentation workshops to teach people how to make herbal soda. The one above features blue pea flowers, calamansi, chilli, lemongrass and ginger. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Another interesting offering is Chee’s herbal tea blend workshops using plants that grow well in Singapore, such as pandan leaves, blue pea flowers and roselle. She recently ran this workshop for seniors from AWWA Senior Community Home, and it really hit home for them.
“It ignited their memory about how things used to be in the past, and the things that they used to cook, make or grow in their own kampungs,” Chee said.
This is something that resonates deeply with her. “I remember running around in the park outside my house, collecting plants and pressing them into tiny little scrapbooks when I was a child back in the 90s,” she laughed.
Later, because of a busy school life, and the lure of the internet and computer games, Chee spent less time in nature, she said.
“Rediscovering that connection with nature again feels so comforting. I love what the garden does. It teaches you things every day. When you care for it, it cares for you in return. I want other people to feel that,” she reflected.
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...
These were plants I had never seen in the supermarket produce section. According to the 33-year-old, they grow so well in Singapore that some of them literally line our roadsides without us even knowing it.
“This is wild pepper. You have probably seen it growing under the highway,” she said.
“In Singapore, they are usually grown as ornamental plants. Many Singaporeans don’t realise this is a key ingredient in a traditional Thai dish called miang kham (toasted coconut, peanut, lime and chilli wrapped in these leaves). In Vietnamese cuisine, it is used to wrap and grill beef.”
Chee points out another roadside plant she grows – Chinese violet, which tastes a little like mushrooms and can be stir-fried.
There’s also Brazilian spinach, used in stir-fries and soups. And sayur manis, which some traditional hawkers used in ban mian and mee hoon kway but has now mostly been replaced by Chinese spinach.
Brazilian spinach is fast-growing plant that can be harvested within one to two weeks. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Chinese violet is good in stir-fries and has a mushroom-like taste. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Sayur manis was traditionally used in ban mian and mee hoon kway. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Wild pepper is a roadside plant in Singapore. (Photo: Joy Chee)
“Because these edible plants are not available in supermarkets, most people don’t realise they can be eaten and commonly think of them as ornamentals or weeds,” Chee said.
In 2024, Chee joinedThe Freestyle Farmers, an urban farming and sustainability social enterprise, as co-founder. One of her missions is to help Singaporeans grow their own vegetables by planting edibles that naturally grow well in Singapore.
Chee conducting a gardening workshop at her office in Midview City. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Through workshops and community engagement, Chee hopes to change the mindset that growing your own food is something left to professionals. Anyone can grow their own food, even from a Housing Development Board flat window, she told CNA Women.
HER JOURNEY TO BECOMING A FARMER IN SINGAPORE
Farming was not the career path Chee originally intended. A psychology and English graduate, she had originally wanted to be a teacher.
While studying for her degree at Tufts University in Boston, she landed an internship with Lex Hippo Family Club, a global network offering multilingual immersion programmes through language clubs, guided activities and exchange programmes.
Upon graduating in 2016, she
Chee facilitating a nature camp for her former company Lex Hippo Family Club in the Nagano Prefecture in Japan. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Part of her experience included a series of homestays with Japanese families, for language and cultural immersion,
“There is an onion in Japan that grows only during the tail end of winter and early spring. They call itshin-tamanegi. It means ‘new onion’,” Chee said. “I remember the mum from the second host family I stayed with
“She was like, we got the harvest! It’s going to be so great! And I was like, what’s so good about this onion?
“All she did was peel it, cut it, and put it in the microwave with a bit of dashi stock and bonito flakes. It was one of the sweetest, most delicious onions I had ever eaten,” she said.
“Another one of my host mums has a friend who lives in Shikoku (a region in south-western Japan). We stayed the night there.
“This was February and it had been snowing, but she was still growing spinach in the snow. She said in this part of Japan they grow vegetables in the snow, and the snow makes the flavour sweeter.
“In the morning, she went into the garden and harvested the spinach, and blanched it in a bit of water with dashi stock. It was the best spinach I had ever eaten in my life,” Chee said.
A self-confessed foodie, Chee always appreciated how food was cooked and presented, and its power to gather people around the table. But she had never witnessed such love for ingredients, she reflected.
“Most of us grow up with a supermarket culture. We don’t really know where our food comes from, how vegetables grow or how they look like in the original plant. There isn’t a lot of respect for the food as a result,” she said.
The first pumpkin Chee grew in her backyard garden, which she steamed and enjoyed with her family. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Wanting to experience the joy of planting and harvesting her own food, in end-2019, Chee resigned from her coordinator job and returned to Singapore with the intention of moving to different farms around the world to learn organic farming.
However, the pandemic in 2020 disrupted her plans. Undeterred, Chee started a little vegetable patch
Because pumpkin plants have male and female flowers, Chee hand-pollinated them by transferring pollen from the male flower to the female with a paintbrush so the fruit could develop. Finally, she harvested her first pumpkin and enjoyed it with her family.
“It tasted like a regular pumpkin,” she laughed. “But there was still something very special about it. I think the joy came from watching the plant evolve over time.”
That same year, Native, a concept bar focused on hyper-local and regional ingredients, had a job opening, and Chee joined as a gardener, tending to the bar’s two gardens at Gillman Barracks and Cecil Street, while also working service shifts at the bar.
She learnt most of her gardening skills on the job, from volunteering at various gardens and at Edible Garden City, a social enterprise that champions growing one’s own food. She also learnt about fermenting and upcycling, which Native practised.
Four years later, in 2024, she decided to move on. That was when her friend Christopher Leow invited her to join The Freestyle Farmers.
Chee with co-founder Christopher Leow at a garden plot they worked on together at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School. (Photo: Christopher Leow)
Founded in 2023 by Leow, The Freestyle Farmers offers urban farming and sustainability workshops. Leow planned to migrate to Canada in 2025 and was not sure if the company would continue after he left. Despite the uncertainty, Chee decided to join the startup as its co-founder.
BRINGING FARMING TO HDB FLATS
Chee helms the company’s farming and sustainability workshops. These include crafting workshops using scrap cardboard, as well as upcycling food and horticulture waste into DIY fertiliser. Leow supports business and curriculum development from Canada.
Chee conducting a soil lesson for students at CHIJ (Kellock) primary school. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Anyone can enjoy urban farming, even from an HDB flat or condominium, Chee said. All you need are a few pots in your balcony, on racks along HDB corridors, or beside a well-lit window, she said.
Don’t worry if a plant you care for dies, she added. “Every good gardener has killed multiple plants.
“When I first started, I kept killing plants too. A friend who works in NParks told me every green thumb is stained with the blood of a thousand dead plants,” she laughed. “It’s through the killing of the plant that you learn the most.”
Oftentimes, plants die because our home conditions do not match their needs; you just need to find the right plant for your space, Chee explained. For instance, if you have less sunlight, choose shade-tolerant crops like sweet potato leaves or kangkong, she said.
Sprouts and microgreens have a high success rate and are a simple way to begin growing your own food, Chee added. She also recommended sayur manis and
“Brazilian spinach grows really fast, so within just one or two weeks, it can be harvested. And it will grow back after you cut it, so the same plant can sustain you for many years,” Chee said.
If pressed for time, herbs like basil, laksa leaves and pandan leaves are great options, she added. Because they are perennial plants, you can harvest a bit of the herb at a time to enhance your meal, and the plant continues to grow, she said.
Chee also conducts fermentation workshops, showing participants how to add sugar and water to herbs, allowing naturally occurring yeast on the herb surface to ferment the sugar. This produces carbon dioxide, which, when trapped in a sealed container, dissolves into the liquid and creates carbonated, probiotic herbal sodas.
Chee conducts fermentation workshops to teach people how to make herbal soda. The one above features blue pea flowers, calamansi, chilli, lemongrass and ginger. (Photo: Joy Chee)
Another interesting offering is Chee’s herbal tea blend workshops using plants that grow well in Singapore, such as pandan leaves, blue pea flowers and roselle. She recently ran this workshop for seniors from AWWA Senior Community Home, and it really hit home for them.
“It ignited their memory about how things used to be in the past, and the things that they used to cook, make or grow in their own kampungs,” Chee said.
This is something that resonates deeply with her. “I remember running around in the park outside my house, collecting plants and pressing them into tiny little scrapbooks when I was a child back in the 90s,” she laughed.
Later, because of a busy school life, and the lure of the internet and computer games, Chee spent less time in nature, she said.
“Rediscovering that connection with nature again feels so comforting. I love what the garden does. It teaches you things every day. When you care for it, it cares for you in return. I want other people to feel that,” she reflected.
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...