Mountain sakura a-blooming...

Good morning from Calgary, Canada...
Am now here, visiting the University of Calgary for some business...
The temperature is minus one degree... not too bad although it snowed two days ago...

Anyway, before leaving home last Sunday (25th), had the privilege to enjoy viewing the blooms of our 山桜 Yamazakura or literally, Mountain Sakura or Wild Sakura, if you like...

'Mountain' or 'Wild' in that, they grow 'naturally' on their own accord along the lower end of the slopes of our property...
There are three yamazakuras at our place, and this one is the first to bloom...

The flower is no doubt, pretty, but for me, the pink shades of the bud waiting to bloom, is perhaps somewhat more 'titillating' to the senses... no?

Cauliflower, the mini and the normal...

Am now actually transiting at Singapore Changi Airport, waiting for my flight to Osaka...
Had spend a few days at Perth meeting up with some fine folks at the University of Western Australia...

Here is a post that I did not get to upload successfully before leaving for Perth the other day...

I have tried growing cauliflower on and off for a while... this picture above shows the mini-cauliflower we had.... it was only about 4 centimeters across... oohooo....
Still, a lovely vegetable it is...

Cauliflower apparently originates from around the Mediterranean region...
That veggie is an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin K, and folate...

It is a very good source of vitamin B5, potassium, dietary fiber, manganese, and molybdenum. Additionally, it is a good source of protein, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, and iron. (Source)

Yes, folate... what is this stuff, anyway....

Answer: Folate helps tissues grow and cells work.

This one was about 10 centimeters across... a little bit more 'normal' than the first one...

According to the same web source, boiling reduces the levels of these compounds, with losses of 20–30% after five minutes, 40–50% after ten minutes, and 75% after thirty minutes.
However, other preparation methods, such as steaming or stir frying have no significant effect on the compounds.

Furthermore, a high intake of cauliflower has been associated with reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

But sometimes I wonder, how much volume is this 'high intake' thingy...  hopefully, it is not like having to eat three heads of cauliflower per day to enjoy this benefit... no?
Am just being cheeky here.... ;=)

Anyway, my suweeto haato cooked a really delicious curry with the cauliflower... that dish once again reminded me of how excellent the taste of home-grown veggies are, really....

Red 'ume' and three greens

Our two white Japanese 'ume' somehow bloom earlier than the red one... 

The white is lovely, but hmm, in my humble opinion, the red is perhaps more radiant... no?

Early spring sees the greens from autumn, bolting... 

This specimen is the 山東菜 or Shantong Sai, a Chinese green...

I grew quite a lot of 小松菜 Komatsuna last autumn... 

This is one of their 'remnants', should I say?

And ターサイ Ta-sai (another Chinese green) too, which is the favorite of my sweeto haato... 

Yes, when the greens bolt, we harvest the young buds and treat them as 菜の花 Nanohana...

We just lightly boil them and sprinkle some sesame seeds over them... 

Their taste... a little bitter-ish perhaps? 

But delicious, in any case... 

The lone lemon, potatoes, spinach...

We bought the lemon tree seedling in April 2006...
Five years later, it gave us the first fruit...
Yes, the one and only precious, precious lemon...
Other than the seeds, we used the whole lemon in our cooking... that is, the flesh and the peel...

Three days ago, I almost let out a howl when my sweeto haato told me that most of our (purple and orange) sweet potatoes had become rotten...
Reason was, I did not bother to cure them after I harvested them last autumn...
I imagined we could finish consuming them before they can even have a chance to rot...
Ooh, that was a painful lesson...
Anyway, the above picture shows one of my favorite foods, cooked by my better-half of course... boiled (purple) sweet potatoes spruced up with onions, garlic, black pepper, olive oil, a little salt, and vinegar... 

Didn't have a problem with the other type of potatoes...
The harvest was too little, and it didn't take us long to consume them all...
I love the potato salad with mustard seeds, whipped up by my sweeto haato...

Our spinach is doing not too badly although they are quite 'mini' due to over-crowding...
I am quite hopeless in 'thinning-out' the vegetables as they grow...
Even then, mini as they are, they are delicious just the same...
Picture shows a common home-cooked dish of spinach with sesame seed, sesame oil, a dash of salt, a little brown sugar, and black pepper...