Growing herbs and vegetables on my balcony and enjoy home cooking
May is a good season to grow herbs and vegetables in Tokyo.
The store is packed with herb and vegetable seedlings.
In the suburbs where I live, I can buy a variety of seedlings.
Tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, bell peppers, and shishito peppers are popular.
Unfortunately, fruit-bearing vegetables have never grown well on our small balcony.
The balcony at my house gets very hot with strong winds blowing.
It may be a tough environment for vegetables.
The parsley is growing well.
I always garnish my dishes with fresh parsley.
This is one of the herbs I'm glad to have grown.
The oregano is also growing well.
My family loves the smell of fresh oregano leaves.
This is another herb that I am glad to have grown.
Mint is grown to make syrup.
It has already been harvested, but it seems to regrow quickly.
I made mint syrup using the mint leaves I harvested.
I plan to mix it with gin and carbonated water.
The mint was grown specifically for this syrup.
I'm looking forward to the hot and humid nights.
The salad burnet was meant to be used as a salad ingredient.
However, it seems to be used for flavoring, just like parsley.
This was the first time I grew it and the first time I ate it.
I'm currently learning how to use it effectively.
Chives look the same as Japanese green onions, but maybe a little thinner?
The taste is the same as Japanese green onions, but a little milder.
It's very useful, as a topping on cold tofu or sprinkled on ramen.
If I get a lot, I chop it up and store it in the freezer.
Swiss chard is one of my favorite vegetables, but I'm concerned about its slow growth rate.
Repeated harvesting takes time.
The slow growth might be due to the temperature still being low. (
I'll wait and see for a while.
I have rarely had success growing fruit-bearing vegetables in our home, but I continue to try.
This season I am also growing bell peppers and chillies.
Unfortunately, it is covered in aphids.
I've been spraying them with water mixed with potato starch, but I haven't been able to completely eradicate them.
After spraying it, it looks really bad when it dries.
I've tried removing them with a brush, but it hasn't completely eradicated them.
I mixed the mint syrup with gin and carbonated water and tried it.
Add ice, gin, mint syrup and a dash of lemon juice to a glass, stir gently and top off with carbonated water.
It didn't have the same menthol coolness as commercial mint products.
It has a wild, grassy flavor.
It was delicious, but not what I expected.
Could boiling it have been the issue?
I don't know the answer, but it's fun to try and error.
I will continue to enjoy balcony gardening.
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