I Hate Wild Boars

It all started about a week ago.
The dog started barking like mad. I thought, maybe it is just a cat or something, and went back to reading my book. But the barking continued, so I went out to check. When I got down to the dog, I heard something very very large moving away from my taro patch. Oh no... I thought. The full moon shone down on a pig about the size of a small house, waddling away from my beloved elephant ears patch... Speaking of them, WHY COULDN'T I SEE THEIR USUAL 150CM HIGH SHAPES?!!?!?!?!? I let the dog loose and he chased a pig four times his size into the bamboo.

The Taro Boar Disaster Aftermath

I hate boars.

The next day I harvested, or should I say salvaged the last 10Kg or so. I suppose 10% is better than none... It doesn't feel like it when you look at though... Then I took the dog for a walk down past the bottom garden. WHERE WERE MY FALL POTATOES??????

I hate boars.

Then I noticed that the net fence I lent our friend who is gardening on a little patch by ours...I thought:
WHERE WERE HER SWEET POTATOES?
and also
HOW MUCH CAN ONE BOAR EAT IN A NIGHT?????!??!?!?  Whew, I guess he only ate about 1/5 or so. I felt a stab of jealousy that she still had at least some crop. Then I felt bad that I was jealous. I am a complicated kind of guy.

Boars love sweet potatoes.

I hate boars.

I was able to reduce some of the damage by tying up Mocha the wonder dog near the garden. He is a heck of a good mutt. He got some extra special food and a longer than usual walk.

His head isn't really that big. Otherwise he would fall over all the time.

Fava Beans and more!

Well, they have come up- and despite some damage from wild boars (more on that in a later post) they are looking good!

Fava Beans poking up

Komatsuna for a windbreak

Sugar Snap Peas

My Rice For Lunch

My homegrown Koshi-Hikari and my wife's "Saba no Miso-ni" (Miso Mackerel)

Well, I finally had a chance. I cooked and ate the rice.
It was so good! But I am not exactly an unbiased party.
According to my wife, who is Japanese and spent her entire life eating rice, the texture was "mochiri" (kind of springy) and the taste was different from the Koshi-Hikari rice that we usually buy. I think she is being polite when she says "different." But I loved it. The kids loved it, and the woman I love says she loves it just to make me feel good!
She is sitting behind me on the sofa and she says that I should have put the fish and rice on proper serving dishes if I was going to put the picture on the blog. So imagine the rice in a bowl, and the fish on a square plate, with the chopsticks balanced on a ceramic eggplant, with a lacquer bowl of miso soup behind them. (I just didn't want to do all those dishes)

If you want to make Miso Mackerel at home, here is my wife's take on the recipe.

Ingredients:
Mackerel (1, cut into fillets)
Soy sauce 1 tbsp
Japanese Cooking Sake (rice wine) 1/3cup
Water 1 cup
Sugar 3 tbsp
Miso 4 tbsp
Ginger (freshly grated 2 tbsp) or powdered ginger 1/2 tsp.

1. Pour some boiling water over the mackerel.
2. Bring the water, soy sauce, and rice wine to a boil, and put the mackerel (skin side up) in the pot. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or so.
3. Add the miso and boil it down until it is nice and thick.