Getting good and healthy sprouts of summer vegetables

 Today I visited my wife's aunt, who are very kind to give sprouts of kinds of summer vegetables like mini-tomatoes, peas, and black chilies. They are on my list of summer vegetables this year and I'm very happy to get those good and healthy sprouts from her aunt who are a master of vegetable farming.

 I, my wife's aunt and her friends, who always help her farming, enjoyed talking about the weather in our local area, tips on growing good vegetables and so on.


 They were preparing to packing small onions and komatunas. I was very shocked with the color of their harvests! Their leaves were truly dark but bright green while my leaves are pale and faint. They gave me an advice that I should add more organic fertilizers like cow manure and oil cakes.

 Finally, I got 5 sprouts of peas, 3 of mini tomatoes and 4 of black chilies.







 The black chilies are so rare that we can't find the seed and sprout in our local home centers and even seed shops since they are not distributed to markets in Japan. They are an indigenous chili in Nara which were developed there about 100 years ago.
 I had been wanting to grow the chili since I saw them in her vegetable plot so I'm very excited!


-- from iPod touch

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.