Call them Cattails, Bullrush, or Raupo, they are Delicious

Typha latifolia or common cattail

Finally, The cattails near our house are starting to send up their flower stalks. So I got my good sandals wet (don't tell my wife) and harvested two of them and decided to give it a try, ala Euell Gibbons and his book- Stalking the Wild Asparagus. I harvested them when they were still quite young, about the thickness of my little finger  (that would be most people's middle finger size). The stalks are fibrous and tough as could be. It took a few minutes of twisting and tugging to finally get them off. Next time I'll bring a scissors or blade of some kind.

At home, I peeled off the husk, and tossed them in a pot of lightly salted water for 3 minutes. Then I fished them out, put just a little butter on them, and enjoyed them like corn on the cob. It was really good. Reminded me of avocado, but with a slightly grainy texture. The inside of the bright green immature flower was a very pretty yellow. Towards the bottom of the flower it was almost all stalk with just the tiniest bit of flower, but near the top it was wonderful and thick. I wonder if that wasn't the immature pollen up there... I offered some to my wife, and she took a bite but the texture disagreed with her. 

I will definitely be doing that again (but I'll leave the good sandals at home). 

The flowers in their husks

Boiled up and ready to eat. 

Garlic Harvested

I pulled all the garlic out of my keyhole garlic bed. 50 of them are now hanging up to cure under the roof protecting the cob pizza oven. That is about one each week! I'll have to plant more next year.

You know, if we all ate garlic at every meal, nobody would think that I smell like garlic all the time...

Gomer is heating up

Gomer Pile, the newest compost heap (green weeds and rice hull charcoal), has reached 60 degrees Celsius and still climbing! 

Now for you Farenheads out there, take sixty and multiply it by 9.

Did you get 540? Good.

Divide that by 5.

Did you get 108? I hope so.

Add 32.

You had better have 140 degrees Fahrenheit 

So it is on its way!

And in other news, the currants are coming in!

Popcorn Disease 2011

My mulberry tree is not doing so well this year.

Black Mulberry with popcorn disease

As you may recall, last year I had quite a few fruits with popcorn disease. I cut them and let them fall to the ground. This was a big, big mistake. This year I estimate over half the fruit is infected. The tarp below the tree did not work in preventing the spores from wafting up to infect the fruit. I am hoping that it will work in collecting the infected fruit from reaching the ground and letting the fungus into the soil. If I can break the cycle, I hope to get it under control without using any sprays.

Rooftop Garden Update

The rooftop self watering planters are growing leaps and bounds.

Self Watering Planter June 13, 2011

Self Watering Planters June 24, 2011

The Watermelon is growing like kudzu vine. You can practically hear it growing!

Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle

Wow. I was pulling out some leaves for mulch from the pile I made last year. Then I noticed a circular hole in the densely packed leaves... What could it be?

Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle emerging

From My Corner of Japan

Why, a Rhino beetle coming out of its pupae skin.

Here in Japan, they are common pets among children and otaku.
The Japanese name- Kabutomushi. Kabuto means "helmet" and mushi means "insect." A helmet bug if you please. Samurai helmets looked a lot like the beetle, hence the name.
So anyway, I picked it up, put it in a flowerpot with some leaves for bedding, and brought it to my school for the little boys in my classes to look at.

From My Corner of Japan

It's a real beauty! Not so large, but very nice indeed.

Check out those abs!

From My Corner of Japan

Once you get over the freakiness of holding large bugs, you can see they are beautiful.

From My Corner of Japan

New Compost pile and my Thermo-probe 900

Well, I built a new compost pile with the weeds I slashed down with the brush cutter the other day.
Again, I am pretty... well, very lax about how I make the compost. This time I didn't have any garden beds nearby, so I didn't put any soil into it. I just layered 20cm of freshly cut greens, 2 cm of rice hulls, and repeated. It made a nice pile. That is enough for me. But in the interest of science, I decided to measure the temperature with my amazing Thermo-probe 900.

Just what is a Thermo-probe 900 you might ask? Well, it is a wonderful tool for measuring how hot your compost pile's innards are. Here is a picture of the pile and probe.

Nice, eh? A 900mm long surveyor's stake. Nice and pointy, can stab it right into the pile. Then, after a few hours, just mosey on back, pull it out, and feel the tip. If it is too hot to hold, that is good. If it is just hot, that is good too. My motto is that compost happens. Sometimes it takes a bit longer is all.

Thermoprobe in action