Butter scotch pumpkin, Hawk's claws chillies, etc...

Was trying to dig out an azalea plant to make space for the 'Southern Cross'...   

Slipped, fell over and hit my head on the concrete steps... 

Next thing I knew was the sound of my own heavy breathing...

My missus came over to look me up...

Lucky thing, it was only a minor cut on the right side of the head...

Lesson learned: be careful and wear the safety helmet while working... 

(I often do so, actually, and today was one of the few instances that I didn't...)

Anyway, am happy to be able to do some harvesting...
My missus bought a butter scotch pumpkin last year from the farmers' market...
We like the taste of it and kept some seeds...
Am delighted that the plants produced 6 large pumpkins...
This one weighs about 900 grams... not too bad...

Similarly, we kept some seeds from the winter melon that we bought from the farmers' market last year...
We manage only one fruit, however... 1.7 kilograms...

The first time I ever planted potatoes years ago, we harvested over 11 kilograms from one kilogram of seeds...

Subsequent plantings were rather measly...

This time, only 3 kilograms from one kilogram of seeds...

Reason? I did not fully dry the cut-up seeds before I planted them, so most of them rotted...

Chillies this season... not too bad although it could be better... 

These finger-sized ones are called 'Taka no tsume', aka 'Hawk's claws'...

They are spicy and they taste good...

I got some okra seeds from my younger brother in Malaysia last year...

And I must say that they have adapted very well to our potager...

These are the last of the harvests for this season... 

Compared to the Japanese okras, these are gigantic...

Some of them were about 30 centimeters long...

And they were tender, super delicious and combine very well with curries... 

Will certainly grow them again next spring...

Chillies, figs, pumpkins, watermelons

As always, autumn here is so pleasant.
The air is dry and cool... only thing is the remaining few pesky mosquitoes...
Been enjoying the garden all along and ignoring the blogging...



This is a picture of the chillies I am growing this season.
The roundish ones are the so-called (second by now?) hottest chilly, habanero.
It is really hot but soaked in vinegar, it is quite lovely especially with noodles.
The greenish one is jalapeno, thick flesh and crunchy, not too hot...
The slim, red, longish one is called taka-no-tsume in Japanese, literally, claws of the falcon...
The whitish one is really flagrant and spicy... brought the seeds from my village in Kedah...
And finally, the classic big red chilli, which is called super chilly here...

Think I mentioned before that figs is one of my all time favorite fruits.
Was invited by a Japanese friend to harvest from his field.
Wooh, heavenly it was to stroke the fruits right off the trees...

Was quite successful with pumpkins this year.
The dark green ones are really tasty, with a chestnut-like flavor.
The elongated, yellow ones are called spaghetti pumpkins...
The flesh is somewhat like noodles, am looking forward to eating them.

And tha-da... watermelons from my garden...
This one weighed about 800 grams, not too big but sufficient for two...
Sweetness was alright and ooh, what a feeling to sink my fangs into the juicy meat...

Autumn delights

Mid to late autumn is the season when the morning sun rays are well positioned to light up one of our three stone lanterns...
This lantern sits right in our view as we chew on our breakfast goodies each morning...


Your truly is not much of a vegetable gardener as yet... the dry summer almost killed the eggplants but the autumn rains save the day for us... so, we got to taste these plump looking fuits...


Plus, of course, our favorite bitter gourd, and the loofah which made good soup... oooh...


These are Jalapeno peppers... not that spicy so to say... but they are quite meaty and delicious to savor...


For some years, I have failed to produce any pumpkin from the garden... but this year, woah, 14 pumpkins big and small... cooked one small one the other day, and hmmm, wholesome, chewy, and not overly sweet... we are keeping them for winter consumption... waaah...

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...