カテゴリー: cooking

I made two small bottles of lemon jam yesterday

Today was a cold day. Temperature was barely plus in Celsius. But I have been working in my garden most of the day.

I have done two tasks; making the support of persimmon “KOYO(tm)” more rigid, and pruning of several plum trees. The support for the persimmon tree is of course a measure for snow so that the branches will not break by the weight of snow. But not only for that, I aimed at growing each branch longer as I intended. This autumn, I could get only 29 of persimmons. I want more. So, I added longer support bars along branches, trimming short unnecessary branches, and buried fertilizer around the trunk.

As for the plum trees, they have grown too much high such that I cannot reach by my hand. I cut the long and tall branches. There are four plum trees and two prune trees in my garden. What I want most with those trees is to harvest from the tree of “Soldum”. For me, other three plums are just pollination trees so that the Soldum can have fruits. The plum Soldum was introduced from North America to Japan in early twenties century. Its appearance is actually not so great; sometimes it looks green. But inside is very beautiful red violet color. Since I planted the Soldum tree ten years ago, I have wanted to get fruits. But so far, I have got almost none. It is kind like: every year it gets less flower and less fruits, falling onto the ground before ripening, and then I get none. I think I need to learn better pruning, better fertilizer, and how to pollinate properly.

Although I worked outside today, I didn’t take a picture. The photo below is bottles of lemon jam and red-radish pickles. I made the lemon jam yesterday.

Worked in my Field in the Morning, went buying Food in the Afternoon, and cooked in the Evening

As the title indicates, today was just a normal day. The weather was fine in day time, but now strong wind and rain are making sound around my house.

This evening, I cooked a fish of sea-bream by cutting the whole one fish into slices and bones. Since I haven’t cut a sea-bream for so long, I couldn’t cut it well. Certain amount of meat remains on bone, and the slices became thin. I thought I need to cook a sea-bream often for learning a good skill to cut the fish. From today, my miso-soup will get taste of head and bones of the sea-bream that I cooked today. I will boil them two or three days.

Once I upload this post, I am going to arrange a song of “Sand Mountain（砂山）” using the software “Sibelius” (not a Finnish composer) for one hour or so. And then I will fall asleep in Futon which is now warmed up by Kotatsu. I feel that now my life is a kind of tranquil. Weather forecast says the temperature is going down tomorrow. I would like to stay at home in such a cold winter day.

Something on the top of the building of Japan Agricultural Association was hiding snow-covered Iide Mountains.

They are what I bought in the afternoon. The sea-bream was hidden under the bread. Two sweet cakes at the top left in the photo are to be offered to the alter of my father who passed away five years ago (I’ve already put them there).

Made Slices of Radish hang to Dry them

Only several radishes were still left on the ground in my field. I pulled all of them in the morning today. I chose two of six radishes, pared them off, cut in six slices, and hung those slices from the ceiling. I was not sure which was better to dry them outside or inside, but this time I hang them inside house, at the place where the air-conditioner’s warm air blows.

In the afternoon, my elder sister came to my house. She, the only sibling of mine, comes once a month to see my(her) mother. But she stays at my house only two to three hours only. Today, she came at two, left at four in the afternoon. So, no lunch together, not much conversation, she just brought some fruits and music CD. My mother always complains, saying “Why she comes? What she is going to do when coming here?”.

I guess that my sister wants to show that she is also taking a care of my mother. When it comes to taking care of old parents, how each sibling shares the care tends to be a cause of conflict between siblings. Since I am single, just living in my deceased father’s house. She is eighty-six years old, still can wash and clean, but no longer cooks herself. So, I cook all the meals for my mother (and me). I take much care of my mother more than my sister, but I don’t have any bad feeling about my sister. Coming here once a month, I think that is the best she can do. And spending 19,600JPY (approx.125USD) for high-speed trains to come here is not that cheap.

When my sister came, I was out. I went to a DIY shop to buy fertilizer for field and soils for pot. I recently bought a fertilizer of phosphorus and potassium. That one was okay, but I also needed another fertilizer having three ingredients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N, P, K) balanced. And I bought two packages of soil for using in a pot; one was soil in which water can go through easily, the other was acidic soil for blueberries.

A day without rain is precious in late autumn in Niigata, northern JAPAN.

It’s the First Time for me to grow Pea in my garden

This year, I have tried growing pea. This is the first time for me. I actually have some experiences to grow other type of beans, though most of the time I failed to grow them well. When I came back Japan in the summer, I was just looking for vegetable seeds that can be planted in August and September. Then I found seeds of pea on the shelves of DIY shop. I bought the seeds and planted them on my garden.

Beans like soils whose PH is slightly acidic to neutral soil. As for peas, they like more alkaline soil. So, I had mixed a lot of oyster shell lime with the soil in my garden.

When a pea has grown up this size, I pick and cook it. But I have a little problem with this pea. There is a fiber on upper edge of the shell. The fiber needs to be removed at cooking because it cannot be soft by chewing. Removing the fibers from the shell takes some minutes in cooking. Next time I plant pea in my garden, I want to get seeds that has been improved not to have fibers so that I can save the time for cooking.

I hung slices of radish (Daikon) to dry them for preservation, today

I harvested three Daikon(s) from my field today. I wanted to make “Dried Daikon”so that I can keep Daikon longer.

Only two in the photo, but this photo was taken after I had cut one radish. You can see some peels which was the first radish.

Since I didn’t know how to tie them to hang, it was difficult for me to do this. But somehow, I made it.

I hope that no mold propagates especially at the part where cords are attaching

The First Harvest of Red-core Radish; I made it pickled in vinegar.

Red-core Radish that I planted in my garden

Pickling liquid contains Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, and Water

Green Leaves of the Radish were used in Miso-soup

I need to take my mother to a big hospital tomorrow morning. The hospital is located in very inconvenient place. It is too far to walk from the railway station. I don’t know why that location was selected at the time of planning. But they may say, it is next to the interchange of an expressway, so it would help a lot in the case of emergency of a patient in local area behind. But you know, an interchange of an expressway would never be constructed in the center of a city.

Anything on the ground in Niigata is planned, designed, and constructed with precondition that everyone in the society moves by a car. People without car would never be given a consideration at all. I have a driver’s license, but don’t have a car because I don’t like driving. I am not going to blame anyone who drives a car, but I myself feel uncomfortable to drive a car on the road, especially with a concept that an individual person’s car runs and occupies a certain area of public road. One concern is safety, and the other issue for me is that a public road often becomes a battle ground where each individual person’s interests crush, even though physical crush happens not so often (it should be). I know my driving technique is poor and is likely to make other people angry with me.

Anyway, I hope that the retest of tomorrow will not result in a major health problem of my mother.

 These days I hardly see the pear “Twentieth Century” in a supermarket

Now it’s twenty-first century. But when I was a kid, it was twentieth century. Interestingly enough, there was one kind of pears whose name was “Nijyusseiki”. This “Nijyusseiki” means “Twentieth Century（二十世紀）”. When I was a kid, I had eaten that pear quite often, because it was a major pear in Japan. But recent years, it is very rare to see the “Twentieth Century” on the shelves in supermarkets. According to a book that I bought recently, the percentages of planting areas are as follows : 幸水(Kousui) 40%, 豊水(Housui) 27%, 新高(Niitaka) 9%, 二十世紀(Nijyusseiki) 9%*. In my impression, those major pears like Kousui and Housui are sweeter than Nijyusseiki. I think that is the reason why Nijyusseiki is no longer a major pear in the supermarkets in Japan.

There is a small corner in the supermarket where I go once in two days. The corner sells products coming through the more direct supply route from farmers. I found that the pear “Twentieth Century” was being sold by 500 JPY in that corner. There were four in one package. It was rare and I just wanted to taste what I ate in my childhood again. I bought one package.

Oh, by the way, I really want you to know that a grilled fish must be placed with its head towards LEFT. It is one of the very basics of Japanese cuisine. However, you see in the above photo, the fish’s head facing right. It is natural to place the grilled fish with its belly in front, and its back in the back. So, this type of flounder (鰈：カレイ) is put on a dish so that it would face right. Otherwise, the fish would be up-side-down. In the other type of flounder (平目：ヒラメ) is put on a dish facing left like other fishes.

*伴野潔ほか、”農学基礎シリーズ 果樹園芸学の基礎”, 一般社団法人 農村漁村文化協会, 2013.10.25, p24, 図2-II-3

I found Two Roses blooming in my Garden. What a Peaceful Autumn Day

I worked in my garden in the morning hours, went to a supermarket for shopping in the afternoon, practiced piano at 4p.m., and cooked supper. Now today is going to end.

White flower of climbing rose

This rose’s name is “Princesse de Monaco”

Persimmons on the tree are getting color

What I bought today. I have already eaten the horse mackerels by grilling

Oh, by the way, I wrapped one persimmon three days ago in order to get rid of bitterness. I didn’t expect, but it had turned to be soft. If I had waited some days more, it would have melted. So, I have already eaten it just before. It was not good. Soft but not sweet. I guess that is because the persimmon was not ripened well. I will try again to remove bitterness of persimmons with fully yellow one.

Cooking from Scratch

I cook for me and my old mother every day. What I always try in my cooking is to avoid a processed food and to cook from the scratch. I go to a supermarket frequently and always buy food that is natural ingredients. I need to buy vegetables, fruits, fishes, egg, meat, and so on. luckily enough, I don’t need to buy green vegetables recently, because I can get them from my garden.

Daikon Leaves that I got from my Garden

Daikon leaves eventually become too hard to chew. So, it is important to use young leaves by thinning in early stage of their growing

I cook, because my mother can no longer cook, though it is still okay for her to boil water with a kettle, and to wash the dishes. Old people gradually lose their functions in daily life. It is more obvious in the case of dementia. The important thing is to let them do what they can do by using their remaining functions. My mother still has one important function, that is shopping. She can go to a supermarket and a convenience store nearby (, though she uses cash).

Salad that my mother bought today from a convenience store.

Going shopping by herself is basically good, however, here’s another problem. She buys what she wants to eat like oily food and/or processed food which her son is trying to avoid. When she comes back home, she shows me what she bought. And I always see those unhealthy foods. I wonder what is inside salad which says its expiry is the morning of the day after tomorrow. I feel the taste of chemical preservatives whenever eating a such salad.

A lot of chemicals are being used in the processed food

It seems that most people like the taste of processed food of convenience stores. But I don’t like them. For me, taste of those foods is just of chemical seasonings. Therefore, I cook by myself from the scratch with natural ingredients.

A single fruit of Persimmon, if it falls into the Earth

I found that a persimmon fell onto the ground in my garden this morning. Since its color was not orange but pale yellow, the fruit had not ripened enough yet. Although I was going to throw it at first, but changed my mind and decided to remove bitterness. I am expecting that I will be able to get some 20-30 fruits of persimmon within a month. Even though it’s just one persimmon, I thought it could be a practice of removing bitterness from persimmons.

Persimmon and strong alcohol (must be more than 40%)

Soak the stem part in alcohol.

Put into plastic bags and tightly seal them (I used three bags)

Let me wait for ten days. I will post about if it has become sweet or not.