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4. About my vegetable garden

I live in a small house with a small garden. I like gardening, so I decided to make a vegetable garden when I moved to this house. I like to eat delicious food. I think that if I want to eat a delicious dish I should make it of very flesh vegetable. I like to grow plant and to watch sprouts. I like to plant many kind of vegetable. I am planning to plant for spring and summer now. I'd like to grow tomatoes, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes and sweet corns this summer.

And I like to grow some herb. Summer is the best season for my favorite herb. That is basil. Basil is a very useful herb to use in cooking. Basil is a plant which likes a hot sunny day in summer. And I it likes humidity. So growing basil fits in well with the climate of our hometown in south Japan. To harvest we cut off our basil 2/3 from the top of the stem. After a week, the leaves grow back again and again. We can harvest them all in the summer. If we get enough leaves from our plants, we can make basil paste. Basil paste is made by adding some olive oil, garlic, grilled walnuts, and powder cheese to a bunch of fresh basil. All ingredients are ground together in a food processor. After that, add salt and pepper to taste. This paste is a very delicious and versatile ! We can mix it with pasta, mash potatoes or rice. Some times we put it on a sliced hard bread like butter and eat it. We put it on meat or seafood and grilled them. This paste doesn't keep in a room temperature so we keep it in a freezer. Tomatoes are the best match for basil. Add finely chopped basil slices tomato, then add olive oil and salt - this is good. You could also add some balsamic vinegar if you like.

Last weekend I harvested my last lot of winter vegetables. Some japanese radishes and some chinese cabbages. We use them to make a japanese traditional winter dish call "Nabe Ryori". "Nabe" means a big earthenware pot and "Ryori" means a dish. "Nabe Ryori" is one category of japanese food. There are many variation of it. One of the basic styles of "Nabe Ryori" is to boil seafood and winter vegetables in a base soup in a big earthen ware pot. Everyone shares from the same pot, you put some soup in a small bowl with a bit of source, and eat.

I am preparing my vegetable garden for a warm climate. I am enjoying gardening this year.

garden1

chinese cabbage

garden2

japanese radish; Its shape is long.

garden3

post harvest;radishes, chinese cabbages and rockets.

garden4

Domi is in my mothers arms

蛇足：
「次回は何を書いてきますか？」と言われ、ネタが思いつかず持ちネタの一つを披露する羽目になったもの。
しかし、私の書くエッセイは、意味もなく食べ物や料理のレシピが登場する事が多い、というか多すぎるような気がするけど、なんなのだろう。やはり食い意地の現れだろうか。
実際、Skype英会話を初めて、いきなり覚えた単語が"ingredient"って、それもどうなのよ。

写真は家庭菜園関係を中心にしたけど、何故かドミの写真が混ざっている。
前回までのドミネタの時に、一度も写真を付けて送ったことがなかったためである。
（おまけ、とか書きたかったけど、英語でなんていうのかわからなかった。）

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