• Softening the Edges

    PotatoEdgingA

    Ever notice when you cut raw potatoes how sharp the edges are? If you’re cooking for someone you love, take a minute or two to do something about those edges. Do you really want to serve them sharp-edged potatoes? Before cooking them, it’s easy to soften the edges with a peeler. Just run the peeler over the cut edges. With the edges softened, the potatoes will be easier to eat once they are cooked.

    PotatoEdgingB
    PotatoEdgingC

    With their edges softened, the potato pieces will look more appetizing in dishes like potato salad, curry rice, and niku-jyaga 肉じゃが.

    PotatoEdgingD

    What to do with trimmed off edges? Toss them in a salad, put them in soup, mince them and use them to thicken stews, or let the chickens have them along with the other scraps you have for them. They’ll turn them into wonderful eggs.

    PotatoEdgingE

  • Animal Love

    AnimalLove

    These are Woody (the white cat, 15 years old) and Rusty (the orange cat, 9 years old). Nine summers ago, Woody lost his sister, Winnie. She died suddenly from cardiomyopathy. He was so depressed afterwards that it was clear he needed another cat to be with. We brought little Rusty home from The N.O.A.H. Center for him. Rusty was a feral kitten who was rescued by the center. It took just a few days for Woody and Rusty to become best of friends. Below are some pictures from 2005 soon after we brought Rusty home.

    RustyA
    RustyB

    Love and companionship is a basic need of many animals, not just people. It’s impossible to farm without love. It’s like a fundamental nutrient which plants and animals won’t thrive without.

  • Out of the Garden Today – August 21, 2014

    LeeksCut

    The smell of a leek, pulled out of the ground just a few minutes before chopping, is intense. And since I have the whole leek to work with, not just the parts the grocer thought I should have, I can play with the long leaves. Draped over the kitchen sink, they look like the tentacles of a sea creature crawling out of the deep, in search of prey.

    LeeksLeaves

  • Is She or Isn’t She?

    IsSheOrIsntShe

    The last few days, Lucky has acted like she is going broody. She was sitting on her nest all afternoon so there is a good chance she is ready to to incubate eggs. Lucky is a special hen. When she was a chick, she suffered an injury on the back of her head and had to be kept away from her siblings and mother. She beeped and beeped and beeped for them. To this day, she has a bald spot on the back of her head which gives her a distinctive look.

    If she has gone broody, she’ll be able to have that wonderful, warm family experience she missed as a child. She has a very outgoing personality and is one of the first hens to come running when I dig in the gardens.

  • Planning Ahead 400~500 Years

    When it comes to vegetable farming, success requires planning. To have lettuce or cabbage or cucumbers ready for sale on a given date, you need to plant them two, three, four months in advance in sufficient quantities.

    There is also longer term planning. Each year you need to rotate your vegetable beds so that you don’t plant the same thing in the same bed. Some vegetables need more rotation time than others, so you need to think two, three, four, even five years in advance where you are going to plant what.

    However, most vegetable farmers aren’t thinking about what their vegetable plots or farming needs are going to be 400 years from now. But those who look after Kiyomizu-dera (clear water or pure water temple) in Kyoto, are planning what the temple will need 400 to 500 years from now.

    The temple was founded in 798 and in 1629 there was a great fire which destroyed the temple. It was rebuilt soon after. The current temple was constructed in 1633. The main part of the temple is built on the side of the hill and as you can see in the photos below, it is supported by numerous tall pillars made from massive zelkova trees, felled when they were hundreds of years old.

    KiyomizuderaEntrance
    KiyomizuderaA
    KiyomizuderaB
    KiyomizuderaC
    KiyomizuderaD
    KiyomizuderaFoundationA
    KiyomizuderaFoundationB

    The temple is in the midst of a grand restoration project. During the restoration process, sections of the temple are painstakingly taken apart, the wood examined to see which sections need to be replaced, and which sections can still be used. When the restoration project is completed, the pillars supporting the temple should last hundreds of years more. However, at some point, the pillars will need to be replaced.

    There are 139 zelkova tree pillars in the temple. To replace them requires trees that are 400 to 500 years old, but finding such old lumber these days is difficult. So to make sure there are plenty of 400 to 500 year old zelkova trees in the future, according to an interview in 2006 with then head Buddhist priest of the temple, Seihan Mori, the temple has planted groves of zelkova trees on its own land. Mr. Mori said, “By the time the trees have grown 400 years, we will all be dead. However, we want to die, knowing that we have made sure there will be trees for the temple in the future.” Now that is planning ahead.

    How are we living so that 400 to 500 years from now, our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren will have a world as beautiful as the one we live in now? Much of what we do, seems hell-bent on making sure nothing is left in a few decades.

    KiyomizuderaForestA
    KiyomizuderaForestB