Japanese yam aka 'Jinenjo' and the Beautiful Blog Award...

While walking the hills near our home one day two or three years ago, my suweeto haato suggested that we harvest the 'jinenjo' (自然薯 literally, 'natural yam') that were growing in the wild...

We, more like I, dug at one plant, and boy, it turned out to be heavy duty work...

'Jinenjo' is a climber... perennial... native of Japan... scientific name, Dioscorea japonica... common name, Japanese yam or glutinous yam...

We took back some 'seeds' which I believe are actually 'fruits' that grow on their vines...

We like to joke that they resemble 'small potatoes' growing in the air...

This is a close-up of the 'little potatoes'... diameter varies from half to one centimeter...

The Japanese folks call them 'mukago' and they combine very well with rice... so much so that there is a term call 'mukago gohan'...  'gohan' being rice... the taste is really very good...

This is how the tuber looks like...
Their flesh is white in color and they have a very high viscosity (?) level, that is, they are very 'sticky' or 'glue-ish'....
Lovely, lovely vegetable... as we can enjoy both the 'fruits' and the 'tubers'...

I'd like to dedicate this post to Ash of 'Houris in the Garden' who graciously nominated my humble blog for the Beautiful Blog Award... 
I am most honored and would like to thank her for the gesture...
However, I would like to ask Ash to forgive me because due to time constraints among other things, I am not able to fulfill the several things I should do in order to accept the award... one of which is to pass the award onwards as requested... 

Once again, thank you, thank you, for thinking of my blog...

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...