Wonderful autumn days...

It is days like these that I wish would last forever...

The temperature throughout the weekend was a pleasant mid-twenties...

No rain, no wind... heavenly it was...

And the moon at night... wooh,  so bright and lovely...

Spent the weekend doing a wide range of activities in the garden...

Last year, raccoons came by to rob us of our sweet potatoes...

Luckily this year, there was still no sign of them coming...

Anyway, harvested some of the sweet potatoes in our potager...

We had four types: Anno (left), which has orange flesh and is really delicious... Naruto Kintoki (right top), which is the main type sold in the stores around here... and Murasaki imo (right bottom) which literally means purple sweet potatoes... have yet to harvest the fourth type, Beni-azuma...

Read about the rose hips in Tanya's Lovely Greens blog...

Then asked my missus to harvest the rose hips from the wild roses in our property...

The hips are tiny, less than one centimeter or so...

They taste sourish and we shall be having them as tea, eventually...

Tried growing some hyacinth beans this year...

They have flowers that resemble those of wisterias...  

Apparently, they make good curries...

Will certainly request my missus to give it a shot...

Lantanas have taken a liking to our garden...

My missus bought only one pot some years ago but it seems that they since self seeded...

We can find them in numerous places in our garden...

Harvesting on a hot August weekend in 2011

Our tomatoes are doing pretty well this year...

And for reasons quite unclear to me, the crows did not come for them this time...

When I am working in the potager, I love to pop these goodies into my mouth, just like that...

We had jalapenos before, from seedlings bought locally...

These are from seeds bought from LA last March...

They seem to be more spicy that those we had before...

Bought two seedlings of sweet peppers (shishito) in April...

Why not, as they were on sale...

They are very productive, giving us lots of pods almost every day...

The bell peppers are really tiny this time...

Guess they need more fertilizers...

I really like to eat moroheya... 

Am so happy that we have a big bush of moroheyas this year...

Apparently, their seeds are poisonous... no?

Seriously tried to grow Japanese mountain yam this year...Tried two species: the nagaimo (long type) and the jinenjo (wild mountain type)...Harvested some today...Wooh, had to dig and dig... deep... Yet, could not reach the bottom of some of them, especially the long type...Anyway my sweeto haato made this dish, mixing the moroheya and the yam...The taste was very smooth and very good...

Had tried to grow winged beans thrice with seeds brought from Malaysia...

Each time they began to flower, the cold came in and they perished...

This time, bought some seeds from an online shop...

And imagine how happy we are to see the flowers...

We are starting to chew on the beans now...  

Long beans have been a regular feature in our potager for years...

Unlike the wing beans, the seeds which I brought from my village in Malaysia, adapted very well to the climate here...

Still, the beans are rather skinny...

Along with long beans, Chinese chives are also a regular feature in our potager...

I put them in the perennial plot together with asparagus and black eye susans...

We just cut and cut while they grow and grow...

Tonight, my missus make one of my favorite dishes...

Pancake, Korean style aka chijimi, with ingredients being Chinese chives, jalapenos, dried shrimps...

Those jalapenos... they have a nice flagrance and they are not overly spicy...

Taken with grounded black sesame and vinegar sauce, wooh, the chijimi is heavenly...

Pruning the hedge on new year's day...

I have some vegetables growing in the potager now but they are not much of a photography subject in this weather...
So I am picking a photo or two from sunnier days gone by just to spruce things up...
This pic shows the flowers and pods of lentils...
Malaysians are fond of making a sweet coconut-based desert from these beans...
I just wanted to see how it feels to grow this plant...
Think I shall not be planting it next season...

In April, when we walk in the hills, we can sometimes pick wild berries...
If we are lucky, that is...
These berries tasted quite like raspberries, although not as sweet and flavorful...

Yesterday, 2nd January, was a beautiful day...
No wind, sunny, with a high of about 9 degrees...
Could not resist the urge to go outdoors...
Decided to prune the hedge of Juniperus chinensis or 'Kaizuka'...
They have grown too fast and too dense...
I cannot keep up with their pace...
Am planning to thin them out, carving little ball-like shapes at the end of their branches...
There are about thirty such plants in the property and it is quite a task to prune them...

Then, my missus came out and announced that my mother-in-law had advised me through the phone, to take it easy on the second day of the new year...
The gods are visiting, said mother-in-law... so it is rather impolite to do such 'work' which may offend the gods...
They shall be here until the seventh day of the new year, so it goes...

Oops, no arguing with the missus and no insubordination against the mother-in-law...

Tomatoes, daikon, beans, malabar spinach

A friend of my wife sent us some seeds of this Sicilian Rouge tomato...
Tried planting it very late in the season...
Not too bad in that we get to harvest some fruits just before the cold came in...

Planted daikon (radish) for the first time...
Been harvesting them for some time now...
While they are not the biggest daikons around, they are very tender and good to eat...
The leaves, supposedly vitamin-packed, go very well with tofu, sauteed that is...

We like fava beans very much...
So much so that we decided to plant plenty of them this season...
We have about 30 plants, compared to only four last season...
I understand from a blog that the leaves taste good, so we might try to cook some this time around...

Snap peas are crunchy compared to snow peas or silk field peas...
We had all three types last season, but we are planting only snap peas this time...
Reason? Wife's request...

Ceylon or Malabar spinach (not related to the 'normal' spinach) is high in vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium.
It is low in calories, but high in protein... just what we need...
Leaves are thick and succulent...
Seeds remind us of the corals in the sea...

CHILLIES FROM THE GARDEN

More 'fruits' from the garden...

The chillie plants are still productive even as the November temperatures slide...

From top... everyone probably know the long beans...

Got the seeds from my mum in the kampong...

Taste very good with fish curries...

The three green ones are the regular bell peppers...

On their left are some Bhutan chillies...

Thick flesh and hot enough to burn my lips and cause me to hiccup while eating it...

Below the Bhutan chillies are some Japanese chillies...

Pretty hot but not as 'terror' as the Bhutan types...

The king of hot chillies could very well be the yellowish-orange colored habanero...

Bringing it close to the nose is good enough to experience its hot-ness...

Woooh... and I have it in my garden...