Nanking cherry, onions, geranium, loquats... for Theanne

I would like to dedicate this post to Theanne...
who at this moment, is feeling a little down...
thinking about the second year of her beloved husband's passing...
I hope this little post of the red, red cherries in Japan...
would bring over to her in Florida...
a little-little smile....

According to Wikipedia, the Nanking Cherry is also known as...
Korean cherry, Manchu cherry, Downy cherry,
Shanghai cherry, Ando cherry, Mountain cherry,
Chinese Bush cherry, Chinese Dwarf cherry, or Hansen's Bush Cherry....
Hmmm, so many names for just one fruit...

They are native to northern and western China (including Tibet),

Korea, Mongolia, and possibly northern India (Jammu and Kashmir, 

Anyway, it is quite a delicious fruit... tiny though but still, pretty...

A friend gave us 8 onions the other day...

They are big, round, fleshy...

Unlike the ones I grow... under-nourished, tiny, and skinny...

Yet, I'd like to think of my onions as being concentrated, power-packed, and full of flavor... 

I might have mentioned it before...

I just adore the flagrance of the rose geranium...

They are apparently indigenous to various parts of southern Africa,..

We sometimes use the leaves to add flavor to cookies...

This is the season for loquats... wooh hoo...

I love loquats...very much...

Their taste somewhat resemble that of the mango, I think...

We have three plants in our property...

Plus, there are lots of them growing wild in the hills...

The locals do not harvest them...

I do, and we make preserves out of them...

The Loquat is originally from southeastern China...

The fruit is high in vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, and manganese...

The seeds and young leaves of the plant are slightly poisonous...

We keep the seeds, dry them in the sun, and then make wine out of them...

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”.

Strawberries... the 'tamed' and the wild...

Am very happy with the strawberries...
We get to harvest only a few fruits per day...
Good enough as an additional topping to the yoghurt for breakfast...

The rue is a member of the citrus family...
The Italians apparently use it to flavor a liqueur...
The smell of the rue is supposed to repel (stray) cats...
But not so for the cats in our neighborhood...  

Last year, I enjoyed harvesting some wild strawberries in the nearby hills...
Think they are called Japanese wineberries...
Brought back some canes to plant in our potager...
And woah, they grow like crazy...
And their fruits... ooh, so lovely...
Almost no maintanence at all...
In fact, I need to weed them out of the walkpaths as they grow so fast...

 
Another 'big' harvest of the strawberries from the potager...

Our Rosa banksiae is flowering very profusely...
Thought it was not a rose, but it actually is part of the family...
I like it because of its immense volume of flowers...

My missus picked this up from the hills in one of her walks...
The wisteria is all over the hills this time of the year...
I think they make very beautiful flowers...

We grow a vegetable... the edible chrysanthemum...
It is very good with soup dishes especially in the winter...
After we are done eating their leaves, it is time to sit back and enjoy their flowers...
Looks a bit like hard boiled eggs... no?

There was no label for this rose when my missus bought it from the store...
This particular specie emits a really sweet, classic rosy scent...
And, unlike the other species, this one makes a lovely preserve...
Hence, 'Sweet Pink'...

Heaven, I'm in heaven...

Yes, as is so beautifully sung by Ella and Louis in 'Cheek to Cheek'...

How not to feel so when you can see flowers of blue right in your own space?

Yes, the borage has got to be one of the most fascinating flowers I know...

They self seed in our potager and we do nothing but enjoy its beauty... 

And of course, its taste too... 

Likewise, the poppy self seeds just as well...

It has adapted very well to our potager... 

The 'wild' oxalis is a tiny flower...

And a very pretty wild flower at that...

The lilac flowers never fail to bring joy to us each spring...

Such a lovely 'feminine' pink... 

My missus was attracted to this flower from the hills...

She brought back a plant and woah...

The Japanese name is 'Uma no ashi gata'...

Literally, 'the shape of a horse foot', apparently from the shape of the leaves...

In English, simply Meadow buttercup... 

Was taken aback to see this clinging on a tree...

Wing-span was about 10 centimeters as it is...

Apparently, one of its wings was chipped...

Which meant that I could take my time to record its beauty... 

Don't you just love the colors of the swiss chard?

Chards belong to the same family as spinach...

We have several colors... white, cream, yellow, pink...

Think the white and cream ones taste the best... 

Now, what do you do when you have to harvest all the remaining carrots because you need the space for the next crop?

The answer is here...

Flowers... of plum, pear, rocket, peas

Glorious flowers from a neighbor's plum (peach) tree protrudes into our potager...
For me, this must be one of the prettiest plum (peach) blooms I have ever seen...
Rich colors, perfectly (almost) shaped petals...

On the other side of the fence comes our very own plum (peach) blooms...
I am so intrigued by their varying shapes and colors...

Our pear trees are flowering again this year...
I think this specimen is called 豊水 literally, 'Abundant Water'...
It supposedly has a tinge of sourness in its taste...

Similarly, I imagine this specimen to be 幸水 literally, 'Happiness Water'...
The staminate (male flower) is a little reddish and the shape of the petals, different...
Apparently, they taste sweeter compared to the specimen above...

The rocket that we have remained thin as we harvested them...
I have always marvelled at the shape of their flowers...
Besides their cross-shape, just look at how pretty their veins are...

We tried three types of peas last year...
'Snow field' peas, green peas, and snap peas...
My suweeto haaato tasted them all...
After which, she 'summoned' me to narrow down to just snap peas...
She says this caption looks quite scary for her while I think it looks somewhat cute...

Actually took this wild grape shot last season...
Their buds are now sprouting and I hope to harvest them in autumn...
Am I counting my chickens?

Grape juice is what I make them out to be...

I am dedicating this post to Theanne, who graciously spiced up my humble blog with this... I am really honored.... thanks Theanne!