Kabosu and Sudachi and Uses

A mikan (satsuma) as big as a large orange...

I love citrus. Maybe more than the average person. I have 14 satsuma trees, a yuzu, a kabosu, a sudachi, and three kumquats. I just can't get enough! Of course, the satsuma are all pretty young, and have yet to come into bearing. There was one on the tree this year. I watched as the solitary fruit got bigger and bigger- it was the size of a navel orange! Then the goats escaped.... Papa was not happy that day....

But where was I? Oh yeah, my kabosu and sudachi trees were planted a year earlier than the satsumas, so they have come into bearing. And boy, did they ever!

Sudachi

Sudachi closeup

My sudachi was covered in fruit. I have been picking and using it since September, and there are still fruits on it. Most of the use is pretty simple- making sudachi-ade, squeezing it into soda water, or making margaritas. We used some on some fish too. Wonderful stuff, this sudachi. Usually they are used when still green, but the cooler fall weather turned them orange. Still taste the same.

Kabosu

The other tree that is bearing as well is the kabosu. A kabosu is larger than a sudachi, and tastes more like a lemon I think. It has a nice, thick peel that you can use for zest, or you can boil it down with some sugar to make candied kabosu. That was so good. My simple take on the recipe? Quarter the fruit, peel and all. Cut 5mm slices. Weigh it. Add that weight of sugar and the fruit into a pot with 100ml of water. Boil it down until it is ambrosia.

Kabosu also work well in soda water or any cocktail that would use a lemon or lime. Like the sudachi, they are traditionally used green.

What do you think? Any ideas on how to use up this bounty?

Solar Parabolic Cooker Part 1: The Makening

(yes, I know "makening" isn't a word. But I couldn't resist)

I have always been fascinated by solar energy. So one day I was browsing around Solar Cooking.org's website, and when I took a look at my scrap pile, I realized that I had enough to make a very nice solar parabolic cooker.

The plan I chose was the 12 sided Parvati cooker because I love parabolic dishes.
I converted the measurements into metric and doubled all of them. Then I cut out the template from some cardboard.
After weighing the pros and cons of cardboard, I decided to build the cooker out of foil covered 1.2mm veneer plywood, of which I had a nice stash of. You could probably salvage some cheap veneer siding from houses that are going to be demolished. You don't need to go and buy it.
So, I traced the shapes onto the plywood and cut them out with a utility knife. Since I was using plywood which won't bend so well, I cut out each segment. It took a few passes, but it was a clean cut.
After cutting out all the pieces, I had 12 each of the large, medium, and small.
I thinned out some regular woodglue with water and brushed it onto the pieces and covered them with aluminum foil.

The outer panels ready for foil

Joining the middle panels with black fabric tape

After they dried for a few days, I began to piece them together with fabric tape.

The curve took shape as I joined them together.

After joining, the first part of the parabola took shape

Then I attached the largest pieces one at a time. When the final piece was completed, it was much sturdier.
Last, I cut a disk of plywood the size of the base, covered the center with foil, and glued it to the bottom. Now it was quite sturdy.

And then I waited for sun. And waited, and am still waiting. Stay tuned for part 2- "The Testening" and part 3, "The Cookening."

Fixing The Maul

The head came off the maul the other day. Thought I should fix it.

I cut down the top of the handle about 3cm. Then I used a plane to shave off some wood so the head would fit. 

After getting it on, I used the small wedge and drove it in with my hammer. 

It still sticks up a bit, but not too much.

It worked fine when I tested it.

Estimating Wood Needs

Since we started heating with wood, I have never known how much wood we burn in a year. I am always splitting more, and never have time to count cords. So I came up with a way to estimate how much wood I need in a year. And then, lo and behold, my favorite blog "Walden Effect" had a post on their wood supply.

So I thought I would share my method. This works with any kind of wood, I burn mostly cedar and cypress (gasp!). Because all wood has the same energy per kilogram. It just takes more pieces and chimney cleaning to burn softwoods.

Step 1. About how many days will you use your woodstove? It doesn't have to be exact, but it is better to over than under estimate. Here we usually burn from mid-November to mid-April. So 5 months. 5x30 is 150 days.
Like I said, this is not rocket science.
Step 2. How much wood do you use every day  on average? An easy way to figure that out is to fill your woodbox/rack in the morning, and count how many pieces of wood are in it. The next morning at about the same time, count again and subtract. We burn an average of 30 pieces of wood per day. The more days that you count it, the more accurate your estimate will become. Multiply your number by the heating days. In my case: 150 days x 30 pieces = 4500 pieces of wood. But who wants to count to 4500 when you are splitting? Not me.
Step 3. Go to your woodpile and count how many splits are in a square foot of face on your woodpile. (Yes, that is right, Mr. Metric says count in feet. The numbers are easier to imagine in this case) We average about 15 splits  (I split quite small, since I procrastinate so badly- they need to dry faster than other people's wood). With 32 square feet of face on a cord, that comes to 480 per tier. If you cut to 16 inch lengths (three tiers/cord), that is 1440 pieces per cord. If you cut to 12 inches like me (four tiers/cord), that is 1920.
Step 4. Divide your needs by the pieces/cord. For my case 4500 pieces/1920 pieces = 2.34375 cords. Let's round up and say two and a half cords.

Or you can just use my handy dandy Wood Needs Calculator.

So, now I should get out there splitting, 'cause I only have 1.5 cords split and stacked!

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.