Potatoes and sweet potatoes harvest, 'tasai', and wild boars...

It snowed today... and for the first time this season, there was some accumulation...

Harvested our potatoes this afternoon...

They were killed by the frost... first time to experience this with potatoes...

Am very happy with the produce that tipped at 5 kilograms... 

These, from seeds weighing 1 kilogram... 

And for dinner, my suweeto haato made chicken curry with the potatoes..

Hmmm, super tasty...

Among the greens we have now, the 'ta-sai' is probably one of the most resistant to the cold weather...

And it tastes very good too...

Our sweet potatoes did not do that well this season...

Harvest was rather measly.... 

A notable development this season, however, is that, wild boars have finally 'discovered' our potager... 

Three days ago, they came for the third time... stepping all over our garden...

It is not a pretty scene... yet, there is nothing much for them to eat in our field...

One of their favorites is the sweet potatoes...

Luckily, there is space within a fenced area nearer to our house...

Anyway, made a blockade (with recycled wood) on their approach route...

Hope this blockade is sufficient to make them give up coming...

Snap peas, greens, potatoes, berries...

Beautiful weather these days in Shikoku, Japan...

It is supposed to be the rainy season, and I am hoping for rain, actually...

We ate the last of the snap peas this season...
My missus prefers to harvest them when they are more 'full-bodied'...
'Crunchy and meaty', she says...

Sowed some mini turnip seeds in April...
Used to sow them in rows, but I am quite hopeless at thinning the little plants after they germinated...
So, tried sowing them in discreet spots, spaced about 30 centimeters apart...
It makes the thinning process easier, and the plants grow better too...
They taste really good, stir-fried with bean curd...

Also sowed some chingen-sai last April...
They are easy to grow and are more resistant to pests compared to komatsu-na...
I normally grow these greens in the autumn season as there are less pests to start with...
Anyway, chingen-sai is also a very delicious vegetable...
I would also like to add, a very 'handsome-looking' one too...

Planted two types of potatoes last October...
Danshaku potato (originated from Irish Cobbler potato) and Kita-akari potato (which is an 'improved' strain of the Danshaku)...
From two kilograms of seed potatoes, I could harvest only seven kilograms of potatoes...
Hmmm... could this be proof of the amateurism of the farmer?

We were very excited to see so many fruits in our two mulberry trees in May...

Come June, to our dismay, the fruits turned whitish and rotted away...
The same thing happened last year, and we had thought it was the continuous rain that brought about the rotting...

Did a check on the net and found out that the tree was suffering from 'popcorn' disease...
The recommended treatment is to 'remove and bury the infected fruit on the trees and any ground debris as it appears during the growing season'... (source)
I went a step further... I burnt them all...
Am hoping that the fruits will not be infected again next year...

The lone lemon, potatoes, spinach...

We bought the lemon tree seedling in April 2006...
Five years later, it gave us the first fruit...
Yes, the one and only precious, precious lemon...
Other than the seeds, we used the whole lemon in our cooking... that is, the flesh and the peel...

Three days ago, I almost let out a howl when my sweeto haato told me that most of our (purple and orange) sweet potatoes had become rotten...
Reason was, I did not bother to cure them after I harvested them last autumn...
I imagined we could finish consuming them before they can even have a chance to rot...
Ooh, that was a painful lesson...
Anyway, the above picture shows one of my favorite foods, cooked by my better-half of course... boiled (purple) sweet potatoes spruced up with onions, garlic, black pepper, olive oil, a little salt, and vinegar... 

Didn't have a problem with the other type of potatoes...
The harvest was too little, and it didn't take us long to consume them all...
I love the potato salad with mustard seeds, whipped up by my sweeto haato...

Our spinach is doing not too badly although they are quite 'mini' due to over-crowding...
I am quite hopeless in 'thinning-out' the vegetables as they grow...
Even then, mini as they are, they are delicious just the same...
Picture shows a common home-cooked dish of spinach with sesame seed, sesame oil, a dash of salt, a little brown sugar, and black pepper...

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...

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...

Gales on the 1st of January 2011

Looking at the picture above, I can't wait for spring to come...

It was taken one morning in the spring (April) of 2010...

Was returning from a morning walk with my missus in the hills...

And was carrying a gunny-sack of dried leaves to mulch the plots...

The sakura trees in the background are 'natural'...

They offer a beautiful view for us each year...

Today was very windy with a low of 2 degrees and a high of 6...

Went down to the slopes to check out my cauliflower plants...

Arrgh...five cabbage worms were feeding on the cauliflower head...

The tomato plants are still going strong...

Wonder why the crows are not eating them... hehehee...

Planted my potatoes late in October last year...

Due to my returning home to Malaysia, I had missed buying the potato seeds...

A neighbor had offered to give me some of the smaller potatoes he had harvested from the spring season...

Although we know that 'spring' potatoes do not grow that well in autumn, I accepted his offer...

Some of the plants were drying up, and I did not want to risk them being eaten by racoons...

So, with nose a-running in the winds, I harvested them today...

Very nice looking indeed...
They weigh about 5.4 kilograms... not too bad...

Empty heart vegetables, potatoes, loquats

Bought some vegetable seeds from Bangkok last March.
Here is one result of that effort.
'Kangkung' in Malaysian, or 'kuu shin sai' in Japanese (literally, 'empty heart vegetable').
Taste great stir-fried with garlic and anchovies...



Planted one kilogram of seed potatoes early last spring.
Managed to harvest about 6 kilos of it.
Not too bad for a first attempt.
Love it with chicken curry, or as a salad with other vegetables.



Harvested quite a heap of Japanese loquats again this year.
Must say that this fruit is fast becoming one of my favorites, along with figs and persimmon.
And the seeds apparently have high B17(?) content which is supposedly a good anti-cancer element...