August in Santa Cruz

I planted zucchini back in May~ here are some of the first ones. 

The three colors are from one packet of seeds. Pretty, huh?

Last Autumn I planted GOBO- burdock- and they grew a little then died.

But they came back this past spring and look at them now!

 They are so hard to dig out, even though our soil is sandy. I dug down almost a foot...

 but still it broke off, I couldn't get deep enough. It wouldn't let go.

  Burdock- sometimes we buy it at health food stores. When I go through the checkout sometimes people ask me what I do with it. I tell them we use it in either MISO soup or in a Japanese dish called KINPIRA GOBO which is slivered as we do for miso soup, but after it's soaked in water for 10 minutes or so, it's drained then sauteed with slivered carrots and sliced red pepper in MIRIN, SHOYU (soy sauce) and SAKE.

When making miso soup, we boil gobo for 7 minutes or so before adding the other ingredients.

 Often we like to have DAIKON in it too (I'm growing some daikon, but was late starting it so...the homegrown daikon won't be ready until...winter?)

This pot of miso soup I made I used sliced onions, and that then boiled with the burdock for another 4 or 5 minutes? Last, I added tofu and then wakame. Not needing to boil those.

The MITSUBA! It grows SO easily here!!! I grew a small pot to put on our kitchen window sill.
That is the garnish we add to the soup when serving it~ 2 or 3 or 4 leaves, cut up or not.

I dissolve the miso into the soup last, as I watched my Japanese mother-in-law do for the ten+ years we lived together. With a ladle and HASHI- chopsticks to dissolve it.
DO NOT BOIL the miso soup.

Sorry- I didn't take a finished photo of the soup to be served~ maybe I can get one in here another day!

But out in our gardens, the MITSUBA (which means "three leaves") it grows amazingly well. I keep trying to give plants of it away. But I don't know what else to use it for. When we don't have mitsuba to put on our miso soup, we use thinly sliced green onions.

Sheon-chan's been here since Valentine's Day. Sometimes Taka's so fortunate and gets one of her bentos for his lunch!

It's funny to see displays like this in markets. 

And some of the "Japanese" foods like"EDAMAME SOUP!" 

And THEN, this is the second time I got to see one of these seals on a car here in California. I wondered where the driver got it. I missed the chance to catch the first driver I saw with it, but this time I caught up with this guy~ who was all speedy and at a stop light I pulled up next to him to ask him where he got it.

He said at some car races! He doesn't know what it means, just he thinks "driver". I didn't have time to tell him anything else since the light changed and he turned left, we turned right. I do wish seals like this were used here in the States, it'd really help new drivers and the elderly.

That's all for today! We're off to Montana tomorrow for a week. How will my garden grow while I'm away?!