This was our second rainy season in Japan and I don’t regret repeating a season. I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: If you can’t go to Japan during sakura season, go for the rainy/hydrangea season and you’ll hardly miss those delicate pink blooms!
We spent a day in Kamakura visiting three temples that are known for their hydrangea blooms. Japan has so many varieties of hydrangea and it’s always fun to see the different colors, shapes, and sizes.
Naoto, who was clearly in charge of his own packing, was basking in the bamboo forest and enjoying the blooms almost as much as I was.
I think we were a little early for peak hydrangea season on this particular day, but it wasn’t too hot and humid and it wasn’t raining so I think we planned it perfectly, even if by accident!
Have you ever heard of Inciardi paste tomatoes? I hadn’t until last year when I started following Anastasia Inciardi on Instagram. She had just learned of her family connection to the tomato!
In 1900, Enrico Inciardi came to America from Sicily. He sewed vegetable seeds into the hem of his clothing in order to bring familiar foods to his new home while passing inspection at Ellis Island. What is now known as the Inciardi paste tomato was included with those seeds! Enrico (Henry) ended up in Chicago where he was a cabinet maker. His first wife, Antoinetta, was one of 844 passengers who died in the infamous Eastland disaster in 1915. He later remarried, had a son, and grew the tomatoes throughout his life until his death in 1948. Since then, his tomatoes almost became instinct, with only a small handful of gardeners growing them in an around Downers Grove, Illinois.
When I learned about this tomato, I immediately wanted to grow it! Downers Grove is only about 20 minutes away from Forest Park and I loved this seed’s story and that it came all the way from Italy. I looked for some seeds online, but had no success, so I turned to Reddit to ask if anyone knew where I could get my hands on some. A nice Redditor suggested they’d seen them in the seed bank at the St. Charles Public Library. I happen to know someone who works there so I reached out to see if she could confirm. I was fully prepared to drive to St. Charles, but she kindly offered to mail them to me! (Thank you Anna and Mollie!)
Back in March, this envelope of priceless seeds arrived in my mailbox. I was so nervous to plant them because I’ve never successfully grown tomatoes from seed before. I got some grow lights and a growing mat and kept an eye on the 12 seeds every day until I finally saw some teeny seedlings emerging!
Most of my seeds emerged and made it to the hardening off process. I managed to transplant four strong plants in my garden bed and another two in a large pot in the yard. I gave my dad a few seedlings as well. Then, we left for Japan, so the fate of the plants was left to Karen who was caring for Presley and our garden while we were gone.
Here’s what they looked like when we got home in June. They were all healthy and happy thanks to Karen’s diligent watering during what ended up being a long drought that lasted almost the entire time we were in Japan. Whew!
A few weeks later, we had tomatoes!!
We’ve lost a few fruits to blossom end rot, but so far we’ve harvested ten Inciardis. I’m trying to pull them at “first blush” so they don’t split on the vine or get eaten by a critter. They then finish ripening on my counter.
When they’re fully ripened, they are a really lovely shade of red-orange. Last Wednesday, they were ripe and ready to become a fresh tomato sauce. I chopped them up and cooked them down with lots of garlic, olive oil, and salt, pureed it all with an immersion blender, and we served it over fresh pasta. Four tomatoes was just enough for the two of us.
It felt so gratifying to take this heirloom tomato all the way from seed into a homemade dinner! I am looking forward to cooking more sauce this week and freezing it for the winter.
Oh, and I’ve already started saving seeds from my best fruits to plant again next year!
Hello from the Housegawa Garden! I picked my first tomatoes this week, on the exact same day I picked my first tomatoes last year! These are “advanced” Black Cherry Tomatoes (also the same variety I picked last year!) because the rest are green on the vine. I have no idea why two ripen much sooner than the rest!
I have so much to share! Naoto and I spent the first part of the summer in Japan, our first trip back since Covid! It was so great to be back to see Naoto’s family and revisit our favorite places along with some new ones. We took a fun side trip to the gyoza capital of Japan, which I can’t wait to tell you about!
Then, we caught Covid on the plane and spent our first days home sick, quarantining, recovering, and then catching up with everything we missed in June. But now, we’re feeling rested and ready make the most of the rest of the summer. Whew!
So, if you’re still around, HELLO! Please tell me what YOU have been up to!
It almost makes up for the rabbit-eaten edamame buffet. (Almost!) These are Japanese cucumbers and they’re very tasty. So far we have eaten them in salads and hiyachuka.
We also have several tiny melons. I’m not a huge melon fan, but I’m hoping these will change my mind.
And at this point, we have a steady stream of cherry tomatoes coming in, with a few big tomatoes ripening now and then too. The tomato plants are full, so…it’s just a matter of time before it’s all caprese, BLTs, and tomato sandwiches allll the time!
On July 5th, I plucked my first Black Cherry tomato harvest! Only a small handful of tomatoes were ready but there are tons more ripening on the vine. Tomato season is finally trickling in!
Our Japanese melon and Japanese cucumbers are vining nicely and have tons of flowers on them…no fruit yet. Sadly, the rabbits made a buffet of Naoto’s edamame again, so we replaced them with three new tomato plants, a Mortgage Lifter, a Purple Cherokee, and a Pink Brandywine. They were late-season plants so we’re not sure how they’re going to do, but we figured it’s worth a try. We also added four poblano pepper plants, and a tri-color sage.
The rabbits made a feast of my ranunculus, but all of the other cutting and edible flowers are thriving. I’ve already used tons of borage blooms in cocktails and ice cubes. Other than nasturtium, the rest of the flowers have yet to bloom. And now that I know how big the dahlias will get and that the borage will take over, I have a better idea of how I’d like to plant this bed next year. Gardening is such a learning process!
This bed has–as it always does–turned into a tomato jungle.
Will this bed be big enough for these giant tomatoes and these wild vines? I guess we’ll find out!
In other garden-related news, the old owners left us an egg chair stand in the garage and this year we bought an egg chair to fill it. Zero regrets. It’s so fun hanging out in that thing reading and enjoying the yard, which is what I did last Sunday. Our weather has been pretty summer-perfect this week–not too hot and little humidity. Just dreamy.
The circle garden is blooming again and our plots are finally fully planted for the summer. It’s our second spring here, so it was fun to anticipate was going to return. Early spring, I was greeted by daffodils, hyacinths, Columbine, and hellebore.
Now my iris, clematis, and roses are in bloom with more things opening up every day! I am also happy to report that all of our hydrangeas, which we planted last spring, and then transplanted later in the summer because they were getting too much sun, are back and look like they’re going to be fine. Hopefully they will start blooming soon!
The spiderwort and foxglove just started opening this weekend. The spiderwort was here from the previous owners, but I added the foxglove last summer. The color was a total surprise since it wasn’t in bloom when I bought it. I think it goes nicely along that side of the garden though.
If you remember from last year, we have three raised beds along the south side of our house. Last year, this bed was full of garlic, so we didn’t really use it (except for the garlic.) This year, a couple of garlic came up, but I was able to fill the rest of it with seeds and tubers to make an edible flower and cutting garden. So far, there are dahlias, ranunculus, poppies, nasturtium, zinnias, borage, and calendula coming up. I also planted cockscomb but sadly, none of the seeds have germinated. I’m so bummed because I have wanted to grow giant cockscomb since high school. There was an older gentleman who used to bring his crop to the golf course where I worked and I just love those velvety blooms!
In the middle bed, we have basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and marigolds alongside cherry, Black Krim, Purple Cherokee, and Brandywine tomatoes. Naoto also tucked in some daikon radish.
In our third plot, we have another cherry tomato variety, some leftover potatoes from the previous homeowners (that are probably planted too close to the tomato,) cardinal basil, edamame, Japanese melon, and Japanese cucumbers. We are hoping that the bunnies leave this bed alone, but history tells us otherwise. Our friend gave us a trellis for the vining plants, so I hope we actually get something to vine this year before the rabbits have a snack!
Since I was planting a slew of things I’ve never grown before, I made some plant markers to keep track of everything. They aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing project, but they get the job done!
I always love the garden this time of the season, all tidy and full of possibilities! We all know our plots will be tomato and zinnia jungles soon enough!
If Winter Comes by A.S.M. Hutchinson This was our book club pick for our 20th anniversary. It was the #1 best seller in 1922 and for most of the book, you are kind of left wondering why. Not much happens, except you watch an unhappy marriage slowly fall apart. But in the last section, all the drama hits the ceiling and then you understand why it sold so well. I personally love a book with some marital strife so I loved this book, from start to finish. Reviews in our group were mixed.
The Cocktail Party by T.S. Eilliot This is a play about an unhappy marriage. (Fun accidental theme for February?!) There are eccentric characters, therapy sessions, lots of cocktails and conversation. I loved it.
How to Carry Water by Lucille Clifton This was my introduction to Clifton and I loved her work. Some of my favorites were “note to myself,” “new year,” “cigarettes,” “shapeshifter poems,” and “November 1, 1975.” I don’t read enough poetry.
All the Days and Nights by William Maxwell I still have a couple of stories to finish but I had to return it to the library, so stay tuned for a final review when I get the book back. I have been trying to go through these stories slowly. Sometimes I tend to rush short stories and then I miss out on the enjoyment they can bring. Maxwell’s stories and books are made for lingering…so that’s what I’ll do.
Month by Month Gardening in Illinois This was supposed to motivate me to plant some seeds and get a grow light set up in the basement. So far, it hasn’t worked. I did, however, buy a bunch of seeds and tubers to plant as soon as the threats of snow and frost are over…which at this rate, will be May.
March was a slower reading month for me, so expect a full report on that soon…ish! Tell me what you’ve been reading!
We are continuing the tomato jungle tradition at the house… Everything was fine at first. I was even removing lower branches and leaves and suckers and keeping the plants tidy. But then we got a ton of rain all at once and, well, the tomatoes have minds of their own.
The previous owners built these raised beds along the side yard, which faces south. The picture above is from when we first moved in. I call the side yard the working part of the yard–it’s where the garden is, and we placed our composting bin there, and it’s where the air conditioning unit is. It might look like the area gets much sun, but all three beds get a full day’s worth, even with the fence. The old owners left us a huge garlic crop in the bed on the far right and potatoes in the bed to the far left, so we decided to work around them this season, and hopefully we can come up with a better plan for ourselves next spring.
We sort of focused on the middle plot for all of our usual crops. Our tomato plants are doing well with no signs of whiteflies or blight, which is so exciting since the past few years have been pretty sad for our tomato crops. Our basil and thyme and lima beans are thriving too. And we planted a strawberry plant that seems to doing well, and it’s producing many teeny, tiny fruits.
In the potato bed, we planted edible flowers, cucumbers, edamame, and a brussel sprout. Then tragedy struck. I lost two cucumbers and Naoto lost his entire edamame crop to the rabbits. It was heartbreaking! So, in that bed, we still have our potatoes sprawling around the edible flowers and the brussel. We added a tomato (which isn’t doing well because potatoes and tomatoes don’t grow well together) later in the season just to see what would happen.
The borage is booming with blooms and the nasturtium is looking good, but there are no flowers yet. I’m excited to use them both for cocktail garnishes.
Naoto ended up finding some edamame seedlings at our favorite local garden center and we planted them in a hanging basket and so far, they have remained safe from the bunnies!
In the garlic bed, there is tons of garlic, and plenty of nightmare mint spreading all over. In that bed, we planted some zinnias for cutting and some lettuces that are long done. I dug up a few garlic heads last weekend and I’ll probably dig up the rest soon so we can plant some late-season crops and take advantage of the extra room.
We have two of these arches in our basement (one on each side of an arched doorway) with built-in hooks, so that’s where the garlic is curing for now. I’m so excited to have some space in the basement to start seeds and prep for the gardening season. (Some day I will show you the basement, but not until we finish getting the rest of our boxes unpacked and put away!)
It’s book club weekend so I will be finishing Double Indemnity and enjoying the garden walk so I will see you next week!
Naoto and I went to the garden on Sunday to fix a broken hose splitter and to check on our tomatoes’ progress. We had a good rain right before we went so it made pulling weeds easy and the temperatures cooled down a lot, which was a nice break from the heat we had been having.
On the north end of our plot, the Bells of Ireland are taking over! I can’t believe how out of control it’s gotten! It’s kind of crowding out the chamomile, but I’m all about the strongest surviving this summer in the garden.
Naoto’s edamame is coming along nicely…there are tons of little pods that need a little bit more time before they are ready to be picked.
On the south side of the plot, our herbs are flourishing and yes, we need to cut some parsley and rosemary. The tomatoes are all a jungle in the middle of the plot (one of these days I will plan this better!) I can’t find any white flies on our tomato plants this year (hurray!) but our tomatoes so far aren’t looking great. We picked four, but they definitely aren’t picturesque. We’ll have to wait and taste them to see…
In other news, NOW is the time to plant some radishes or some kale or something to fill in that bare hole of wasted dirt. I’ll report back soon with what we decide to plant from our seed tin.
Our basil is still going strong…we’ve had quite a few harvests from it so far this summer…just waiting on the tomatoes to catch up…
I told him to smile three times before he yelled, “I am smiling!” #maskproblems
Still here at home…Presley is thrilled. Illinois is opening up a bit more this week. Outdoor seating at restaurants is going to be allowed soon and while we won’t be partaking, I’m glad for the restaurant owners. We will continue doing carry-out for now. It’s so funny looking at this picture now, us walking in coats! It has been so hot this week that Naoto is anxious to turn on the air conditioner. We probably should, but I feel like we just opened the windows! I got all of the pots on the lanai planted this week. I am so excited about my choices this year…I say that every year I suppose, but I really tried to lean into the part-sun plant options this year so I can hopefully enjoy blooms all season. I’ll share some pictures as soon as I clean up the rest of my potting mess and get the lights strung up this week. It’s not a fully functional lanai without the party lights! I’m behind on reading for the year. I set a goal of thirty books for 2020 and you’d think I’d have finished by now with all this time on my hands, but I haven’t been able to concentrate well enough to really stick with anything. I’ve finished our book club books and that’s about it. I know I owe the blog a book post, but even writing about what I’ve been reading might be too boring to share!Celebrating birthdays and holidays on FaceTime isn’t the same, but it is still nice to see everyone’s faces and to do a proper toast. We celebrated Karen a couple of Sundays ago and I made this little invitation typed on some kaishi-paper and some sparkling wine stickers. And in good mail news, I received my Last Week Tonight stamps and I can’t wait to use them! Are there any other John Oliver fans out there? I just started watching Community (I’d watched the first few episodes back when it aired) and I’d totally forgotten he was on that show!
I think that’s all to report. Next week is our anniversary and I’m trying to coordinate a bedroom painting party this weekend, which means I need to finish cleaning the bedroom. Hopefully I can report next time that we’ve actually painted…it’s been a struggle.
kimberly ah 