タグ: daikon

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.

Seven Radishes (Daikon) are kept under the Ground for Preservation

This morning, I buried seven radishes in the soil in order to keep them fresh. Although cutting all the green leaves of radish is better for preservation, I cut them so that 5 centimeters (2 inches) of green leaves would remain. It is because I think I can find a radish easily by green leaves on the ground as a mark, especially when they are covered with snow.

They are only seven. I thought I should have planted more radish in August. If one radish lasts 3 days, 7 radishes could last only 21 days. Winter continues three months. Vegetables available in winter are precious.

From the seven radishes, I could also get a lot of green leaves. Before cooking supper tonight, I washed them, boiled several minutes, and put them in three Tupperware. I think now three Tupperware have cooled down, so I am going to put the three in freezer after I upload this post.

A long time ago, when I was living in US, one day I was going to buy a radish in a supermarket. A lady working at the cashier called the radish “Daikon”. I was a little surprised because “Daikon” was a Japanese “大根”.