Last harvest for 2011

Am not sure what this plant is... 

Shall have to look the references up one day...

I supposed the fruits must be quite tasty as the birds do come for them...

Update: Thanks to Debra for suggesting that this could be 'bittersweet'. Did a search on the net and indeed, this plant belongs to the bittersweet family. The bittersweet in Debra's write-out looks like a climber but not this one in our garden. I think this plant we have is called Japanese Spindle. It is not a climber but an ever green shrub with shiny leaves.

Harvested some round daikons today for my suweeto haato to make a new year dish with carrots...

Also harvested the butter scotch pumpkins... 

All six of them, including the one that was harvested some time ago...

In total, they weighed about 4.9 kilograms...

As we retire for the night, my missus is about to put one pumpkin into a dutch oven and placing the dutch oven inside our wood-stove...

We are experimenting to see if the pumpkin gets cooked with the remaining heat from the wood-stove... 

Plus, harvested the last of the sweet potatoes...

The purple-flesh murasaki sweet potatoes were the most productive of the four types... 

All in all, they weighed in at about 15.2 kilograms...

Very good by my standards...

Our favorite sweet potato however, is the orange-flesh An-no...

They are super sweet, almost like honey...

Rather unfortunately, productivity was low...

We could manage only about 2.9 kilograms of this delicious sweet potato...

And to close the 2011 chapter is this little camellia...

Ok folks, looking forward to the new year when we get up next morning...

Seemania... the Liebster award...

Returned home today after spending two weeks in Malaysia...

The temperature there was about 30 degrees, and here, about 2 degrees... wheeaaa... 

Prior to leaving, my missus had brought back a pot of orange-colored eye catching flowers...

'Seemania', she blurted out to an ignorant me...

From the net, found out that 'this is a small genus of herbaceous plants native to South America. The family, Gesneriaceae, is a large plant family of herbaceous perennials and shrubs. It is native to the tropics mostly, in Africa, Asia, North America and South America'.

Also found out its other name, 'Bolivian sunset', and that it is a 'low-growing herbaceous perennial that spreads rapidly by rhizomes' and that it has 'showy orange flowers in winter'. The plant apparently grows well in shady, moist sites.

Hmm, good... shall try to plant them at the slopes and hope that they may spread all over... fat hopes? :)

Ok, this is just a one-photo post and I must express my thanks to Tanya of Lovely Greens...

About two weeks ago, she had graciously recommended my blog for the 'Liebster Award'.

Am very honored with this gesture from Tanya...

But then, I was just about to leave Japan for Penang for about two weeks, hence this belated response to the award...

It was the first time that I saw this word 'Liebster', so I did a check on it...

Apparently, it is a German word meaning 'favorite' or 'dearest'.

And to paraphrase Tanya... 'A Liebster Award is given out by bloggers to other blogs that they enjoy reading'.

The rules are... 'once you receive it you must pass it on to five other blogs that you enjoy and also give a mention to the person who awarded you in the first place'.

Tanya, 'rediscovering' her roots as a country girl, blogs on a wide range of topics from the Isle of Man... I particularly enjoy reading about her hand in making soap, wine, and the cute looking crafts, etc... drop by her blog and check it out...

The five blogs I am passing on to are (not in any particular order): 

Matron: An intimate account of a passionate veggie grower... 

Andrea in this lifetime: Nature photography, plants and ornamental species and other interesting animal encounters from travels... Andrea actually had done a post on the seemania way back in 2009... 

Life in Kawagoe: offers an interesting window into a Japanese family life from the eyes of the father of the house... 

Desert Colors: I am often surprised by the beauty of the photos shown in this blog... 

Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls: a good blog to look up on the adventures in chemical free veggie gardening...

Merry Christmas to y'all...

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...

Butter scotch pumpkin, Hawk's claws chillies, etc...

Was trying to dig out an azalea plant to make space for the 'Southern Cross'...   

Slipped, fell over and hit my head on the concrete steps... 

Next thing I knew was the sound of my own heavy breathing...

My missus came over to look me up...

Lucky thing, it was only a minor cut on the right side of the head...

Lesson learned: be careful and wear the safety helmet while working... 

(I often do so, actually, and today was one of the few instances that I didn't...)

Anyway, am happy to be able to do some harvesting...
My missus bought a butter scotch pumpkin last year from the farmers' market...
We like the taste of it and kept some seeds...
Am delighted that the plants produced 6 large pumpkins...
This one weighs about 900 grams... not too bad...

Similarly, we kept some seeds from the winter melon that we bought from the farmers' market last year...
We manage only one fruit, however... 1.7 kilograms...

The first time I ever planted potatoes years ago, we harvested over 11 kilograms from one kilogram of seeds...

Subsequent plantings were rather measly...

This time, only 3 kilograms from one kilogram of seeds...

Reason? I did not fully dry the cut-up seeds before I planted them, so most of them rotted...

Chillies this season... not too bad although it could be better... 

These finger-sized ones are called 'Taka no tsume', aka 'Hawk's claws'...

They are spicy and they taste good...

I got some okra seeds from my younger brother in Malaysia last year...

And I must say that they have adapted very well to our potager...

These are the last of the harvests for this season... 

Compared to the Japanese okras, these are gigantic...

Some of them were about 30 centimeters long...

And they were tender, super delicious and combine very well with curries... 

Will certainly grow them again next spring...

The Autumn Giraffe, among others...

Autumn days at Shikoku have been super pleasant... 
Cool, dry, and simply heavenly to be outdoors...

Took a shot of our potager today...
The marigolds are still blooming, as are the zinnias...

This dwarf of a flower is called 'wild chrysamthemum'　（野菊）in Japanese... 
They grow so well in our garden, without any attention from us...

The Japanese folks call this flower 'Hototogizu' (ホトトギス）, which is the name of a bird belonging to the cuckoo family... Apparently, the spots of this lily-family flower is similar to the spots on the chest of the bird...

Think this is called Larkdaisy or Porcupine flower.
The Japanese name is Murasaki Rushan （ムラサキルーシャン） or Ringo Azami（リンゴアザミ）...
Leaves emit apple-like smell when rubbed...

This chrysanthemum is endemic to the island of Honshu in Japan... 

It's scientific name is Chrysanthemum pacificum Nakai but I prefer the common name Isogiku (イソギク) meaning, Rocky Shore Chrysanthemum...

 

We enjoy looking at this wild flower in our morning walks... 

Took back home a specimen of this 'Aki no kirin so' （秋の麒麟草）, literally, Autumn Giraffe flower...

Am linking this post to GBBD, which is hosted by May Dreams Gardens...