Nipping smaller buds of my potatoes

 Today I nipped smaller buds of my potatoes, which is similar to thinning out smaller sprouts of brassicas. As you know a seed potato has 5 or more buds and they will grow soon with sucking up water and nutrition of the seed potato. The more buds on a seed potato means less nutrition to other potatoes to be harvested in the future. That's why we should nip younger and smaller buds.

You can see 5 or 6 buds on a seed potato before nipping.

 When we nip them out, we have to be careful for not pulling them out too strongly or a seed potato would be popped out of the soil.

A nipped bud

The appearance before nipping-out.

After nipping-out, 2 or 3 buds are left in a seed potato.

Bunch of nipped buds.

-- from iPad

Recipe collection vol.3 ( Stir-fried pak-chois with sliced bacons )

Stir-fried pak-chois with sliced bacons
Ingredients:
・ 3 bunches of pak-chois・ Sliced bacons (150grams) Mixed seasoning・ water (150cc)・ 2 tablespoons of powdered chicken stock・ salt・ say sauce・ sake
Method
1 Cut pak chois and sliced bacons.
2 Making the mixed seasoning soup by mixing water, powdered chicken stock, say sauce. You can add salt and sake according your taste.


3 Pour 1 tablespoon of oil to a pan, heat it for a while and grill sliced bacons first. And then put pak chois and grill them together. When the pak chois've became tender, pour the mixed seasoning into the pan and boil them for a few minutes.


4 Serve the dish and done.


-- from iPad

Today's harvest and flowers

 Flowers can attract us and make us feel happy! Yeah, I think so too. But What do flowers of leaf vegetables like pak-chois or komatunas mean? Flowers of them mean they've bolted and can not been eaten, right?
  When I saw flowers on my pak-chois, I seem to have seeded too many pak-chois and komatunas.I shared them with my mother, friends and neighbors but still 1/3 of all seeded vegetables are left in my soil beds. Most of them have not bolted yet but they will soon. We seem to have to keep on consume or share and give them to my neighbors and friends as a present and "the Green Aid".






Flowers of pak-chois look so cute and delicious! The part of flowers are still tender, but not bolted so I'll cook them tonight!











-- from iPad

The Growth of my potatoes

 Potatoes are one of most important vegetables for me ( for you, I believe ) because they are so multi-purpose that we can use them in various dishes. Seeing the growth of my potatoes shown below, I believe my family, especially my wife, will be happy to imagine that she would not need to buy any potato during this summer. Well, I also feel responsibility for growing and harvesting my potatoes. Judging from my potato's growth, I think they are so healthy so far.





-- from iPad

Preparing soil beds for summer vegetables

 After picking up all of my onions and emptying their soil bed, I and my daughter prepared soil beds for next summer vegetables by adding green compost ( chopped onion's leaves ) , rice bran, lime powder and fertilizers. The soil is still less nutritious so it's important for me to improve the soil during the soil bed being empty.

My daughter is mixing the soil and lime powder.

After mixing the soil with fertilizer, the chopped onion's leaves

are buried in the trench beneath the soil bed.

The soil beds are taking a rest for a week after the preparation and I will go to a home center to find good sprouts of summer vegetables like tomatoes, egg-plants and cucumbers next weekend.



-- from iPad

My friend enjoys the Green Aid

The Green Aid for my friend, who lives in Kanagawa with his family, seems to help his family according to the thank-you e-mail from him.

The photo shown below is attached with his letter and he said he cooked the spaghetti Bolognese with some komatunas just after the aid had arrived at his home. He also said on a phone many people around him are afraid of buying vegetables since they assume that they might be radioactive-contaminated. I suggest him that he should not overreacted to TV news and should buy vegetables in shops, which are safe and edible because they are screened and checked.

Spring Harvest Festival vol.2

　Many bunches of komatunas, pak-chois, and spinaches were harvested at this Festival. My daughter and her friend enjoyed dealing with chores like washing and packing the vegetables. I'm happy they were involved in my gardening activity.

My spinaches

The kids were washing komatunas and spinaches.

  Takeru, my daughter's freind, didn't get used to dealing

  vegetables.

My first pak chois seemed to bolt soon so we had to harvest them

despite their smaller size. I should have thinned out more of them.

-- from iPad

Spring Harvest Festival vol.1

 My family and friends of my kids gathered in my garden plot last sunday and enjoyed harvesting onions, komatunas, spinaches and pak chois. Most of my vegetables except from my potatoes are ready to be harvest and especially my onions have grown well so I have to harvest all of them (95  onions) before they will bolt. 

My daughter were struggle to pull out my onions, which were rooted deeper than I thought.

My daughter: "I can't pull it out!!"

Most of my onions are so big in good shape that I and my wife could have confidence in growing next onions.


My wife and daughter were preparing the onions for long term preservation with cutting their leaves.



All of the onions are left under eaves of my house. We will knot 2 or 3 onions with vinyl cords and hang them out.


-- from iPad

The Green Aid

I send today's harvest, bunches of komatunas, spinaches, pak-chois, and onions, to my friend in my university days who lives in Kamakura, near Tokyo. I've heard his family has suffered the shortage of vegetables caused by the ban on commercial distribution of vegetables produced in the radioactive-contaminated area.

Especially, most of spinaches which are consumed in Tokyo area are produced in Ibaragi and Fukushima pref, where are devastated by the accidents of nuclear power plants. The Japanese government decided to limit distribution of spinaches as well as other vegetables.
Consumers,including my friend, in the Tokyo area have been facing difficulty to buy vegetables.
And the consumers feel it scary that they might buy radioactive-contaminated vegetables in their local shops and they seem to seek other suppliers of vegetables outside the areas to get "safe vegetables".

I and my wife packed the vegetables in a cardboard box and send it with a courier service. I hope my vegetables may help his family.





-- from iPad

My potatoes have germinated!

 I found some of my potatoes have germinated. I wonder how many potatoes I would
harvest this summer!

-- from iPad

Harvesting my onions

 Onions, which I've been looking forward to harvesting since I planted them last year, are big and ripen! The grasses falling down shows it's time to be harvested.
 Today I harvested 6 onions and brought some to my mother and my younger sister. My wife is also so happy that many onions are successful since onions are so multipurpose that they can be used for various dishes.







Growing onions are easier than other vegetables I harvested, I believe. They need less care like watering and giving fertilizers.





Those are today's harvest.

①　6 onions
②　10 spinaches
③　8 pak chois
④　10 komatsunas





I believe the best way to enjoy fresh onions is shown below! That is sliced bonitos with sliced onions. Say sauce with citrus juice was added as condiment. Oh,,yummy!




-- from iPad

Cherry blossoms are blooming fully!

 Dear my blogging friends,
 Thank you for your warm words. I and my family are OK and I decided it's the time to restart blogging. 
 Today I visited local river banks where many cherry blossom trees are planted. It's the first outgo for me since the funeral for my father ended. The walking on the river side with seeing full-blooming cherry blossoms was so refreshing for a change.





Some areas of the river banks are designed for allowing people to go down to the edge of the banks and to enjoy feeding wild carp and seeing the cherry blossoms closely.






 The carp were waiting for their feed in the water. They know people along the bank will feed them.
















 I feel it comforting that I saw many kids were playing with their parents under cherry blossoms trees. That reminds me of a memory with my father who played with me long time ago and makes me sentimental. But what would my dad say me now? I believe he would say "Hey, cheer up, son! I'm always with you."



-- from iPad

My great dad

Dear my blogging friends,

It's very regrettable for me to announce that my father passed away today at the age of 62 and that I will have to be absent from blogging for whole of this week since I will have to host the funeral and to care my mother who was sadden with his death.

My father was a policeman for 35 years and he enjoyed his retirement for 10 years although he suffered his kidney failure and lung cancer.

I'm very proud of my dad and his attitude toward enjoying his own life with overcoming those deceases.

I believe his soul never die and his soul will always be with us although we can not hear and see him.

-- from iPa

Today's harvest

 I believe a conner of our fridge will be full of green leaves which were harvested today!
 ① 7 pak chois ② 10 spinaches  ③ 7 komatunas
-- from iPad

Colorful leaves?

 My spinaches have grown well enough to be harvested. Most of them look healthy but some leaves are turning to yellow from the edge of the leaves as shown in the second photo.
 I think the yellowish leaves might be caused by the shortage of minerals like calcium and magnesium, which can create chlorophyl.  If you have any idea on that, I would like you to advice me.
I don't like "colorful spinaches". They should be dark green.



-- from iPad

Vegetables in a warm & sunny day.

 I'm animated by seeing planting beds full of green and growing vegetables in a warm spring day like today after spending chilly and dark winter in Japan. Yes! Spring has come at last to where I live!!

 It's not only human beings like me but also my vegetables that feel joy for spring coming. The growth of my vegetables are remarkably different from that in winter. Especially, most of my pak chois, spinaches and komatunas are ready to be served on our table.

The jungle of pak-chois

Water on green leaves

-- from iPad