Potager Y on a hot, humid summer's day...

Been really busy with work lately....

It is during times like this when I ask myself, 'now why didn't I choose to become a full time farmer?'...

I have full freedom to decide how I want to work, when I wish to work, and nobody (except my sweeto haaato of course) tells me what to do...

Hee hee hee, now wouldn't that be nice...

If only I have the courage to decide so... :)

Ok folks, you will all have to forgive me while I put up some 'not-so-nice' pictures...

I worked last Sunday, and I am taking today (Wednesday) off...

Had planned to shoot some pictures with the 'real' camera but unfortunately I left it at my office...

So, I am making do with a point and shoot camera for these pics...  

Well, my cute little plants are growing...

Cucumbers (the Japanese and the US types), jalapeno chillies, nasturtiums red and yellow, few types of tomatoes, zucchinis, pumpkins yellow and green, sweet corn, basil of the sweet and Thai types, dill, marigolds and zinnias aplenty, rows of coriander, Malabar spinach red and green, kangkong, long beans, wing beans, fuji beans, loofa Egyptian and angled, the long-slender-green-real bitter gourd, butter scotch pumpkin, green beans, sweet potatoes, the normal potatoes just about ready for harvesting, peanuts that are starting to flower, bell peppers, amaranth red and green, Korean shiso or Perilla aka Beefsteak plant, Japanese yams of the round and long type, mini watermelons, okra, chard... did I miss anything?

We obtained some Black-eyed Susan seeds from an elderly lady on one of our walks in the neighborhood...

Took us more than two years to get them to flower in our potager...

Harvested some onions some time ago...

Had been hanging them out in the shade to dry them for use during the rainy day...

The Japanese folks call these hydrangea beauties, 'Ajisai'...

Of the several types in our property, this is my favorite...

And the tiger lily....

When we are done with enjoying the flowers, it is time to harvest the edible root-bulbs...

That is, if the wild boars do not get to harvest them first...

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...