Kyabetsu no Sunomono Recipe (きゃべつの酢の物) -
Pickled Tokyo Bekana

1 small Tokyo Bekana cabbage (about 750 gms)
1 small red chili (sliced with seeds removed)
100 ml rice vinegar
100 ml water
60 ml sugar
Black pepper (coarsely ground)

Steam the cabbage for about 5 minutes.  Strain and, when cool, squeeze as much moisture out as possible and cut into bite size pieces.

Heat water, rice vinegar and sugar together.  When sugar is dissolved, add the chili, then let the syrup cool.  Add the cabbage, sprinkle with a pinch of coasely ground black pepper and chill for at least 4 hours.   Serve as a side dish with grilled or fired Japanese dishes.   Itadakimasu!!

Komatsuna with Tofu  recipe (小松菜のさっと炒め煮）- Komatsuna no Satto Itameni

Two bunches komatsuna
250 gm fried tofu　（ 油揚げ）
25 gm fresh ginger
100 ml dashi stock (だし）
2 tsp mirin
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp light shoyu
2 tbsp grape-seed oil
1 tsp kuzu starch　（葛）

Wash, strain and cut the komatsuna in 10 cm pieces.  Steam for two minutes and then strain, squeezing out excess moisture.  Heat a large frying pan with the oil. Fry the finely chopped ginger for 1/2 minute, then add the strained komatsuna, half the dashi, and all the mirin and sake.  Simmer for two minutes, then add the tofu - sliced into strips - with the shoyu.  Add the remaining dashi with the kuzu dissolved in it.  When the sauce has thickened, serve with a garnish of a few leaves of coriander and a sprinkle of nori flakes.  Itadakimasu!!

Kohaku Nomasu recipe (こはくのます) - New Year Daikon Salad

200 mm piece of fresh daikon（だいこん）
1 large carrot
100 gms pickled gobo (ごぼ）
1 small Japanese cucumber　(きゆうり )
a few sprigs of mizuna (みずな）
50 gms white sesame seed
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons grape-seed oil
1 teaspoon Japanese sesame oil

Cut the daikon, carrot, gobo and cucumber into evenly sized julienne pieces.  Blanch the carrot in boiling water for one minute.  Soak the daikon in a bowl with a pich of salt for 30 minutes then rinse in cold water and drain.  Grind the sesame seed with a surikogi in a suribachi.   Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl adding the mizuna to garnish.   Itadakimasu! 

At the end of June I picked this (and more) Daikon  ( だいこん ) well over 40 cms long.  They were so juicy and crisp.  I was so very pleased with the result.

A great start: early growth and produce

Green manure crop is thriving after 6 weeks.

My crop of two varieties of Mizuna..

Tokyo Bekana Cabbage...

Shungiku ...

Daikon...

One of the handful of globe artichoke (purple) plants.  They will need space.

Today I thinned out the daikon plants and picked some kabu (Japanese turnips).  I am very happy about the soil fertility.

March sowing completed.

On 12 March 2012, plot has been topdressed with blood & bone, gypsum and sown with seeds, including green manure crop of barley, fenugreek and broad beans.

Organic vegetable garden - The plot starts!

 A well grassed site in a Community Garden ready for cultivation. The area was part of a former sheep grazing property established in the 1870's that operated until 1971. You can see the old woolshed in the far background.  It is about 20m above the level of where a small creek once flowed down the Tuggeranong Valley.  (Photo taken on 22 February 2012.)

 'Borrowed landscape' from plantings of Casuarina and, in the background, Mount Taylor.

Digging started on the 24 m2 plot on 22 February and after 7 hours I managed to clear all the weeds - mainly couch grass.  A kookaburra observed my efforts and had a good laugh.  Not being a vegetarian he wouldn't have understood.

The soil is a reasonable quality clay loam with an average depth of 200mm topsoil to firm but crumbly clay.  Average pH was tested at 7 to 7.5 - basically neutral.  A top dressing of 10 kilograms of gypsum was applied to the whole area designed to loosen the sub-soil without digging.

The aim of this project is to grow a range of Japanese vegetables over the winter using organic gardening methods.  Canberra can be quite cold over winter and it is therefore important to establish the plants in Autumn to enable growth before the cold sets in.  The photo shows Daikon  or　 だいこん　( Japanese Radish) at an Osaka market.  In half of the plot I plan to grow Daikon, Mibuna, Mizuna, Mitsuba, Kabu, Shungiku and Japanese Cabbage.  The other half  of the plot will carry a green manure crop of broadbeans, barley and fenugreek.

’わが旅の紅葉いよく濃かりけり’　（Toshio)

My journey's red leaves becoming more and more a deeper red.

This is another beautiful example of the dry landscape or karesansui garden in the Nanzen-ji Temple in Kyoto.  A moving expression of a 'natural' forms and plants with balanced space and symbolism - or yohaku no bi - that provides a perfect setting for Zen contemplation.  The principle of 'enclosure'and 'borrowed landscape' can be appreciated.

Gardening in small spaces is also an established traditional in Japan, where the coutyard garden, or tsubo niwa 坪庭 , represents an important part of a house to be appreciated from inside as well as outside.  This garden in a well-known Kyoto Ryokan shows what beauty and simplicity can be  achieved from well-chosen, scaled down elements that convey a sense of intimacy and connection for those seeking solace and peace.

The stone and raked gravel gardens often connected to Zen Buddhist temples in Japan challenge the perceptions of people from the West as to what a garden should be.  The influences of Zen Buddhism on the guiding principles of such gardens is strong, including symbolic representations of land forms, water and empty space, with refined simplicity of form designed to promote meditative reflection and contemplation.

This tea garden is part of the Gishuntei Teahouse in the Rikugien Gardens.  Like many styles of Japanese gardens they follow very strict design principles, including rustic simplicity and wabi sabi - the idea of solitude or loneliness amongst nature and refined elegance of aged things.

Japanese gardens are a living tradition in Japan.  Their beauty and serenity can be appreciated on many levels.  For me, the stillness, symbolism and connection with nature provide a strong emotional response, encouraging reflection and openness.  This is a view of Rikugien Gardens in Tokyo, established in 1695; an open park type of garden.