Figs

Figs seem to be showing up earlier than usual this year. I ate a big purple ripe one already. They are however taking longer to turn purple, it seems. The farm is surrounded by fig trees, 1 tree on each of the 3 sides of the property line. Every year I get more figs than I can eat. My dog would pick up ripe figs that fell on the ground to eat them, too. The birds would stop on the trees to eat them. Of course the squirrels love them, too. I took baskets full of figs to give away at the office. Someone happened to be visiting from Canada. He told me that his local market was selling figs for 99 cents each!!!!! I can't imagine having to pay money for figs.

Last year I started to dry some figs in the oven. All you need to do is cut them in half, place them with the open side up on baking sheets, and put them in the oven with the lowest temperature setting. It takes over 10 hours or so to dry them. I wanted to preserve them for later. The problem was that they were so good that I ate all the dried figs within a couple weeks!

I can't wait to make some dried figs again.

Eat and Hop

I made my first close up video of Dusty eating a piece of apple. It's one of the few ways I can get Dusty to come up to me and stay at the same spot for a short time. Anyone who has seen dusty told me that they had never seen a bun like this, so I thought I'll upload a short video clip. People usually told me that they thought he was a small dog or cat at first.

What do you think? Cabbit? He is actually a Lionhead. That's pretty close to a Cabbit, isn't it? Some people totally groom their Lionhead buns to look like little lion stuffed animals, see http://lionheadrabbit.net/. I let Dusty go freestyle, but a few days ago I had to cut off some of his hair because it was all matted above his little tail.

Some of My Favorite Bottled Drinks

One of the drinks of my choice. I keep a six pack in the fridge for those day when I am running late in the morning.

I just spotted this article, My not drinking bothers friends, on CNN.com. I can certainly relate. While most of my friends who I have known for years are not bothered by it, I am constantly telling new friends that I don't drink any alcohol because they kept forgetting and wanted to pour me some mead or sake. Work celebration gatherings are a bit awkward. When they bring out the champagne for everyone to celebrate the completion of a project or software release, I have to decline and ask for water or lemonade.

People often ask me, "You never drink?" or "You don't drink at all? Not even wine? in disbelief. "Why?" is often the followup question.

Depending on the person and the situation. Sometimes I tell them the number one reason I don't drink alcohol. It simply tastes nasty to me. They say, oh, that's because you didn't have the good stuff. The truth is, it's the taste of alcohol that's nasty. Beer is bitter. I don't drinking bitter liquid or eating bitter vegetables. Bitter melon? No, thanks. Sometimes I tell them that I am allergic to it. They will then give me the "poor you" look or tell me, "Awww, poor you." Honestly, I much prefer drinking cold whole milk instead of any alcoholic beverage. I like whole milk and and not the 2% white water. I don't like soda (pop) all that much either. It's too carbonated.

Yogurt based Calpico drink from Japan with 95 years of history

I have my own line of "exotic" drinks. Sometimes I'll bring one of these bottles to a social gathering. I grew up with Calpico. Back then, it only came in white, which is the original flavor. Now they have 5 flavors to choose from.

Kirin's milk tea

Yup, the same Japanese company that sells Kirin beer also sells tea. Kirin milk tea is my favorite but they also have black tea and sweetened tea without milk.

Korean aloe vera drinks are awesome. I tried the unsweetened stuff from Trader Joe's once, and it was so nasty. I had to dump most of it under the peach tree. I have a huge cluster of aloe in the back of the farm. I made my own aloe drink once sweetened with honey. It was actually pretty good but very time consuming.

Korean rice drink by Woongjin Foods

I just discovered Korean rice drink recently in large bottles. I call this Korean horchata. I had my Mexican friend try it, and she liked it, too. The taste is different fron horchata though. Korean rice drink uses brown rice and there is no cinnamon.

Flowers that Make Me Very Happy

Eggplant flower

A couple month ago I introduced some of the flowers on the farm that just keep popping up by themselves. There are other flowers on the farm that make me really excited to see. Eggplant flower is one of them because usually fruits come after the flowers. Growing eggplants have been a challenge for me, so seeing the flowers make me feel very happy.

Garlic chive flowers a.k.a. Chinese chive

 

 

I also noticed some garlic chives in one of my onion and potato patches recently. I was surprised because I planted 10 garlic chive seedlings earlier this year and they all died off, so I thought. Everyone told me how easy it is to grow garlic chives and how they would take over your yard so they should only be planted in a pot. I was quite disappointed when they all died off. Now I suddenly see them popping up again and flowering! That makes me really happy.

Chive flower

This purple chive flower makes me very happy because I saved the pot of chives from being killed by nasty black aphids. Back in July it was covered with aphids, and I almost gave up on it. I was visiting my friend, Annie's urban farm, and she gave me a recipe for non-chemical homemade aphids repellent. I made it that night and sprayed the chives just once and the aphids disappeared. Now the chives are thriving again and blooming!

Making a Quick Indian Dish

Baghara Baingan (an Indian eggplant dish)

I have been cooking international dishes for over 20 years now, but I have always shied away from cooking Indian. The spices are complex and unfamiliar to me. When I lived in the Silicon Valley, I was surrounded by awesome Indian and Pakistani restaurants. Spice Hut, an Indian fast food restaurant was less than a block away from where I lived in Sunnyvale. I had no reason to even try making Indian dishes at home.

Sadly, Indian restaurants in my neighborhood are not so impressive compare to what I had before. Besides, I can't just walk a few doors down the street to get it. Luckily, I work with someone from India in the office, and she is more than happy to give me some instructions on cooking Indian and explain some of those complex spices. I told her that I love eggplants and often order Indian eggplant dishes at the restaurants. She typed up a recipe just for me so I can go shop for some Indian spices. I can find just about anything I need to cook Indian at Vik's Market in Berkeley.

Panch Puran

So I picked up a bag of Panch Puran (also called Panch Phoran, Panch Phoron, or Bengali Five-Spice Mix) which is a spice mixture used in Indian cuisine. It is made of equal parts of five spices:

* fenugreek seed (methi)
* nigella seed (kalo jira)
* mustard seed (rai or shorshe)
* fennel seed (mouri)
* cumin seed (jeera)

Whenever I feel like a quick dish that tastes like Indian food, I cook it with Panch Puran, turmeric, and cayanne pepper. For the eggplant dish, I heat up some vegetable oil and put 2 teaspoons of Panch Puran and a teaspoon of turmeric, let the spices cook in the hot oil for a minute then put bite size eggplant pieces in there. Coat the eggplants pieces with the spices then add a little water, cover it and let it cook through.

You can add some onion or substitute eggplant with potatoes. I am sure you can also cook cauliflowers and other vegetables in the same way.