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...

Roots and flowers for the festive season...

Today is the Lunar New Year...
For the Japanese, it is 'setsubun no hi', translated as 'Bean Throwing Festival'...
On this day, the Japanese people eat 'norimaki' (vinegared rice rolled in seaweed), sardines, and throw beans to ward off the devil...
In more down to earth terms, it merely refers to the 'day before the beginning of spring'...
Still, on a personal level, we are very excited to see our Dovre Woodstove (partially) installed on this auspices day...
More on this later on in my other blog...

Ok, now on to the main topic...

Red turnips given to my missus by a neighbor...
They are about the size of ping-pongs, but absolutely crunchy...

We love rosemaries...
There are almost ten species in our potager...
The cutie above is Tuscan Blue...

Think this one is Mrs. Jessops... or is it Miss?
I can't take tea or coffee from the late afternoons...
Their caffeine makes me go sleepless when I should be snoring...
So, I cherish sipping a hot cup of rosemary tea in the evenings...
It soothes the mind and the soul...

Could this be 'fringed' lavendar?
They are flowering so nicely even in the deep of winter...

Japanese 'daikons' (radish) from the potager...
This is the most successful season for me with regards to this root...

My wifey Y requested me to pull them all out...
And had them washed...
After which she cut them up, length-wise...
And had them hung on a string...
We are going to make kimchi pickles out of them after they dry out...

And to close the post, a quick shot at the (common?) geranium...
We thrash them, we pull them out, we leave them on the ground, without giving any care...
Still, there are tons of them in our potager...

Friendly neighbors...

Several kind readers commented on the friendly neighbors we have here at Aji...
Lucky as we are, my missus on one of her morning walks in the hills met an acquaintance by accident...
The acquaintance was just heading to her garden plot and woah, my missus found herself coming home with a big head of lettuce, a bunch of 'mamba' greens (sort of like a type of Japanese mustard,belonging to the cabbage family), and some big red turnips...  

These fist-sized red turnips, how I wish I can grow them myself...
Ok, next season Ishall try and see...

My wife sliced the turnips and have them seasoned in vinegar...
We love to eat these stuff...

The 'mamba' is a local favorite vegetable of the people around here...
The leaves are large and with just about three leaves or so, we get a plateful of goodies for dinner...
I tried to grow them but only one plant is surviving now...
And it is as usual, quite 'tiny' due to my low gardening skills...

Now, what happened to the sour oranges we received from another neighbor?
Yes, my missus made marmalade out of them...
She relied on several online recipes and came up with her own concotion...
And, this morning, we had the marmalade with some homemade pancakes... umm...

The marmalade is stored in re-cycled bottles...
We also tried using the concotion for hot drinks...

Ok, a change of topic...
I had posted a picture of the tiger lily...
I mentioned about using the edible bulb into a bean dessert...
The picture above shows the bulb which we bought from the store...
We shall be peeling off the outer 'petals' for consumption...
I plan to keep the innermost layers as a 'seed' to plant in the potager this coming spring...

Flowers to chew on...

This pic shows a salad mix prepared by my suweeto-haato...
The usual stuff like peas, red turnips, onions, cucumbers...
Plus, edible flowers like the blue borage, the red nasturtium, the sinewy, beige (?) rocket, the pink geranium... and the yellow chrysanthemum...
All these (except peas and onions) were from the garden...
Tossed in olive oil, they were quite a delight for the senses...


Ages ago when I first landed in Tokyo as an airline crew, I had my first taste of 'hiya yakko'...
Cold tofu, that is... and so, a summer dish...
It shocked me, actually, to feel the cold of the curd...
But you get used to it...
Here, combined with that green stuff freshly plucked from the garden, and spruced up with sesame seeds and soy sauce... hmmm... oishikatta...


Am blessed, thinking that I can enjoy home-made bread each morning...
This one, pizza-toast, should I say?
Onions, bell peppers, shredded cheeze on wholesome bread...
Topped up with dashes of tomato sauce...
And toasted to perfection... (well, almost...)


And, one of my all time favorites...
Tomato-based spaghetti... preferably combined with seafood...
This one was meat, though... but still with some sweet basil leaves thrown in...
Wooh, equally yummy...