Hiroyuki

I can only answer some of your questions: From a previous post of mine: Additional notes: The rice must be hot to soak in the vinegar. Once mixed with the vinegar, the rice must be cooled to "hitohada" (human skin temperature), which should be around 100 F. I'm not sure, but I'd say "months." I can't think of any other special utensil. They are called ten-kasu (mainly in Western Japan) and age-dama (mainly in Eastern Japan). We don't use them with sushi in Japan. Just put droplets of normal tempura batter in a pot with hot oil (approx. 180 C), using a ladle with holes or a pair of chopsticks. Edited to add this photo: You may be able to find bags of ten-kasu, like the one shown on the right, if you are lucky.

Thanks. There is no detailed description of bottoms in the book - only two paragraphs under the title Plywood Bottom on page 58, and there is no mention of the possible problems with bottoms that you mentioned. But, anyway, if I ever decide to remove the bottoms from the frames, it's not hard to do. For now, I think it better to keep them movable until I can find the right places for them. Of course, I will. That's what this thread is for. You share your experiences, and I share my experiences. So far, on the narrow piece of land that I posted a picture of upthread, four cherry tomato plants have been the most successful. I hope I can post a picture of them when they become ripe.

Comments: I'm really glad that I made smaller 3-foot square frames instead of the conventional 4-foot square because they are both easy to access from one or two sides only. I'm also glad that I made a bottom for for both of them so that they could be moved around the house. Making the soil mix was a major hassle, i.e., mixing different types of manure together, adding and mixing vermiculate, and finally adding and mixing peat moss, and it's something you can't do unless you have fairly a large yard. I can tell from the book that that soil mix is important, but I never can tell just how important it is for success. Maybe premade soil mix mixed with some kind of manure is sufficient, but I can never be sure. Helen or someone, do you have any idea?

Chuck means shoulder roast? If so, Shoulder roast = Kata rohsu (肩ロース) Premium = Jou (上), ii tokoro (いいところ） Lean = Akami (赤身), abura no nai tokoro (あぶらのないところ) Mince = minchi (ミンチ), hikiniku (ひき肉) Thus, I would say to the butcher things like: 肩ロースの、あぶらのない、いいところのミンチ, 上「肩ロース」のミンチ（ひき肉）, and so on. Just copy and paste the above phrases, print them out, and show them to your butcher.

Before I can answer your question, you have to tell me what two-way chuck means. Kris, Helen, anyone?

Companion plants are translated into kyouei sakumotsu 共栄作物. Now I need to learn more about them!

Thanks for the suggestions. We generally followed your suggestions, but we planted some carrots. Process: I have no idea whether this vermiculite is coarse or not. This is the only brand sold at the home center. We used snow shovels to mix the manures, vermiculite, and peat moss. We are now proud owners of two square foot gardens! This one is on the west side. We have the other one on the east wide. We will call them "han-jo" nouen 半畳農園 from now on! Han-jo = a half "jo" = approx. 90-cm square nouen = farm Edited to add: I'm beginning to think that my son and I are the first Japanese who have tried to practice square foot gardening, considering the fact that there is hardly any information on it in Japanese.

Can you guess what I did? I sent an inquiry to Glico, and received a reply today. They said the product name, Poire, was coined by them, but they also said it was closely associated with the French verb, "poeler."

I ended up buying six different taihi: The lower three are chicken manure, the upper left and middle are cattle manure, and the upper right pig manure. The peat moss is made in Russia! I also bought six 15-liter bags of vermiculate, as well as all necessary wood to make two 90-cm square frames.

I can't tell if it is too idealistic or not , but I think it's part of SFG. With SFG, you don't use fertilizer, so the soil mix has to be perfect. Yes, tatami and rice husks. My father used to use them. Thanks for the link.

Thanks, Helen. The problem with compost (taihi) is that I still can't decide which types to buy. Here's what the author writes about compost on page 97 of the book: If You Decide to Buy Compost Don't buy all of one kind of compost if you decide to not make it yourself... All commercial compost is a byproduct from one industry... What's the solution? Buy a variety of composts and mix them together. Now, you are more likely to get a better mixture.

I have no idea, either. My search for sansai ends around mid-June. I found this webpage (Japanese only), which is created by a shop located in Yamagata. I wish I could go to Mt. Takenoko in Naeba to get bamboo shoots!

The book, "ALL NEW SQUARE FOOT GARDENING," arrived yesterday! I went to the local 'home center' the other day, and found: 15-liter bag of vermiculite: 498 yen 15-liter bag of peat moss: 398 yen 170-liter bag of peat moss: 2,680 yen If I were to make a 1.2 m x 1.2 m frame, I would need 72 liters of vermiculite (120 cm x 120 cm x 15 cm divided by 3 = 72 liters), which means that I would need five 15-liter bags (5 x 15 = 75 liters), which cost 2,490 yen. (I'm thinking of making a 1.8 m x 0.9 m frame rather than the conventional 4-foot square frame.) I still cannot decide what to do with the last ingredient: compost! Any suggestions?

Great job! Deserves a place in the Konnyaku Day thread in the Japan Forum.

Quite true. For many including me, fugu is too bland ("tanpaku" in Japanese) to enjoy, and it's all about the texture. Here is a piece of good information for those who want to have the taste of fugu overseas: The flesh of sturgeons is quite similar in taste to that of fugu. This is a finding of the famous TV show, Mega Ten: http://www.ntv.co.jp/megaten/library/date/06/03/0305.html (Japanese only)

Thanks! Glad I haven't had any myself. Some Japanese sites say that they are good when tempura'ed and stir-fried, and I thought I'd give them a try. But, I'd also like to know how poisonous they are. Some sansai (wild plants) are known to be poisonous, still many Japanese people actually eat them because eating them in small quantities won't do any harm to people's health. OK, I'll post an answer if I find it. ← Here is what Helen, who works for the horticulture department of a university in Japan, wrote about my inquiry here: From a seed company's website, regarding tomatoes. Tomatine may not be the only alkaloid produced in tomato shoots - I'm not sure. I assume that people are hoping that the axillary shoots contain less alkaloids than mature stems and leaves...but it seems risky. After all, alkaloid contents are notoriously variable (depending on things such as the time of day, for example); and some people are more susceptible than others, especially children. Alkaloids tend to act on the central nervous system, which is not a good idea! If you're lucky, they'll make you vomit, if not, they just stop your heart and breathing... However, I ate several nightshade berries when I was a toddler, before kindly offering my mother some, and I lived to tell the tale. Very likely a few very immature tomato shoots won't kill you, but I don't care to experiment!

Thanks, Helen, for your quick answer. I will copy and paste it to the Gardening thread in the General Food Topics Forums later if you don't mind.

I don't think this is the right thread to post this question, but I can't think of any other good one, so I decided to post it here. How poisonous is tomatin, which is contained in tomato leaves and stems? Some Japanese people eat "wakime" of tomato plants, and I assume that eating them in small quantities does not do any harm to the people eating them. Am I right, Helen?

Thanks! Glad I haven't had any myself. Some Japanese sites say that they are good when tempura'ed and stir-fried, and I thought I'd give them a try. But, I'd also like to know how poisonous they are. Some sansai (wild plants) are known to be poisonous, still many Japanese people actually eat them because eating them in small quantities won't do any harm to people's health. OK, I'll post an answer if I find it.

Those little shoots picked off and planted by my son. They are also good to eat. ← they are? i thought tomato stems and leaves were poisonous... ← Really? Are there any botanists here?

I know what you mean. They are called wakime in Japanese. No specific name in English? Edited to add this photo: Those little shoots picked off and planted by my son. They are also good to eat.

Plus that's a lot of deep-fried food. Not my idea of a balanced home meal, by Japanese standards. ← Well, what I meant was that I would have made another type of tempura like kaki-age rather than chicken kara-age, but on that particular night, my wife wanted to make both imo ten and kara-age simply because she had been given some sweet potatoes and she had some chicken in the fridge. Pam R, do keep ordering them together, like I keep adding corn to my salad.

I'd take chicken karaage with tempura any day. What makes it a silly combination? ← Like sushi, tempura is considered a very typical wa-shoku (Japanese dish) by the Japanese, while kara-age is not. The word kara suggests that kara-age is Chinese in origin. Other fries such as tonkatsu, korokke, and ebi (shrimp) fry are considered yo-shoku (Japanese-style Western dishes) by the Japanese, and will look rather strange if served together with tempura.

I can't wait to see them flower. I will be quite disappointed if they are not Japanese mints.

The other day, my wife was given three large sweet potatoes from her brother, which were harvested last winter , and today, she made imo ten (sweet potato tempura) with one of them. She didn't add any egg to her batter, but added some salt so the imo ten could be eaten without ten tsuyu (her usual style). Sweet potatoes are one of those tempura ingredients that should be thickly coated and deep-fried for a long time at low temperatures to bring out the sweetness. Kabocha are another such example. My wife also made chicken karaage... a somewhat silly combination. I'd like to make some tempura myself when I have the time.