Have you ever eaten blacken fern? It is called “warabi” in Japanese and very popular in Japan as wild spring food. Last week we visited our friend nearby and found them on her property. She told us they are poisonous but we couldn’t help picking them. As it is normally done in Japan, we soaked…
Bees and ladybugs are back! The rice that we planted on Mar. 23 have sprouted and are growing. A little guy pushing a chunk of soil made us smile. Last week’s to do list #1 was: reset irrigation system. It took Kenji 2 days and it is up and running now. Unfortunately, it does not…
These are Kenji’s projects last week: Kenji used to work for a Japanese manufacturing company in automotive industry and he loves to apply 5S to our farm operation. He built a shelf and a table for produce packing station with left over materials from our house construction. They are both very strong and sturdy. In…
Last Tuesday, we harvested, cooked and ate Fuki. Fuki (aka: Giant butterbur) is a “delicacy” of spring in Japan. When I was a child, there was a patch of Fuki right beside my path to school. They were taller than me (well, I was a small child even for my age) and leaves were huge.…
Finally, it feels like spring. Our outside Christmas tree became a favorite spot for a little bird. As new farmers, we have small excitements all the time. Of the photos below, can you tell which one is tomato and which one is chard? Photo 1 is tomato and photo 2 is chard. I didn’t know…
It has been cold and rainy and even christmas cactus thinks it is time to bloom… However, it is not time for holidays for us. In our propagation house, lettuces are growing. Bok choi and kales started to germinate. We planted seeds of eggplant, broccoli, more lettuce, and some rice for experiment. We used to…
This week we have a good news and a bad news… Let us start with a bad news. In our greenhouse, we noticed that some of the komatsuna and mizuna were eaten. Didn’t look like slugs. It shouldn’t be crows as the greenhouse doors were closed. We set several mouse traps, and caught 7 in…
Half of the January already past… so fast. For the month of February, we will go to Japan to visit our family and visit some farms and bakeries. We promise that we will be back in March with new ideas and more energy. We are sorry to miss markets for a month but luckily our…
Can you guess where the green color of this chiffon cake come from? (It is not green tea…) The answer is “Komatsuna”. In Tokyo, there is an area where Komatsuna is their strategic crop and they have a lot of Komatsuna farmers and restaurants and cafes specializing in Komatsuna dishes. Komatsuna soba Komatsuna tofu They…
How did you welcome new year? New years day is the biggest holiday in Japan. We asked our son to bring ingredients from Vancouver (as there is no asian grocery store in Gabriola…) and made some new year’s dishes. Each dish has a meaning. Shrimp is for longevity from the shape that the back is…
