Chinese Leaf Lettuce 油麻菜

Seeds from UK
Super easy to grow and undemanding,
they are happy with just water and
occasional spray of fish or seaweed.

謝謝 Shar 嫁過來的女兒
讓我嚐到油麻菜﹐
照片是前幾天拍的﹐今晚煮了﹐
很嫩﹐好吃﹗
菜菜好種啊﹐長的快﹐又少蟲蟲。
這不是台灣A菜吧﹖

Kon Xin Cai (Ong Choy) 空心菜

China seeds, bugs love them.

Taiwan seeds

PF saw my kon xin cai not sprouting well she kindly
sent me these seeds. The ones from China grows
well, and the ones from Taiwan not doing so well.
Both were grown under similar environment and
fed the same nutrients and water; what makes one
grow better than the other?

Thank you PF

Fresh Red Chili Sauce 新鮮紅辣椒醬

Fresh hot pepper sauce

Web and I discussed about making
fresh chili sauce sometime ago. I forgot what she said
about how she make her red hot pepper sauce
except it is delicious. But I vaguely remember
some ingredients she mentioned, so here's my version.


Hot peppers---coarsely chopped in food processor
Garlic---minced
Fermented black beans---whole, rinsed & towel dried
Liquor---your favorite choice, about 2 tbsp
Cooking oil---your choice, I used canola
Sesame oil---about 20% of cooking oil
Salt to taste

Heat oil to stir fry garlic and black beans until fragrant.
Add chopped hot peppers, salt, and liquor
cook on medium low heat until
the peppers become mushy and saucy,
remove hot sauce from heat and
stir in sesame oil, let cool and bottle.

If you make large amount of this sauce for later use
don't forget to add enough oil to top off the sauce
and to prevent spoilage.

Spagehetti Squash Update 魚翅瓜成績報告

How many squashes do you see?
There are more in hiding, I won't tell.

VIP is looking comfy, doing rather nicely, thank you!
Anyone interested in adopting VIP babies please sign up.
They will be ready to travel by the end of the year.

Why do the squash patch look so pathetic and bald?
Well well well, not a big deal, I didn't like the
powdery mildew on the leaves so I pinched them off.
I could use fungicide, but I won't; if the plants die from
excessive pruning so be it. There's more than
enough squashes to share with friends and family,
I don't need anymore. Ummmmmmmm
I can taste poor man's shark fin soup already.

A Matter of Scale 檸檬百里香葉有多大

The stems are a bit thinner than a toothpick,
but you cannot tell from the picture here.

This is what freshly harvested lemon thyme leaves
look like in comparison with sesame seeds,
mung beans, and peppercorns.
The leaves will be approximately 1/5
of its original size or smaller when dried.

Notice any difference about the two pictures?
The top one was taken with a P&S digital camera,
the bottom picture was taken with a digital SLR camera.
Settings for ISO, WB, background,
and light are same for both cameras,
but there's remarkable differences in picture quality.

剛摘下來的，就是這麼小，
葉乾了可能比芝麻更小。

這兩張照片有什麼不同呢？
上面那張用傻瓜相機,
下面用單眼相機，
同樣的 ISO，WB，背景, 光線,
照出來的就是不一樣!

Lemon Thyme 檸檬百里香

This is my favorite kind of thyme

White color flowers at full bloom

Pinkish color as the flowers begin to bloom

Tiny leaves with lemon scent,
great for tea or cooking--fresh or dry.

Heirloom Black Krim Tomato 俄國種黑番茄

Dark green shoulder with concentric cracks
is the signature of this heirloom tomato.
The cracks look ugly but have not affect on its flavor.
Other black tomatoes don't seem to have
the same concentric cracks on them.

賣相不好，可是味好，
通常普通超市不賣，
可以去農夫市場或有機店找找，
不然只好自家種了。

Cat Face Black Krim

Tomatoes develop cat face when temperature
falls below 50°F during pollination.

I planted the tomatoes too early in EB
without proper protection.
Only few tomatoes are cat faced, all others are fine
as the temperature warms up.

Yardlong Beans 豇豆 (豆角)

YL bean flowers grow in pairs from the same stem

Developing pods

Maturing pods in pairs

First harvest of any vegetable in our veggie garden
is always consume in the most simplistic way---
to savor and taste garden freshness at its best.
Subsequent harvests would be to cook with meats,
other favoring agents, spices, and mix vegetables.
Anything we cannot consume (I doubted, I only grow 4 plants)
will be pickled and dehydrated for future use.


第一次收吃原味，以後的才配其他料理.

Luffa 原來是它

I was hoping for the angular luffa similar to
those Asian market variety, this is not IT.
I'll harvest the tender shoots for soup or stir fry,
but the squash will be cured to use as sponge later.

是絲瓜嗎？這是香港人說的水瓜嗎?
想像中的絲瓜不是這樣的，
是菱形那種，超市賣的那種。
水瓜不好吃，沒興趣玩。

Who Ate the Peppers?

Eating from the ground up--I'm guessing it's mice.
These peppers are at the bottom branches,
none of the fruits at higher up are touched,
and the container peppers are not touched.

不知是那家伙幹的
會吃啊，從底吃起，每個咬一下。
隔壁的苦瓜卻不碰！

Salsa Fresca

This is our family's all time favorite salsa,
I make gallons of this every Summer
taking advantage of homegrown tomatoes.
It is serve with grilled meats, tortilla chips,
tacos, burritos, or you can use it as salad topping.
Some people consume the salsa as is by the bowl,
feel free to experiment, you might like it.

Diced: tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno peppers
Minced: garlic
Season with: lime juice and salt

Yardlong Bean Flowers 青缸豆花

Green cultivar yardlong beans

The flowers bloom in the morning
and fades away in the afternoon

終于等到花花了

Holy Basil

Grows in container
receives half day sunlight

It seems to grow better under shady condition

好像比較喜歡陰濕環境

Spaghetti Squash 日本種魚翅瓜

Japanese cultivar---prolific cropper,
there are at least 10 baby squashes
hiding among the vines. This is just the beginning,
final count comes at the end of the season.

VIP--TLC Treatment

小心侍候
讓它躺床上

Bitter Melon 失望~~不是白的

前天才好好的
怎麼今天就這樣？

再不摘全都熟了
那麼多怎吃啊

討厭，一直等以為是白的，
那裏搞錯了？