Potatoes and sweet potatoes harvest, 'tasai', and wild boars...

It snowed today... and for the first time this season, there was some accumulation...

Harvested our potatoes this afternoon...

They were killed by the frost... first time to experience this with potatoes...

Am very happy with the produce that tipped at 5 kilograms... 

These, from seeds weighing 1 kilogram... 

And for dinner, my suweeto haato made chicken curry with the potatoes..

Hmmm, super tasty...

Among the greens we have now, the 'ta-sai' is probably one of the most resistant to the cold weather...

And it tastes very good too...

Our sweet potatoes did not do that well this season...

Harvest was rather measly.... 

A notable development this season, however, is that, wild boars have finally 'discovered' our potager... 

Three days ago, they came for the third time... stepping all over our garden...

It is not a pretty scene... yet, there is nothing much for them to eat in our field...

One of their favorites is the sweet potatoes...

Luckily, there is space within a fenced area nearer to our house...

Anyway, made a blockade (with recycled wood) on their approach route...

Hope this blockade is sufficient to make them give up coming...

Saffron, figs, etc...

Just returned home to Japan after a little visit to my native country, Malaysia...

It is about 5 degrees here, compared to about 30 degrees in Malaysia...

Shot these pictures some time ago but did not have the opportunity to post them...
The above shot is that of the Crocus sativus...
We have quite a few bulbs but have not been taking good care of them...
Still, we can harvest some saffron from the flowers (which we use for cooking)...
Apparently, the saffron is among the most expensive spices in the world...

Had the opportunity to harvest a few fruits from our fig tree...
We got their seedlings from a neighbor some years ago...

They tasted really sweet and good...
Next season, I certainly plan to give more care to this plant as figs are one of my favorite, favorite fruits...

The Chingen-sai, as this vegetable is called in Japan, was thriving well before we left for Malaysia...
I took a look at the potager after coming home today...
Hmmm, they looked kind of wrinkled, probably from the effects of the cold...
And yes, I mean, no... the wild boars have definitely made their mark on my potager...
Their foot prints can be found here and there on the beds...

The Chingen-sai stir-fried with a little ginger and garlic...
 Lovely taste...

The cauliflower plant is still growing well, despite the cold...

The lettuce too, is thriving and giving us a lot to chew on...

The Komatsu-na too, is quite resistant to the cold and is growing well..

This is the last post for the year 2012.... I'd like to wish all my friends and readers a very happy 2013, and may the new year bring you and your loved ones much joy and happiness...

Beans, winged and long... and nuts of the pea-type...

Tried to grow for three seasons, winged beans from seeds taken back from Malaysia...

But no cigar... just as the plants began to flower, winter came along and killed them all...

Could it be that these these beans are too used to the perennial summer conditions in Malaysia so much so that they could not adapt to the changing seasons in Japan?

Finally purchased some seeds from a dealer in Japan...

And woah, the accumulative harvest came to about 200 pods...

Meanwhile, long bean seeds taken back from Malaysia coped very well with conditions here...

For many seasons, they have been fruiting quite profusely...

Sometimes, my missus cooked these long beans omelet styled...

They taste good, I must say...

Peanuts... yeap, I love growing them... and of course, eating them too...

Last summer, had three plots of them...

Forgot to weigh the harvest but it was quite substantial by our standards...

Am enjoying the nuts bit by bit these days...

Japanese yam aka 'Jinenjo' and the Beautiful Blog Award...

While walking the hills near our home one day two or three years ago, my suweeto haato suggested that we harvest the 'jinenjo' (自然薯 literally, 'natural yam') that were growing in the wild...

We, more like I, dug at one plant, and boy, it turned out to be heavy duty work...

'Jinenjo' is a climber... perennial... native of Japan... scientific name, Dioscorea japonica... common name, Japanese yam or glutinous yam...

We took back some 'seeds' which I believe are actually 'fruits' that grow on their vines...

We like to joke that they resemble 'small potatoes' growing in the air...

This is a close-up of the 'little potatoes'... diameter varies from half to one centimeter...

The Japanese folks call them 'mukago' and they combine very well with rice... so much so that there is a term call 'mukago gohan'...  'gohan' being rice... the taste is really very good...

This is how the tuber looks like...
Their flesh is white in color and they have a very high viscosity (?) level, that is, they are very 'sticky' or 'glue-ish'....
Lovely, lovely vegetable... as we can enjoy both the 'fruits' and the 'tubers'...

I'd like to dedicate this post to Ash of 'Houris in the Garden' who graciously nominated my humble blog for the Beautiful Blog Award... 
I am most honored and would like to thank her for the gesture...
However, I would like to ask Ash to forgive me because due to time constraints among other things, I am not able to fulfill the several things I should do in order to accept the award... one of which is to pass the award onwards as requested... 

Once again, thank you, thank you, for thinking of my blog...

Wild grapes...

Had a 'bumper' harvest from the wild grapes in our property...

All in all, 2.2 kilograms... whoopee...

This, compared to last year when I could hardly get any harvest...

Perhaps there is some truth in plants alternating between bumper harvest and poor harvest... no?

There is absolutely no need to take care of them...

All I did was to prune them down, and rather brutally at that too...

The fruits are just about 5 millimeters in diameter...

There is little flesh in them...

And the best way to enjoy them, I thought, was to turn them into juice...

Managed to make about 12 liters of delicious wild grape juice from them...

No additives of any kind... and with each sip, hmmm, the feeling of pure delight...