Harvesting onions and potatoes

 I mentioned about less rain this rainy season and it may affect the growth of my summer vegetables but sunny days brought me the precious opportunity for harvesting onions and potatoes. It's good to harvest them in a sunny and dry day since rain can perish harvested potatoes and onions. Today I harvested all of purple onions and potatoes.

 The onions leaves falling down to the ground show it's the time to harvest and they are not bolted. They are healthy and in a good shape with shiny purple color. I'll sliced a new purple onion to cook salad with cabbages.

 I'm not satisfied with potatoes since they were smaller than I expected. I think the planting ridge was not wider than the last season so it didn't much space for growing them.

The Purple Onion Festival

 My 70 purple onions have grown and I harvested all of them at this weekend. Some of their leaves have not fallen down yet, which shows it may still early to harvest but their bulb were so big and their trunks are so thick that I assume I should harvest all of them. If I wait for their leaves falling down, they will be bolted, I believe.

 The gardening space for my purple onions are now vacant and I've decided the vegetable I will plant their. Can you guess what? I'll show it on the next blog.

The Onion Festival

 Hurrah for a bumper harvest of my onions! 

 Today I held "the Onion Festival", where my family harvested 70 onions of 150, which had been planted in last November. The 70 onions are rareripe or early maturing variety so they've grown well in only 5 months. 

 Harvesting those onions is so tough that I had to ask my family for their help. They were so kind and cooperative and especially my daughter got excited in harvesting them. I know the reason why she enjoyed harvesting onions. She loves onion rings!

 I always feel fulfilled when harvested vegetables are aligned on soil.

 After harvesting the onions, we cut out the onions' leaves. 

 We have to bind them in order to hang them up on a wall of my house and dry them.

Other 70 purple onions are still growing in my garden and will be harvested in a few weeks. That means we'll have the 2nd onion festival in the near future!

Today's harvest

 I found some onions' leaves fell down to the ground, which shows it was the time to harvest them. I knew we had no stocks of onions in our fridge so I phoned to my wife and then she rushed to my garden and pulled them out!

My wife harvesting onions.

Today's harvest

 The onion's leaves were left on the soil where potatoes are planted. They serve as fertilizer after they are fermented.


--from iPad

Harvesting young onions for a test.

 Today I found some onions' bulbs are mature and I decided to harvest 4 onions for a test although they are still young. They will be well-mature in a few weeks and it's the time to harvest them when their leaves will have fallen down to the ground. But I know young onions are also delicious! I have a craving for tasting them!

 My recipe of young onions is very simple. Cutting them into a half and strips, running them under water, and tossing them into ball with other vegetables with say-sauce base dressing.

 The young onion salad is so refreshing and tasty that I recommend you serve it for a breakfast.

There are still other 120 onions in my garden to be harvested in a few weeks! I'll have to ask my family for helping me harvesting all of them. I know it is a tough job.

Cold days have come back.

 After warm days through last week, which could remind us of spring coming soon, severely cold days have come back to Osaka where I live. I expected my potatoes, which were planted 2 weeks ago, would have germinated but actually they have not yet.

 My spinach are also growing slowly due to the cold temperature with about 15cm leaves. They've grown enough to be harvested but I'm not satisfied with the size of them

 The growth of my onions are so remarkable that I can see their purple bulbs growing in soil. 

 The green leaves of my onions also look healthy and I expect we can harvest them in the beginning of May.

Recipe collection vol.5 / Pasta in cream sauce with spinach and sliced bacon

Ingredients for 4 people:

・Pasta / 300GR

・Spinach
・Sliced bacon
・Sliced onion / using a half of an onion
・Butter

・Milk / 150ml
・Cream / 100ml
・Consomme / 5GR
・flour / 2 spoons
・Salt and black pepper

1 Cut and slice spinach, bacon and onion.


2 Grill sliced onion, bacon with butter and brown them.


3 Add 2 spoons of flour and pour milk and cream slowly into a pan with stirring them to avoid lumps.

4 Add consomme into the sauce. Don't use it too much or the taste would be too salty.

5 Sprinkle salt and black pepper on the pan

6 Add spinach into the cream sauce


7 Add boiled pasta into the sauce and stir it well.


8 Serve a dish and enjoy it!


-- from iPod touch

Onion Project

 An onion is not only one of our favorite vegetables but one of most versatile vegetables for many dishes in many ways, I believe. Actually, My family consume more onions than any other vegetables through a year.

 My wife requested more onions than previous season so I bought 150 onion sprouts at a local sprout and seed shop.



 Planting the 150 onion sprouts was so tough that I had to ask my wife, my daughter and even her friend to help me! They were so cooperative and especially my daughter's friend planted sprouts for the first time so she seemed to be interested in working in my garden with my daughter's guidance.



 In 1 hour and a half, we finished planting all sprouts. The breed of my onion is an early onion so we can expect harvesting them in the mid or late of May in 2012. My daughter's friend said she will take a part in harvesting them next spring. I believe her efforts and cooperation deserve it.

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

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

My onions

Growing onions might take longer than other vegetables.
We have had less harvest in a few month in winter but growth of over-winter vegetables like onions is so hopeful that we can expect to have a good harvest in a few months.
Most of the onion bulbs are getting bigger but it's still too early to harvest them. The temperature of this month have been stable and moderate and I have to pay attention to appropriate fertilizer. I make a point of adding a grab of fertilizer mixed with nitrogen and other nutritions every two weeks.



-- from iPad

Hidden growth

Even in the middle of cold winter, 100 onions look so healthy judging from their brisk, sharp and greenish leaves. Dry air in the winter can vaporize water easily out of soil so I regularly water once or twice a week.


Most of onions hide in soil but even tiny part of them which can be seen on soil can let me expect prospective harvest.


-- from iPad

Fast growth and slow growth

My komatunas in a vinyl tunnel has grown so fast that all of them can be harvested after about 30 days since setting the tunnel. In the past few days freezing cold weather continued so I was concerned if my vegetables would be frostbitten but the tunnel seem to work not only as a air warmer but as a protection against frost.













Today's harvest is just only komatunas shown above. Other vegetables like daikon radishes, Chinese cabbages but those will be consumed during new year holidays so those are preserved in my garden.














My onions are growing slowly but steadily as we can see a bulb coming out on the surface on the soil. I expect they can be harvested next spring. They are the first vegetables in my garden which will spend a cold winter till the harvest. Today I added fertilizer to give nutrition to glow onions during a winter.














How are you spending this Christmas holidays? In Japan the Christmas is not a national holiday so we have to work during the Christmas but from 30th.Dec we will have a new year holidays. I will spend the holidays eating, drinking, watching movies and caring my vegetables.

Growth report

My komatunas in a vinyl tunnel are growing much faster than my first komatunas which ended last weekend and we can expect to harvest them sooner than I think. As I mentioned sometimes, the effectiveness of the vinyl tunnel has been proved with the much germination and growth of the komatunas. If you seed or plant vegetables outside in winter season, I recommend you consider the method as your option.



My white radishes (Daikon radish) are also glowing and some of them have been ready for being harvested. I don't know how long and big they are till I will harvest them but judging from the white and green roots appearing on the soil I believe they have thick and long roots.




My cabbages have rolled their leaves inside shaping "cabbage-like appearance" beautifully. And fortunately few holes by bags are seen on them.


My Chinese cabbages (Hakusai), which have been suffering bugs attacks, are shaping their appearance and I expect to harvest them before the Christmas.



All of my 100 onions are very healthy showing us their leaves shooting upward, which shows water and nutritions can be sucked up successfully by the onions. I am looking forward to seeing ripen onions next spring.

-- from iPad