Fava beans taste soooo good...

This is the third time I am growing fava beans...

I had only two plants on the first try... and perhaps four on the second...
The second time around, the crows came for the beans before I did... grrrr...
And belated as it is, I am discovering, what a lovely vegetable this is...

We bought two different types of beans this third time around...
The 'fast' growing type, and the 'normal' growing type...
The former gives smaller fruits, the later, bigger and more wholesome fruits... 

Didn't want the crows to get them before me this time...
So, we harvested 'big' time...
And ended up having a loadful of mainly the fast type...
Peeled the beans off the pods and woah, the scale tipped at about 1.5 kilograms, clean...

Now, what dishes to make out of them, we wondered...

And ah ha, why not cream fava bean soup?
With lots of coarse black pepper?
Served on a Peter Rabbit bowl?

And, urged my sweeto haaato to experiment with fava bean spaghetti...
Waaah... absolutely delicious...
We still have some more of the normal type in the potager...
Shall be enjoying them slowly...
Didn't get to try eating their leaves as initailly planned... perhaps next time...

PS-1: The rainy season started two days ago, so I am rather stuck indoors... still, the rain couldn't restrain me from occasionally going into the potager to talk to the plants...

PS-2: Submitted this post to Appalachian Feet's “How to Find Great Plants”.

Potager update for mid-march...

Gentle rains continue to fall in the garden...
The sun has yet to appear, and it feels cozy to be at home...
And yes, to be able to spend a tranquil morning at home with the one you love...
Oh, isn't this simply the ultimate bliss of them all?

Meanwhile, we thank god for the privilege to be able to return home safely last week amidst all the commotion surrounding the earthquake...
Like most of the people the world over, we remain deeply concerned with the current happenings surrounding the disaster...

The Japanese have an interesting name to this specimen...
They call it 'Himalaya Yuki no Shita', literally, 'Under the Himalayan Snow'...
Did a check on the net and found that it goes by the scientific name 'Bergenia stracheyi'...
Hmm, I'd probably have difficulty trying to remember this name, so perhaps the Japanese name is more apt for my inclinations...

The winter daphne looks pretty even in the rain...
We have two large bushes of them and they smell so good...
They are native to Japan and China... 

A comet goldfish comes to the water surface in our pond...
They self-breed and currently, we have about 30 of them... 

Meanwhile, the fava beans in the potager are flowering...
This one is the 'wa-se' or 'early harvest' type...

 
The strawberries did not die on us even after being showered by frosts and snow...
Flowers are starting to appear... 

The self-seeding lettuce is growing fine...
Poppy plants, also self-seeding, keep them company... 

 I bought some green lettuce seeds from the store...
This type of lettuce is crunchy and is very popular with the Korean restaurants serving grilled beef...

The corianders are doing super fine...
We are really hooked by their fragrance...

Which brings us to the fried rice my sweeto haato dished up...
Urmm, the tiny little fish, small bite-size chicken meat, garlic, onions, carrots, black pepper, and yes, coriander as garnish... 

While our white Japanese plum flowered some time ago, the red one finally did...
The fruits from the white flowers are big and fleshy while the ones from the red plant are not so...  

Potager Y 'mascot' captured

Have been trying to capture this cutie for a long time...
The Daurian Redstart is a migratory bird, coming to our potager only in the winter season...
Each morning as we are having breakfast, he comes around...  

He was resting on a wooden pane for about 15 minutes...
Feeling comfortable and un-bothered by the clicking sounds of the shutter, the birdie let out droppings on three occasions...
Here, our Potager Mascot struts his wings and continues to frolick in the morning sun...

Been extremely occupied on the weekends with collecting and splitting wood for our newly acquired wood stove...
So much so that I had little time to attend to the potager... and blogging of course...
My suweeto-haaato as usual, cooks up a hearty dinner...
Shrimp-avacodo salad, with fresh lettuce from the potager...
Urmmm... lovely, lovely...

(As requested by Theanne and p3chandan, here is the recipe as narrated by my missus... very simple and easy, she says...)
1. De-shell and de-vein the shrimps... boil shrimps with a little white wine for about 2 or 3 minutes...
2. Cut avocado into bite size
3. Chop onions finely
4. Lay lettuce on plate, and put shrimp and avacado on the lettuce...
5. Sprinkle chopped onions on top of shrimp and avocado
6. Put vinegar on above
7. Add a little mayonaise, a dash of ketchup, and some black pepper for taste
8. Finito

We have loads of narcissus plants in our garden...
I just love to poke my nose near them as their fragrance is heavenly...  

I am quite amused to learn of the Greek mythology whereby the handsome Narcissus became overly obsessed with his own image... apparently he kneeled and gazed at his own reflection in a pool of water... he fell and drowned...