Yesterday was a good day. I'm pretty sure that it is because, despite the gloom and doom of the rainy day that it was, I was busy. In the morning it was the chickens and the eggs. I haven't really gone into any details about them recently... I think I did mention before that there are now three seperate coops for three different sets of chickens. Young, middle aged and old. I feed the middle aged chickens first. In the morning I scoop poop out of the little cubbies. But there is hardly ever any poop in theirs. They do, however, swarm the door so much that I have to slowly and with quite a bit of effort ease it open and force the bucket in and then duck in myself. I pour the feed in and they swarm it. In the older chicken's coop, I can go in easily and pour in the feed. The inner circle of chickens around the feeder eat and the other chickens actually go around and around those chickens (like duck duck goose...but with chickens) and then it seems that once of them is tired of running circles and manages to shove another chicken out of the way, and in turn that chickens joins the frantic running. The roosters hang to the edges of the coop...always seem so nervous. There is an incredible amount of poop in their cubbies. Probably takes me...7 minutes. Luckily it doesn't smell really bad... cat litter boxes are just plain awful. They are going to be done soon, though. They produce few eggs and the eggs that they do are often too pale, weak shelled and speckled...
Then I fill up the feed bucket at the feed house halfway and take it to the newest chickens. They are pretty mellow. They don't swarm the door, poop a lot or go absolutely insane when I pour the feed in. Their eggs are beautiful and brown, but tiny...sometimes too small so that they can't be sold. They like to make little ditches in the ground by rolling around in it...as much as a chicken can "roll" that is. I saw a chicken and rooster mating for the first time about a week ago. Scooping and poop, threw some of it over to the right and nearly hit the two... a couple days I saw pigs at it while dumping rotted pumpkins on the dump pile. It must be that time of year.
So, after the chicken work yesterday I went and shoveling some dirt and debris out of the road because it had acculmalated from a fallen tree and the rain... it seemed a little dangerous. Then I asked Muto-san if I could prune the tree above the dump pile because he had mentioned that it was "jya-ma" or "in the way". So he handed me a mini saw on the end of a pole. I am not exactly known for my upper body strength...but he said to try and if it didn't work to come back. So I went and chose which branches I thought would be the most efficient to cut and started to saw at the branch. It was not fun and it took longer than I would have liked...
So, in the end I finished it...I was tired...but it felt good. I didn't have to face the shame of saying "I can't do it."
Hitomi had harvested a bunch of vegetables since the market was today and so I washed long green onions till noon. After lunch I helped by washing yaakon and carrots. Yaakon is a very interesting vegetable...somewhere between water chestnuts, potatos and Japanese pear (if you ask me). I don't think we grow it in America...it seems to be a little rare even here. It took me two hours. While I did that, Hitomi washed greens and bagged them and Hiro (while sitting...) sorted shiitake mushrooms that Katsu and I had harvested the day before. There were...I believe 4 crates full so that was quite a work load for him too. My hands were a little discolored after an hour of washing those beautiful carrots. They SMELL amazing. So sweet! And they taste sweet and incredible too. We had received carrot juice for the "Ninjin Club" that visited last Sunday. Hitomi said that the best carrot juice was made with the carrots from the garden, so she brought the juicer and made it. Hiro refused to drink carrot juice. I gathered from a previous conversation he also doesn't care for tomato juice. I don't like tomato juice much either, but carrots are a completely different situation. It tasted amazing!
However...after my "baby carrot bag" incident while our bike trip to DC (which involved me vomiting into a public trashcan on the side of the main street of a small town)...I have to be careful not to eat too many carrots.
After that it was off to the chickens again. When I came back, a surprise visitor had arrived : Makoto. He came to visit a few times when I was here before but I hadn't seen him in a few months. He said he gained weight, I said I did as well. Katsu, Hiro, Hitomi and Makoto chatted for a while. I mostly listened, someone turning to me for a few moments sometimes. They were catching up, like people do, and that was interesting enough for me as well as a challenge for my Japanese. I went in the house after a while, and then Hitomi, Makoto and I talked about cakes for a while. Then Hitmoi went home and Makoto and I talked about clothes (his $200 vest and $300 shoes, to be exact). Then he had to go off to a party for his new job.
I watched "Megane" last night with Muto-san, Katsu's recomendation. It was good, quiet...beautiful.
I woke up at 5:30 AM so that Katsu and I could leave at 6:30 AM to prepare for the Kikuchi Farmer's Market that started at 7:00 AM. That was the earliest that I had woken up in a LONG time. I ate a little bowl of rice with egg and tea and a banana. We loaded up the truck and went.
It was chilly and early, we set up the truck with a tarp and a little display of the carrots, yaakon, spinach, long green onions and other greens. Then Katsu set up the crates of shiitake where for $200 you could take a bag and fill it as full as you can, you could "GYU GYU" and stuff the bag. People loved that. Older and women and men came and worked that bag like magic - it was obvious lyan art, this "gyu gyu" ing. Two old men together "gyu gyu" ed amazingly. The shiitake were packed in so tight they no longer looked like mushrooms at all...pretty incredible...I guess. And to make a long story short, the crates were emptied in two hours. After that, the other vegetables started selling. In the end there were 6 packages of eggs, two of leafy greens and one of carrots left.
I walked up and down the market, enjoying the booths selling food, flowers, fish, pickles, art, veggies - whatever. At one end I found what I had been looking for - roasted sweet potatoes. I bought a big fat one for $200 and recieved a slice of purple potato for free - it matched the brilliant purple of Katsu's shirt...but it was all natural! Then I went down to the other end of the maket (since the Yamaai Mura booth was in the middle) and I ended up buying a bag of dried figs and a bag of mandarin oranges. All food:) Katsu laughed when he saw all what I had bought. For some reason everyone found it especially amusing that I bought a roasted potato...it's my favorite! Later one of the men who organizes the market and is the Muto family's friend bought me a bowl of pork soup from the booth next to us...I basically ate the whole time. However, I did help sell a little bit. It took me a while to get used to the proper language. "Yasai ikaga desu ka?" (Are you interested in any vegetables?) "ni Hiyakuen itadakimasu" (I will humbly recieve 200 yen)...how to hand them bags, take the money, calling out "irrashaimase!" and "arigato gozaimashita!"...it was fun. I hope I can help out next month. Hana-chan and Hiroko-san (Katsu's daughter and wife) came towards the end. Hana-chan comes to the farm on Tuesday when Hiroko-san works, but when she is with her mom, she is like a completely different little girl! Happy and polite and strong:) Mother magic!
After we cleaned up Katsu took me to a little display at the Kikuchi center where there were Japanese dolls for girls day on display. There was also a corner where a woman would help you into a kimono that had 12 collars and was an example of the 12 layer kimonos from the olden days...so I tried one on and Katsu took a picture for me. I was a little embarrassed but Katsu had wanted me to go so I'm glad that I had the opportunity. After that it was super market where I got carrot cake ingredients then a home center wher Katsu bought some bags and I browsed the perrenials. Then a bakery where we picked up some bread (apple and tea, cheese and sausage). Then we went to the family house (which I was happy about because I had only gone once...) but no one else was home so Katsu and I ate the lunch that was left. Which was great! A slice of omlet with rice, yaakon & carrot and sesame dish and miso soup. For dessert I had a piece of the apple and tea bread that is his favorite - and it was really good indeed.
After we went back to the farm I started baking. I must've made like 30 carrot cupcakes. I used the microwave oven, which I had been nervous about, but it all turned out well. Cream cheese icing and a garnish of shopped walnuts and chocolate. I was good. The recipe was ridiculously simple (though a little oily in my opinion). I think Muto-san approved and I'm giving a bunch for him to take to his family tonight...I hope they like them.
I forgot to mention it but a few days Muto-san and I found one of my many great aunts in a little bunch of houses ten minutes away from the farm. We knew she was close but we didn't know exactly where. No we do:) I'm supposed to go there in April for dinner along with the Uto Great Aunt and her family. It should be fun:)
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