Skip to main content

A Clean Slate















This morning Takashi-san plowed in the compost, seaweed, wood ash, eggshells, chicken manure, and bacteria spread yesterday to boost the garden soil. Next week I hope to do a bit of planting, and work on preparing the garlic bed.

Here's my current list of winter vegetables:
The first seven I grew last year, and savored every last morsel. I'm quite excited to grow them again, and plan to do a bit of blanching and freezing in preparation for the somewhat greens bleak summer months.

The next four - Chinese cabbage, kale, beets, and swiss chard - I have either not grown on my own or only grown as summer vegetables. As I've mentioned before, I'm going to experiment with them as winter vegetables. I think the greens will be particularly happy and should be relatively bug free due to the cold temperatures.

Garlic I have grown, and even though this last year it was a bit of a failure, I'm going to try again. I picked up some very nice looking organic garlic from EcoPlaza while doing an interview with the Earth Day Market folks that I think will grow nicely. I'm also reading up on what garlic likes best for growing, and plan to incorporate as much of that as possible. Thoughts and ideas, of course, are welcome!
Labels:

Comments

~fer said…
Sounds like it will be a nice season.
I am planting komatsuna too, the seeds are so funny, blue and small.
September 25, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Joan Lambert Bailey said…
Komatsuna seeds are funny. I always enjoy seeing seeds as they are often surprising. It is still simply amazing to me that so much can come from one tiny thing.
September 26, 2010 at 8:13 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finding Heirloom Seeds in Japan

Drying pods of heirloom Hutterite Soup Beans. Since moving to Japan eight years ago, one of my greatest challenges as a farmer-gardener has been to find heirloom or open-pollinated seeds. The majority of seeds available are not GMO (genetically modified organisms) as Japan, at this point, doesn't accept this material. Most seeds, though, are nearly all F1 varieties. Heirloom and F1 Varieties In plant breeding, F1 is the name given to the first generation of a cross between two true breeding parents. For example, if I decide to cross an Amish Paste Tomato with another heirloom variety tomato such as Emmy, in hopes of getting a gold paste tomato, the resulting generation of fruit is F1. In order to get that tomato of my culinary dreams, I'll need to choose members of that first generation that are headed in a direction I like - early ripening, medium-sized fruit, good taste - and save their seeds. I'll plant them and repeat the process again and again over time unti
4 comments
Read more

Satoimo: One of Japan's Favorite Slimy Things

Satoimo in all their hairy glory. This post first appeared in slightly different form on Garden to Table as part of the 2012  Blogathon . The website has since moved on to the ether, but the post is still a good one. After all, people here are still eating satoimo on a daily basis, and many others are just seeing these little potato-like objects for the first time. Enjoy! Satoimo is one of Japan's odder vegetables. Under it's rough, slightly furry skin is white flesh that is a little bit slimy even raw, and with a gentle nutty flavor.* Baked, grilled, steamed with dashi, or deep-fried satoimo stands well on its own or paired up with other vegetables and meats in a wide variety of soups and stews . (The leaves are also edible.) Satoimo stores well, and like any root crop worth the effort, stocks are just running low on this household favorite as the farmers in my area of Tokyo get ready to put a new crop in the ground in May. I cannot say I was a fan of this l
4 comments
Read more

Goma Ai Shingiku - Sesame and Chrysanthemum Greens

Last week I had the pleasure of helping some friends work in their parents garden not too far away. Tucked behind the house, the garden sits on a former house lot. When it came up for sale about five years ago, my friend's father jumped at the chance. Open land in Tokyo can be hard to find and expensive, but for a retired professional looking for a little spot to till in the city it was an opportunity to good to pass up. Now, it is a garden to envy. As we came through the gate rose, lily, and peony blooms greeted us with great shouts of color while rows of vegetables stood tidily at attention on the sunny center stage. Small fruit trees along with one of the biggest sansho trees I've seen yet stood quietly here and there. Near waist-high sweet corn, bushy young potato plants, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, and beans were preparing their summer fruits, while a handful of still quite luscious looking winter vegetables like komatsuna, mizuna, and kabu held one last ro
4 comments
Read more