2020.5.28

It was cloudy.

I stayed at home all day long except harvesting butterbur (fuki 蕗) and Angelica keiskei (ashitaba 明日葉) at the garden at lunch time. 

This is the second time to harvest butterbur this spring, and the very first time for me to harvest and cook ashitaba. I have heard they are edible but I have never tried. 

They are just native and I have never taken care of them.

I feel lucky to have such food at hand.

2012.8.17

It was hot.
Today an ex-colleague came to the office and gave us a piece of vegetable called Goya (ゴーヤ), a bitter gourd which is famous in Okinawa (沖縄), the southernmost island of Japan.  These days it is very popular to plant goya which produces shade and vegetable. 
When we visited her house in June, she has just planted them to make a green curtain for energy saving and she harvested many these days and brought some of them to us to share.  That is very nice of her.
Goya is bitter but known to beat summer heat.

二月十五日（nigatsu jyugo nichi）： February 15

I read an interesting article in the newspaper today. There was the ranking of the vegetables which children like and dislike.
Top 10 of the favorite vegetables are No. 1 sweet potato, No. 2 edamame (枝豆:green soybeans), No. 3 potato, No. 4 corn, No. 5 tomato, No. 6 carrot, No. 7 cucumber, No. 8 broccoli, No. 9 pumpkin, No. 10 daikon (大根:Japanese radish).
Worst 10 of the dislikes vegetables are No. 1 piman (ピーマン: sweet green pepper), No. 2 mizuna (水菜: Potherb Mustard), No. 3 eggplant, No. 4 okra, No. 5 negi (ネギ:scallion), No. 6 nira (ニラ: chinese chive), No. 7 asparagus, No. 8 shiitake (シイタケ:shiitake mushroom), No. 9 gobo (ゴボウ: burdock), No. 10 takenoko (タケノコ:bamboo shoot).
Most of the favorite vegetables are found in other countries too. When I was in the United States, I was so surprised to know edamame is now so popular in the US too. They are often eaten with beer.
Cucumber in Japan is different from that of the US. They are slender. Japanese pumpkin is also a little bit different from the one I can find in the US. I could even find daikon in Florida.
When I was in WA in 1996, I was so surprised to know that American people eat raw broccoli, raw cauliflower, and raw mushroom. In Japan we usually boil or stir-fry them.