More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

The garden takes a lot of my time. I am usually always behind schedule, but this year the weather was behind schedule so I was actually caug...

There is something deeply satisfying and fulfilling bringing back barrowloads of food from the garden. I am led to believe that shopping is ...

Millet hung up to dry. Been very busy this past month. I don't grow any rice, so I haven't needed to harvest that like everyone else...

I was struck by the late afternoon sun shining through the leaves of the satoimo plants. Called taro in English, they still have a month or ...

Every year the garden is different. Some veggies grow better some years than others. It depends somewhat on timing, but more importantly on ...

Before moving to the Japanese countryside, my experiences of gardening were all in the desert, so learning to grow food in Japan has been a ...

Umeboshi, pickled plums, can most often be found in bentos, where a single plum is placed in the center of the rice to look like the Japanes...

Mulberry trees used to be a lot more common in the old days, and most farmhouses had some planted around them. There are a few of them near ...

A couple of video, with commentary, on what's going on in my veggie gardens right now. The first is from the riverside garden, and the s...

It's takenoko season!! The shoots of new Giant Bamboo are now poking up from the ground and free food is to be had for the taking. The b...

There is not a lot to harvest this month, a little spinach, the last of the cabbage, spring onions, and a sack of carrots. Mostly this month...

Red cabbage, or in Japanese, Murasikikabestu, which means purple cabbage, never seems to grow as big as regular green cabbage, but I always ...

This should really be "daily harvest", as we get eggs every day. We currently have 15 chickens, from a high of about 25 a few mont...

Kabetsu, known as cabbage in English, grow most of the year. It took me a few years to realize that without using chemical pesticides they a...

Coming from northern Europe, I still am delighted by the fact that gardens in Japan keep producing all year long and the ground doesn't ...

Chinese cabbage, or Pak Choi, is known as hakusai in Japanese, and is common in most gardens. It has been grown in it's native China for...

Had a great taro harvest this year. I had never eaten taro until I came to Japan, and they have become one of my favorite vegetables, not ...

November Harvest Persimmons Been picking what's left of the persimmons . The monkeys took most of them. I don't begrudge them thei...

The Daikon are now big enough to start being harvested. Daikon literally means "big root", but it is commonly called Giant Radish ...