Red and Hot shots

As the summer is getting hot( Today's temperature as of 12:00pm went up to 96.8F!!), my red chilies are becoming red.

I love red hot chili adding them to various meals and I look forward to harvesting them and preparing chili sauce. Chili sauce may give spicy taste which can make ordinary meals summer-special!!

Cracks on tomatoes

Most of my tomatoes have cracks on the surface.

There is no problem in eating them and the taste but I have no idea on prevention of those cracks.

If you have good solutions, I would like you to post them on my blog.

Today's harvest

 Since the end of a rainy season lots of sunshine gives us the delight of faster growth of summer vegetables and sweaty jobs.

 1 4 green peppers
 2 3 tomatoes
 3 2 egg-plants
 4 35 green chili

Growing corns

 Our sweet corns have been growing so much since the end of a rainy season with lots of sunshine that the corns have tassels.

 My kids love sweet corns and they are looking for eating corns grilled with soy sauce.

 I set up "corn supporters" which can help corns grow upright and stand against strong wind as shown below.

Today's harvest with tomatoes

Today's harvest:

1 egg-plant

2 tomato

3 cucumber

4 green pappers

My first harvest of tomatoes

             

I'm very happy to harvest my tomatoes which I planted for the first time.

I and my wife were very anxious for raising a tomato which is difficult for beginners like us.

Constructing a rain cover, selecting better fertilizer and watering in the hot day were painstaking for us but those jobs resulted in red-ripe tomatoes.

How to prepare burdock roots for a dish.

If you are interested in a dish of burdock roots, I would like to show how to prepare them.

1 Remove a cane and leaves.

2 Scrape a root with a knife or scraper.



3 Slice it.

4 Soak sliced roots in water for a few minuets for removing scum.(Important for making the taste better!)

5 Boil the roots and other vegetables with your favorite soup.(My wife used a Miso-soup in this case.)

6 Miso-soup with sliced carrots and burdock roots.Sliced shiso leaves (green perilla) are added as condiment.

Burdock roots are very popular and known as a fiber-rich vegetable in Japan.

Introduction of Burdock roots

 

I was very surprised with a comment on my blog saying he or she considers burdocks a weed and has a trouble in picking them up.

I think eating burdock roots is not so popular in other countries and now I would like to show my burdocks in my garden and how to cook them later.

Burdocks are relatively easy to be raised even by beginners since they suck up much nutrition in soil rather than other vegetables.

You just have to water them enough. 

Today's harvest2

Today's harvest list

1: 2baskets of potatoes
/2: 20 carrots
/3: 25 burdock roots
/4: 2bunch of shiso (Japanese green perilla)

It's very lucky to find that some grenn perilla have grown wild beside ridges of potatoes.
We use chopped perilla leaves for condiment,which can go well with Sushi, Tenpura and other Japannese dishes.
I believe you can add them to a salad and fish cuisines in your country,if they are available.

Tomatoes are getting ripe.

 I plated a young plant of a tomato for the first time this spring and have looking forward to getting red and delicious fruits in the near future.

 I and my wife are excited with making sure our hope is coming true when we saw some tomatoes started getting red!