Pumpkin 'art' and the two loofahs...

Pumpkins are believed to originate from North America...
The Japanese call them 'kabocha', which rhymes with Kampuchea...
Apparently, to the Japanese, the pumpkin came into Japan from Cambodia, hence the name...

Our pumpkin harvest is not too bad this year...

All in all, we manage to harvest seven fruits of this 'Ebisu' specie...

With no scissors on hand, I just ripped the stalks off from this pumpkin...
And woah, do I see a 'bird' here?

And this one... a little monster flexing its muscles?

Now, the loofah is supposed to originate from India...
We grow both types...
The pictures above shows the Egyptian loofah which is rather smooth-skinned...

I observe that it flowers in the morning...

The second type is the angled loofah...

They seem to prefer flowering in the evening...

My sweeto haato prefers the smooth-skinned Egyptian... better taste, she says...
Rather unfortunately for her, our angled loofahs were more productive this season...
Perhaps, 43 angled loofahs compared to about 30 Egyptian loofahs...
In any case, we usually make soups out of them...

A fling with the evening primrose...

Hmmm... another big typhoon is heading our way...

This time, it is Typhoon Number 15...

Anyway, in between the intermittent rains and winds, had been keeping busy at the potager...

Pulled out some 'weeds' yesterday, knowing quite well that the 'weed' is the evening primrose...

Had read about the primrose being a 'miracle' plant yet to be fully discovered...

And today, decided to check up the plant a little bit more...

Found very, very little information on how to cook the stuff...
One blog, 'Wild Blessings' stood out... 

And it says, Evening Primrose is a magnificent gift from God.  The whole plant is edible and medicinal.  This is one of those prime examples of “Letting food be your medicine and medicine be your food”.... 

Sounds very inviting...

So I thought to myself... hmmm, would like to have soup with it... perhaps cream-based?

But the chief cook (my 'suweeto-haaato', of course) vetoed and decided to boil the thing for me...

Took some bites... tough meat... feels somewhat 'sappy'...

A little bit like moroheya but not quite...

Would not say that it tastes good... 

Wifey also tried to stir-fry it... 

Still, no cigar... 

Ok, so our taste buds are not very agreeable with this 'wild, miracle' vegetable...

Very well then... taking a leaf from a Japanese homepage, we shall try to dry the leaves and make tea out of it instead...

Why not, as the evening primrose is all over our property... 

They have very pretty flowers... yellow and pink... 

Two of them, the 'straight' type and the 'creeping' type are tall and they have yellow flowers...
The third type is very short and they have very beautiful pink flowers... 

Photos? Ok, the yellow ones in a while but the pinks ones will have to wait for next season...

Anyway, will definitely try to make tea out of them...

Been enjoying our harvests continuously... meaning to say, everyday...

The fruits are the usual suspects...

Okra, peppers, moroheya, amaranth, Malabar spinach, bitter gourd, long beans, winged beans, basil, korean perilla, water spinach, Japanese yam, tomatoes... etc...

So, no repeat of 'boring' pictures... :)

Except perhaps this pumpkin with its 'whiskers' might be an exception...



The loofahs are coming on rather late for us this year... 

Blame it on the farmer for the late and slow germination of the seeds...

While the angled loofahs are popping out quite well, giving abundant fruits of 30 centimeters long, the Egyptian loofahs are not doing as well...

And like (well, almost) all things, while the man of the house prefers this type, the lady of the house opts for the other...

So, you can assume that I shall be channeling more energy on growing the Egyptian type next season... yeepeee...
And yes, I love this gourd... 

Of late, we have been putting it in curries and noodles, besides stir-frying them...

Angled loofah

We were growing the smooth loofah (aka Egyptian loofah) for sometime now...
My missus initially bought a seedling and we have been using the seeds for several seasons now...
It taste a bit like eggplant...
Then, I bought some angled loofah seeds from Bangkok...
And woah, we are blessed with a constant supply of loofahs...
Except for the people of Okinawa, the Japanese people apparently do not eat them...
However, I gave them to several of my neighbors to try...
I think the angled ones taste a little sweeter than the egyptian ones...
They can measure up to 50 centimeters, and weigh up to 200 grams...
I love them in soups or stir fry...
Tonight, we are going to sink our teeth into this lovely vegetable...

Autumn delights

Mid to late autumn is the season when the morning sun rays are well positioned to light up one of our three stone lanterns...
This lantern sits right in our view as we chew on our breakfast goodies each morning...


Your truly is not much of a vegetable gardener as yet... the dry summer almost killed the eggplants but the autumn rains save the day for us... so, we got to taste these plump looking fuits...


Plus, of course, our favorite bitter gourd, and the loofah which made good soup... oooh...


These are Jalapeno peppers... not that spicy so to say... but they are quite meaty and delicious to savor...


For some years, I have failed to produce any pumpkin from the garden... but this year, woah, 14 pumpkins big and small... cooked one small one the other day, and hmmm, wholesome, chewy, and not overly sweet... we are keeping them for winter consumption... waaah...