Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning
I am a native Japanese speaker who used to teach Japanese in a university somewhere on this planet. Currently I don't work but stayed in my house in Northern part of JAPAN. I hope that you could enjoy reading my posts and know what life in Japan is like.
But this time, the numbers were many, probably there were more than several hundreds of worms on my persimmon tree “Koyo”.
Last time I was stung by them, so I think I have been avoiding getting closer to the tree. But I should have been watching the tree carefully. If I have I found them earlier, the tree would have got less damage.
I cut many leaves and branches. It might be better to use pesticides.
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.
I have eaten the last persimmon “KOYO(TM)” at the supper just before. It was the last for eating raw. Still two KOYOs remain hanging under the roof to be dried persimmons. But anyway, I have harvested 29 KOYOs this autumn. It is a good variety of persimmon with trade mark, which is a popular bitter persimmon in Japan. I want to make the tree bigger in next year so that I will be able to get more.
Yesterday, I went to the town of Niigata. After I came home, I hang 14 persimmons to dry them. I can keep them longer by drying them.
A bird must have eaten part of Persimmon.
I processed five persimmons today. They are the last ones.
There are still other twenty persimmons of other kinds. They are small and have seeds inside. Rather than getting rid of bitterness by alcohol, I am thinking about making them “dried persimmons”.
A farmer does this thing one hundred, two hundred, or more. But I am not a farmer. And my persimmon trees are still young and small. They are not so productive yet. Today, I set six persimmons hung under the roof. Two behind are not today’s. Drying is another way to remove bitterness of persimmons. But weather in Niigata tends to be wet in this season, I am worrying about mold on the surface of them.
Tonight, I think it is more important for me to write a SNS message to one of my ex-students, rather than to post something here.
I harvested five persimmons in my garden.
I processed four persimmons for removing bitterness
By the way, I realized that notation software (to draw a music score) “Sibelius” of Avid is too difficult to learn. I have learned many computer-software since I started using a personal computer more than thirty years ago. Once I had mastered another notation software “Music Score3” of Silver Star Japan. But I’d say “Sibelius” is so difficult. It’s no way to use by intuition. Notes and rests change regardless of my intention. I am disappointed because, if many musicians can really use Sibelius, it just means that I am a stupid.
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.
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.
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.
Let me wait for ten days. I will post about if it has become sweet or not.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 