カテゴリー: Photographs

It was fine three days ago, but rainy today

So, the following photos were taken three days ago.

Iide mountains have not had snowfall yet. But I guess it will get it within a week.

The mountains are actually behind the sea. They are mountains on Sado Island.

There is a board on the fence at the border of expressway area. It reads; The expressway company collected illegally disposed trashes here. confirming the trashes and the monitoring camera, the company is pursuing the suspects.

Quickly Cooked in Sunday Night, It was Four Bottles of Fig Jams

Figs need to be processed quickly because the fruits get worse soon. Though I wanted to go to the bed early, I started cooking after dish washing.

When you cook fig compote, you don’t need to peel off. But I think it is better to peel off when making jams. If a fig is ripen, it is easy to peel it off.

The weight of Figs was 433 grams.

There was a leftover when I made apple jam a little while ago. Its weight was 151 grams. I mixed them with figs because I expected an effect of pectin of apple.

I usually use sugar of 50 percent weight of fruits when I cook jam. Probably 50 percent is a bit large portion when Japanese make a jam. But I am expecting the effect of sugar as preservative, though I am not sure the percentage is best for my purpose.

I chopped figs so that the jam would be a smooth one.

I put apple paste, beet sugar, and chopped fig into a pot. Oops! Too much for this pot!

Heating with gas fire, I stirred for fifteen minutes.

I tighten the lid of one bottle while the jam was hot. For other three, I loosely put the lids on the bottles and boiled them in a big pot. Having boiled for ten minutes, I took them out and tightened the lid with gloves.

Okay, I got four bottles of fig jam.

I hung up Eighteen Persimmons to Dry.

Persimmons we get in Niigata are usually bitter one. Those persimmons can’t be eaten if nothing has been done for the bitterness. There are several ways to get rid of bitterness from the persimmons, for example, just freezing them. But I like the way using strong alcohol. Yes, it should be stronger than 40 percent. I had done “Astringency Removal Process” with alcohol through the last week. And then I realized that there were too many persimmons to eat for two people who are my old mom and me.

So, I decided making “Dried Persimmons”. I peeled them, tied the strings, and sterilized them with boiling water.

And I hung them under the roof. This was yesterday. I added six this morning. So, there are eighteen persimmons that are being dried in the air. I hope they will get sunny days by coming winter. The climate in Niigata in late autumn is humid, which is not good for persimmons to dry.

I made Fig Compote

There are some fig trees in my garden. One of them is an old species that has been planted and harvested from very old times in Japan. These days I can get some fruits of that fig tree. It was like one in one day until last week, but the number increases these days. At time of this morning, I had six of them, and I thought they were a little more for eating fresh. So, I decided making Fig Compote.

They were 314 grams. Of course, the weight of container is deducted.

A cooking recipe on the web read the sugar should be 30 to 40 percent of the weight of fig. So, I just used beet sugar of one-third weight.

I had red wine, but not lemon juice. So, I poured one spoon of apple vinegar though I was not sure if it could be an alternative. Putting the pan on the gas stove, I heated it for fifteen minutes or so.

I think the color is beautiful but don’t know the taste because I haven’t eaten it yet. Once it has cooled, I will put it in the refrigerator.

A Local Supermarket I used to like Has been Swallowed by the bigger Drugstore Chain.

The store was closed two months ago and reopened with the new name one month ago. I haven’t been there since the closure. Today, I visited the store. Actually, it didn’t seem to be changed much. But I found that the corner of vegetables produced by nearby farmers was disappeared. Before closing, I asked one employee at cashier if she would work even after the change of management. She said yes, she would continue to work in the new store although she needed to learn a lot of things. But today, I couldn’t see any single face whom I knew well in the old store. It seemed like the operation of the store was rationalized and optimized, but for me, it is just desolated. I don’t think I will go there for buying daily food.

I’ve got a lot of Persimmons in this Fall

This is what I got yesterday.

And this is what I got today.

There are still some hanging on the tree. But I think now I have harvested more than a half of them. So far, I just use alcohol to eliminate bitterness. Though I want to apply the drying method, the remaining persimmons are not so many.