Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The harvest continues...

Was thrilled to have a week off from the university...
In this 'o-bon' (all souls?) season, the Japanese folks take time off from work to pay respects to their deceased ancestors...
For me, this presents an excellent opportunity for me to spend time in the potager...

Still, the heat is a bit too stifling...   
Which need not necessarily be a bad thing...
For I can sweat it out in the mornings when it is still rather tolerable...
And after my tea break at 10:00 am, I get into a change of gear and head out to the sea...
For the first time since we moved here years ago, I am truly beginning to cherish the joys of  frolicking at the sea...


Each day, thankfully, we have something to harvest...

Pumpkin, which weighed about 1.9 kilograms...
Cucumbers so crunchy and fresh...
Tomatoes so sweet and juicy...

We dug out our potatoes some time ago...
The harvest was not the best we had...
No complains though, as the scales tipped at a little over 3 kilograms...

And my sweeto haato turned the potatoes into this...
A mixture of several ingredients...
Urmmm... simple yet heavenly it was...

Was never successful with water melons, so to say...
But this season, not too bad... 
This one was about 1.6 kilograms...
Just nice for the two of us, for two fruit-courses after lunch...
The bitter gourds are turning out pretty well... 
And as the label implies, they are truly bitter although we should say that 'bitter' stuff is not one of our weak areas...

The watermelon as it was...
Juicy, sweet, and sooo refreshing when consumed in the heat of summer...




19 comments:

  1. What a wonderful time of year! Your watermelon looks wonderful, I bet it was tasty!.

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  2. Such bountiful harvest.

    Obon = Qing Ming? :)

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  3. Matron... the water melon was indeed sweet and very tasty!

    lina... yes, obon is somewhat like qing ming... the people visit the graves and make offerings to their ancesters...

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  4. Wah! What a great harvest! I have never been able to get potatoes to grow. My watermelons are sweet but tiny. Do you know what went wrong? Lack of vitamins? You seem like an expert. :)

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  5. Do you eat the bitter gourds? Or are they just for decoration?

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  6. One... thank god I have been doing quite ok with potatoes... I just need to give them sufficient spacing instead of crowding them up too much... watermelons are heavy feeders, meaning that you need to give them fertilizers... I use natural fermented cow dung which I can get for free from a ranch nearby... still, I would not dare to claim that I am an 'expert'... still learning, I am...

    Elephant's Eye... yes, certainly... the bitter gourd is a common vegetable in Asia and is widely consumed...

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  7. Then, Japanese do has the same belief as us in the seventh month of Lunar Calendar.

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  8. That's juicy looking watermelon! What a good harvest!

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  9. rainfield61... right on, in this case, yes, very similar beliefs...

    Malar... thank god for the harvest...

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  10. °º♫
    °º✿
    º° ✿♥ Olá, amigo!

    Excelente colheita... tenho que comprar tudo pronto do supermercado, exceto verduras... tenho uma horta com couve, alface, almeirão, cebolinha, salsa e coentro... e é só.
    Os tomates do supermercados são meio amargos e as batatas sem gosto...
    Beijinhos.
    Brasil°º♫
    °º✿
    º° ✿♥ ♫°

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  11. Magia da Inês... thank you my dear friend for your kind comments... it is good to know that you grow vegetables in your garden too... as you said, we prefer our own homegrown tomatoes and potatoes compared to those sold at the supermarket...

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  12. Hi Lrong, Looks like you're enjoying a nice healthy harvest! Bitter gourds look interesting. :)

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  13. You have so many varieties of homegrown vege and fruits. They all look so healthy! I like the watermelon ... Looks so juicy. I am going to plant some soon!

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  14. You have a little of everything, nice crop.
    I'm not very fond of water melons but after these pictures, I'm going out to buy one.
    Your photos are very tasty.

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  15. The weather here is getting a little strange. Sunny in the morning then later in the afternoon it will rain.

    Anyway, your harvest looks really juicy and sweet! Very good job. Love that bowl of salad as well. Have another great weekend and happy gardening!

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  16. Malay-Kadazan girl... suika ha ii desu yo...

    Diane AZ... Hi there! Am certainly enjoying the harvest... bitter gourds line our dinner table almost every night...

    The Seasonal One... yeap, quite a bit of variety but in small volumes so that we can enjoy consuming many different types of goodies... am happy to say that the veggies and fruits are healthy and devoid of chemicals... good luck with the watermelon planting...

    Maia... well said on the 'a little of everything' although in reality, not really 'everything'... enjoy your watermelon...

    Stephanie... the weather here at our place has rather similar weather as the one you described... I feel that afternoon thunderstorms of the 'tropical' type is occurring more frequently in Japan...

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  17. all looks wonderful! Bitter gourd is my favorite Asian vegetable. Though the ones we eat are a little more smoothed out - the bumps not as ...drippy...looking. Love that watermelon! I have just made some ice cream with Japanese pumpkin. Yummy!

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  18. Wendy... bitter gourd is also one of our favorites too... we like ours to be really green and 'warty'? Ice cream with Japanese pumpkin sounds like a lovely idea...

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