A few weekends ago, new friends (Michi and Mac) from the gym invited us to go sweet potato hoeing. I’m curious to know what a Japanese farm looks like. On a Saturday morning, we meet Michi at the gym parking lot, who drives us to Mac’s farm. Expecting to be driving ways, I am surprised to see that the farm is off the side of a road near my favourite coffee house. It’s no more than a 20-minute walk from our apartment. It is unusually warm at the beginning of November, and we are wearing t-shirts.Â
Read more about our potatoes hoeing and roasting.
We watch Mac and his wife show us how to pull up the potatoes. With spades in hand, we take care not to break the fragile ends of the sweet potatoes and get to work. It’s not difficult, though I suspect a day’s worth of work is backbreaking. A quarter of the way through the rows of potatoes, we take a break to drink tea and explore the rest of the farm.
The property is a cross between a farm and a personal garden, with greens, strawberries, okra, peppers and a fig tree. Across the property is the apartment they live in. I ask about this; it’s fairly common for agricultural land to be grouped in an area separate from living spaces. I guess having them both on one property is a North American luxury.
Mac stops to dig up some mountain potato. It’s a strange, giant, truffle-like potato that grows deep in the ground.
After our work, we drive to Bungo-Takada for some famous ramen.
On the way home, we stop at another gym member’s impressive garden. Along with a bounty of fresh vegetables from Mac’s property, we also receive a huge bag full of fresh greens and peppers.
We survey our huge loot from today’s short work at home. We will be eating well for the next few days!
Here are some of our cooking attempts:
Wow! Vegetables look fabulous.
Imo hori taikai! The mountain potato looks interesting. Does it taste anything like the potatoes we get here?
The mountain potato tastes nothing like other potatoes! They have a more viscous texture, and usually grated on top of rice. We didn’t really know what to do with it, other than fry it, grate it, or use it as the main binder in Okonomiyaki. I’m not a fan of the grated version, but the fried version was interesting and tasty with some soy sauce.
Wow! You sure got a lot of food! Baachun loves persimmons! Is the green fruit limes or oranges? The yams look delicious ? I love yams! You can bake them with butter, brown sugar and marshmallows on top! A delicious sweet treat my mom used to make at Christmas ?
Those are green limes. We had the potatoes for hashbrowns and they were sooooo good.
i’ve never seen yamaimo like this one! you guys are so lucky to get fresher picked veggies and fruits!!!!