Dehydrated Cherry Tomatoes 脫水小番茄

Cherry tomatoes dehydrated overnight at approximately 130F.
The texture is similar to raisin with a bit of tang.

朋友送的小番茄吃不完
脫水後口感像吃葡萄乾

Bloomsdale Spinach 三季菠菜

Market size spinach leaves approximately 2 bunches
if purchase from produce market.

Almost a shopping bag full

Bloomsdale spinach can be grown at high altitude environment
9 months out of 12, it would be interesting to see
whether it will survive Winter in a cold frame.

一年三季都可種的菠菜﹐
夏天太熱的地方可種半陰處﹐
今年要看看是否能過冬。

That's Enough 太長了

Guess how long is the trunk?
Each stepping stone is 1 sq ft.

I have enough squashes this year,
it keeps on producing despite cool temp.
Three weeks ago I picked the last 4 squashes
and yanked the plant.

Rainbow After the Storm

As seen from our backyard,
foreground is green grape vine.

Crocus Bulbs 番红花球根

Left---Crocus Sativus (saffron spice, edible)
Right---mix Fall crocus (entire plant is toxic, do not eat)

看清楚囉﹐別買錯
左邊---食用番紅花球根
右邊---普通番紅花球根---有毒﹐不能吃

If you're shopping for spice saffron crocus
make sure it is CROCUS SATIVUS,
all other crocuses are toxic.
C. sativus costs 3-4 times more than ordinary crocus.

Crocus is the first flower to break Winter dormancy.
You'll know Spring is near when you see crocuses
popping out from snowy ground.

For detail information about C. sativus
go to Wikipedia-->SAFFRON

Winter Melon 冬瓜

How many melons do you see?

Two more here.
The smaller one is designated for 冬瓜盅.

There are nine melons altogether from three plants
despite hail damage in May, the plants recovered well.
They will be harvested soon to make room for garlic.

快要收了﹐秋天種蒜﹐希望明年有蒜苔吃。

Goji 一點紅

The berry itself is sweet, but the skin
is mildly astringent when fresh.

Celtuce 萵苣

Celtuce stem is prized by the Chinese for its crunchiness.
It is relatively easy to grow and bug free.

Seeds were sown at the end of July, and the leaves
were ready to be harvested 5 weeks later.
So far I've been picking leaves once every week.
I guess I can keep picking them as long as
the stem is not long enough to be harvested,
the tallest stem is about 4" from soil level as of today.

The weather is cooling down, I notice its growth
has been slowing a bit, I thought lettuce prefers
cooler temperature, could it be I don't fertilize
it as often as I should or is it my imagination?

Homemade Bean Paste 醬氣滿屋

The jar was packed too full with no room to grow.
While the bean paste was fermenting
it overflowed and made a big mess.
There was soy sauce all over the floor,
thank goodness it's a tile floor, clean up is easy.

兩個字: 香~~醇~~

Gochujang--Korean hot bean paste

Mix together bean paste, hot chili powder, syrup. That's it!
Add some paprika to give it more red color if needed.

Jujube 紅棗

Can you see the fruits way up
on top of the branches?

We have to trim off some branches
in order to harvest the fruits.

These jujube will turn crimson red in about a week or so.
We use the dried fruits for soups, stews,
teas, jams, pastries and breads, etc. etc.

Chinese Green Diakon 青蘿蔔

It is not growing as big as I expected,
maybe removing its leaves earlier have something
to do with it being malnourished.

有點瘦﹐真不該摘它葉子做雪里紅﹐
誰知它長的那麼快呢﹐忘了施肥也是原因之一﹐
以後不敢貪心了。

Hot Bean Sauce 辣豆瓣醬

師父Web的辣椒豆瓣醬
用它做拌麵好好吃哦

These jalapenos are semi dry with
approximately 50% of its moisture removed.
半乾辣椒

Web's homemade fermented broad beans
自家做的霉蠶荳﹐謝謝 Web.

Left: 師父 Web < ------ > Right: 徒弟 Mac


不知那裡搞錯了﹐我的豆瓣沒師父的綿軟
味道是對了﹐口感就是沒師父的10%
嗚~~~嗚~~~嗚~~~
是否辣椒太乾了﹐不夠水份﹖
是否要多放幾天讓豆瓣吸收油﹖
有請師父~~~我錯在那﹖

Rosa Bianca Eggplant 意大利種茄子

Rosie is our family's all time favorite eggplant.
It is the most delicate and creamy eggplant we've tasted.
We like it simple -- cut eggplant into slices, brush with olive oil,
sprinkle some sea salt and fresh ground pepper,
roast them at 400F until the top is slightly brown.

French Lavender Flowers 法國 熏衣草花

Make your own sachet, Herbs de Provence, tea, soap,
cosmetics, or homemade anything with lavender scent.

The most sought after lavender fragrance is English lavender.
It is much more aromatic and delicate than the French variety,
its oil fetches at least 10-15 times more than the French L. oil.

Here in the desert we use a variety of lavenders
as landscaping plants due to its drought resistance
and heat loving nature. They grow like weeds,
they are happy with just some water and sunshine.
Lavender can be propagated from seeds,
stem cutting, and root division.

Greek Oregano Flowers 希臘牛至花

These photos do not do justice to the tiny flower clusters.
They are very pretty if you can see them closeup.

Oregano花比rosemary花更小
影技不好照不出它的美

Rosemary Flowers 迷迭香花

Tiny lavender blue flowers
bees love them!

Abnormal Leaf Growth 怪怪葉

Hybrid seeds from China

About 1/3 of my Chinese broccoli (芥蘭) have
an abnormal leaf growth on each plant.


雜交芥蘭種子出的怪怪葉
不是每棵都這樣﹐大概30%中
有一片葉是怪的。

Sherlihon (Red in Snow) 雪里紅

Young tender daikon or radish leaves


This cold dish is made with pickled Japanese turnip leaves.
Both radish and turnip leaves taste like mustard greens.
You won't notice the difference in flavor
when the leaves are pickled and/or cooked.
You can cook the pickled vegetable with or without meat,
it can be used in soups, stir fry, stuffing, or cold dishes, etc. etc.


趁葉嫩時吃﹐前幾天醃日本蘿蔔葉﹐
昨天醃中國青蘿蔔葉﹐中日葉子有點不同﹐
青蘿蔔葉比較粗厚﹐鹽醃後味道一樣﹐
反正都比外面的新鮮好吃。

Taco ABC 墨式快餐

Fresh salsas from left to right:
Top row -- pickled jalapeno, roasted red chili sauce,
pico de gallo, chopped cilantro.
Bottow row -- fresh green chili sauce, pico de gallo.

No, you are not seeing things, some Mexicans eat jalapeno
like Gringos eat celery. Yes, they eat it whole as well.
The lower left hand corner is smoked chili pepper sauce.

Salad --- shredded lettuce top with shredded cheese,
guacamole, sour cream, and chopped tomatoes.



Main dish -- 1/2 lb of chicken and beef fajita
plus 5 freshly baked flour tortillas.
I did not take a picture of the flat breads,
they were very good--soft, warm, and moist,
just the way fresh breads should be.

Now make yourself a taco:
pick and choose any of the above items
and layer them to your taste.

Mexican rice cooked with chicken broth, tomato sauce,
and chopped onions. Some people also add roasted chili peppers.

Mexican beans cooked with roasted tomatoes, onions,
green chili, epazote (Mex.herb), and Mexican oregano.
I like whole beans cooked this way, it is very soft and
delicious with a spicy kick.


墨西哥快餐
各位請便﹐甭客氣哈

Roasted Chili Peppers 烤辣椒

These peppers were roasted in oven broiler set on "HI"
for approximately 8-10 minutes; be sure to puncture
couple holes in the peppers prior to roasting
to prevent explosion and easy cleanup.

Put roasted chili peppers in a paper and
let them steam to separate skin from flesh

It's easy to peel off the skin after steaming,
they usually come off in large pieces as shown in the photo.
Most of the weight in chili peppers are stems, seeds,
skin and water; as you see I started with a tray of peppers
and end up with just a handful of roasted product.

The roasted peppers are ready for use in
soups, stews, sauces, rellenos (stuff peppers),
jams, jellies, candies, misc. baking etc.

烤好了﹐喜歡怎用都可以﹐ 或包起冷凍以後慢慢用。
除做辣椒醬外還可以煮湯﹐燜肉﹐炸﹐
做點心等等﹐政府沒規定。

Fuzzy Melon 毛瓜 (櫛瓜)

Ready to be harvested
about 6" in length

Here's a big one.
This mama is approximately the size
of the above picture prior to my trip to CA.
Look how rapidly it has grown in one week!
I'm going to let it grow and see how big it gets.
Anyone wants seeds from this fuzzy mama
please sign up.

The original melon seeds
came from an ABQ friend. I sowed 12 seeds
and thin to 3 seedlings; 2 plants die
from unknown reasons shortly after transplant.
My guess is transplant shock, or the seeds
were not matured enough to have energy
to grow since they were homegrown.


朋友給的毛瓜籽﹐她種的好大啊﹗
我種三株死兩株﹐就剩這棵了。
不過它很爭氣的結幾個瓜瓜給我看﹐
這種毛瓜讓它長老就是冬瓜了,
可以放幾個月不壞。