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Sayuri’s notes for 6/24/23
It’s hard to remember now that it was a warm and wet February and we had a freeze warning on March 12 that brought a 24 degree night. Because of the wet weather in February which made plowing impossible, our potato planting was late. April 2 and 3, we were finally able to plant 100 lb of Red Pontiac potatoes, Joe’s favorite. I thought 50 lb would be enough for us, but Joe bought another 50 lb! We weeded and covered the soil a couple of times. The potato plants have been growing beautifully, and I only saw one potato beetle this year! That’s good! We had a big problem with potato beetles when the kids were little. We picked them off of the plants together and offered them to our neighbor Tom and Vivian’s guinea fowl, who only ate bugs, but they turned their beaks up at our potato beetles. Back then, I was afraid that they would return to our potato plants again.
Planted potatoes on April 2nd, 2023
Weeded and mounded on April 22nd, 2023
Growing more, May 18th, 2023
potato flowers, June 2nd, 2023
June 21st was the summer solstice, the longest daytime and now we have new potatoes.
Since we planted the potatoes back in early April, their journey to this curry tonight took 83 days and the ones that are still in the ground will continue to grow, hopefully..if the voles don’t eat them first! When you dig potatoes, I always feel like I’m finding buried treasure. There are many different new potato dishes to choose from, but I decided to cook Japanese style curry for tonight’s dinner. The spices help your body handle the hot summer weather and cooking the potatoes in curry is supposed to help capture their nutrients.
Working in the garden is hot and sweaty work, even though we work in the morning and in the evening, until the fireflies float up from the plants to the sky. By dusk, it's finally nice and cool and beautiful. You might stay and see the fireflies this evening, or visit us some other evening just as it’s getting dark. In Japan, we also have a summer custom of watching fireflies at dusk.
We had a lot of rain this week. Enough rain fell on the first day for the whole week, already. We needed rain but not that hard and all at once. The June rainy season in Japan is called Tsuyu. When I was a child, I liked walking in the rain with an umbrella, looking at the blooming hydrangeas, and searching for snails. By the way, last winter’s cold weather killed the hydrangeas branches in the garden, so we may not see any flowers this year.
In Japan, when it rains a lot, there is a custom to make a prayer while making priest dolls called Teru Teru bōzu, which is supposed to help stop the rain and bring the sun. If you wish for a sunny day on an event like a field trip, sports day, or picnic, you use white paper or cloth and make it the day or a couple of days before. While making theTeru Teru bōzu, many people sing the Teru Teru bōzu’s song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMlguyeKek8). I saw a flood watch forecast on Tuesday and we don’t want a flood, so I made sevenTeru Teru bōzu!
Menu
Salad
Salad
Bergam’s green leaf lettuce, kale, cabbage, cucumbers, sliced onion with homemade miso ginger dressing
Main
Main
new potato and summer squash Japanese style chicken (chickpeas) curry rice with parsley (onion, red potatoes, yellow squash, carrots, ginger, garlic, mixed brown and wild rice)
Dessert
Dessert
buckwheat crepes with strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, black walnut ice cream and chocolate sauce
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