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

Today's dinner

My wife made a soup with my pak chois which I harvested today and sausages.
The soup was so simple that my pak chois were boiled only in consommé soup. Salt coming out of sausage can add mild taste. That simple recipe can make the best use of the taste of fresh pak chois.



I love the pak chois which absorbed soup. Oh,yummy.




-- from iPod touch

Gardening activities in my kid's day-care center

Today I went to the day-care center of my daughter for picking her up.

The director of the center has enthusiasm for educating kids through gardening activities. The staffs and kids grow various kinds of vegetables and flowers in their gardening plots.

Today my daughter showed the carrots which they grew there and carrot pancakes they made.





Cooking is one of the director's policy in education.
Thanks to the director's enthusiasm, my daughter get interested in cooking and she is eager to help my wife cooking.





At a corner of the playground I found many planters which were filled with
many flowers. All of them are also raised by the kids.







-- from iPod touch

Today's harvest

 Today's harvest is shown below. A bunch of spinaches.
 Today I thinned them out and brought them to my parents. 
 Spinaches remind me of Fukushima, where is not only devastated by the earthquake and nuclear crisis but a major production area of spinaches in Japan. The Japanese government announced that radioactivity has been detected from spinaches and milk produced in the area. All distribution of spinaches and milk have been limited with the nation's emergency policy. I feel it very sad that the farmers in the are will suffer not only from less profit but from harmful rumors saying the goods would be radioactive-contaminated. The detected radioactive is actually higher than the standard set by the Japanese government but it's still so weak that it's not harmful for human beings yet. I understand consumers could be sensitive to the rumor but we have to act on accurate information for avoiding unsubstantiated panics.  
-- from iPad

An interesting article in CNN - "Amid disaster, Japan's societal mores remain strong"

I found a noteworthy article about devastated Japanese from a viewpoint of an CNN reporter.
I think the article might give you a hint for understanding what Japanese character is like.

"Amid disaster, Japan's societal mores remain strong" on CNN

Planting potatoes

 Today I bought 1kg of potatoes (Danshaku) and planted in one of my planting beds after some preparation.

 Usually a potato has many buds or eyes around it but each seed potatoes should one or two buds on it so I cut them into a half before planting them.

 Cutting surface of the seed potatoes should be covered with ash powder, which can avoid disease infection.






 My son helped planting the seed potatoes in a bed.


 In the mid of June they will be grown with many potatoes, I believe.


-- from iPad