Carrots, radish, broccoli...

Today is vernal or spring equinox and Japan celebrates it as a national holiday... 

Which means I get to dirty my hands in the potager... 

and also that the weather is warming up for good.... yahoooo....

But hmmm, my carrots this season... rather pathetic...

They are smallish, under-nourished, and somewhat 'un-luscious' looking...no?

Anyway, harvested a bunch of them today...

And into the pot of beef curry for dinner this evening...

Luckily, the taste was quite good...

The other harvest is the radish or daikon as the Japanese folks call it...

Had it with miso soup before the beef curry main course... nice...

I always grow my broccolli and cauliflower in the autumn for harvesting the following spring...

Almost always, the broccoli wins hands down...

The cauliflower is normally measly and ooh... I should be putting in fertilizer for the poor plant....

Anyway, my suweeto haato just boiled the broccoli lightly... tasted extremely fresh and crunchy...

Broccoli... easy to grow, good to eat, and full of benefits...

Do you like broccoli? 

We love this vegetable... it is pretty easy to grow... 

And after we harvest the main 'crown', the smaller 'crowns' keep popping up and we get to continue enjoying the vegetable...

Broccoli is rich in vitamin C, and is high on dietary fiber...
Broccoli also contains multiple nutrients that have potential anti-cancer properties...

Furthermore, broccoli possesses the highest levels of carotenoids among its 'cousins' in the brassica family...

Lutein is one of those carotenoid compounds found in broccoli... and this stuff is good for the eyes...

Broccoli is also an excellent source of a chemical called indole-3-carbinol... this chemical apparently helps to repair our damaged DNA cells...

Now, how to cook the veggie... boiling the broccoli supposedly reduces the benefits of the anti-cancer compounds, with reductions of of 20 to 30% after 5 minutes, 40 to 50% after 10 minutes, and 70% after 30 minutes...

As with many other vegetables, steaming is recommended so as to maximize the benefits of the potential anti-cancer compounds....

Greens, beans, roots, etc...

Am very happy with the goings-on at the potager... 

We have a lot of spinach this season... 

and they are flourishing... we harvest and eat them whole, roots included...

Planted this sole celery in April...

Didn't get to eat much of it...
with the cold coming in, it is growing really well...

Tried to germinate fava beans from seeds...
From eight seeds, six germinated successfully...

Our lettuce self-seeded...
We have about a dozen of them, thriving...
They are a constant part of our breakfast fare...

Bought three broccoli seedlings from the store...
All are doing well...

Sowed two types of radish seeds last September...
The round and long type...
They taste really good either fresh or cooked...

We love our carrots a lot...
Sowed the seeds in two plots...
Harvested the first carrot this morning for breakfast...
Wooh, heavenly...

Strawberries... just about everybody's favorite...
Seedlings were all sourced from the mother plants...
Looking forward to the fruits next spring...

Am growing this green just for my suweeto haato...
The ta-sai is one of her favorite leafy greens... have been harvesting them for a while now... we mostly stir-fried them with black beans...

Bought two seedlings of parsley...
Had them planted as companions to the strawberry patch... we harvest them a little at time to use as garnish for our breakfast pizza-toasts...

And finally, while still far away from harvesting, red onions, another 'must-have' order from my missus...
Sowed the seeds last October and they are still rather tiny...
Need to let the seedlings grow up to the size of chopsticks before I can transplant them for good...

Note: While this post is not really totally about harvesting, I am taking the liberty to link this post to Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne... hope she doesn't mind...