Amatō

Hi, I'm very new to Japanese herbs, and started to plan some last year. I live in Germany, south, the winters are usually rather cold. I had last year great experiences with green shiso(but after I put the seeds for 1 week in refrigerator, otherwise they wouldn't sprout at all) red shiso didn't grow at all. Mizuna was great also mitsuba, I could even overwinter it(I hope this is the right word..., sorry about my English). My question: I had some yomogi seeds last year, these didn't sprout at all...Any idea why?? Thank you! I also bought a small myoga seedling, this died in late summer.I have read, herbs like to stay at same place, it this true for all herbs? I have a small amacha (sweet tea plant) too, now it is yellowing a bit... Here on my blog are pictures and already translated post about my herbs:http://wagashi-net.de/blog/wagashimaniac/2010/05/japanische-kraeuter/ Thank you!

@Hiroyuki, thank you. :-) I bought first only a small bag of brown rice, now I did order more. I will try to make dango from this rice. @Obese-Wan Kenobi, this link about planting rice could be interesting for you: http://www.ajiwai.com/otoko/zeal/baketuine.htm#%E7%A8%AE%E3%82%82%E3%81%BF%E3%82%92%E3%82%82%E3%82%89%E3%81%84 It is all Japanese but with many pictures, it looks like non-polished rice for me they use? The whole site is fantastic, many ideas how to make traditional Japanese food at home!

Melonpan, my recipe is for very thin mochi, it is very elastic, maybe you like to try this out? Which water/shiratamako ratio did you use? It is also helpful to place anko in refrigerator(freezer) for 30 minutes(already wrapped around strawberry)but not longer. Also it is easier to make anko layer very thin.I used shiro-an in my recipe, but I prefer koshi-an too, better taste. You mochi look good, as I made it first time I even couldn't close the daifuku, all I had were a huge "lump" of mochi/anko /strawberry. :-)(I ate this "lump"). After some practice with my recipe(mochi is very stretchy)it looks like this:(but I'm a maniac, really...);-) Recipe:http://wagashi-net.de/blog/wagashimaniac/2010/05/ichigo-daifuku-2/ What I would like to know, on the other pictures all the daifuku look always so "thick" and somehow fluffy, does anybody know how it is made?? Torakris, your daifuku(I'm jealous, they look so good... ;-)) where they more sweet, like gyuhi mochi(very sweet and soft mochi)?

Hiroyuki, I've tried this method and liked it very much. I only used too much water, and I should try to cook it in my rice cooker next time. But my rice cooker is very simple one, it has only on/off and warm/cook setting-this is all. I used a regular pot, but will try to cook it in my donabe next time. Special donabe for rice cooking: I have read on Kyoto Foodie Blog, there are some extra for rice cooking. The cooked rice was delicious stir fried with some veggies.