Growing Perilla Purple (Red shiso) in New Zealand

Spring has come to New Zealand, and I started on this year’s vegetable garden.

One of plants that I am really looking forward to harvesting is Red Shiso, or Perilla purple.

Red Shiso: A Great Traditional Japanese Herb

In Japan, people like making sour, pickled plums called Umeboshi.

They are such a bright red in color, despite of young plums being green or pale yellow.

The reason why they have such red color is because, plums are pickled with additional ingredient: red shiso (Perilla) herbs.

Red shiso herb has purple pigment, which turns very bright red when mixed with acid.

So when red shiso is used in combination with sour ume Japanese plums (that have very acidic juice), it produces that bright red color.

Red shiso themselves have very nice, original fragrance that matches well with Japanese dish, raw sashimi or rice.

So I wanted to grow my very own Red shiso in my garden, hoping that I will be able to harvest my own red shiso to use for cooking.

Red shiso is called by various name. See this wikipedia page for Shiso herbs. –>  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiso

They are sometimes called Perilla red or Perilla Purple.

Growing Perilla purple from Seeds: Watch out for birds!

So I picked up some Perilla purple seeds from Trademe.

In general, Perilla plants grow very well in full or half shades, and are not very picky on soil conditions either.

They do prefer well-drained soil, though.

They are energetic and supposed to be quite easy to grow.

However, their seeds take a while to germinate; approximately 10 days ~ two weeks for germination.

Germination requires exposure to sunlight, so you cannot bury seeds too deep and cover completely with soil.

You need to sow them shallow, and cover them with only a thin later of fine soil.

This sounded rather tricky for me, so I decided to let seeds germinate on wet tissue papers, then plant them into small pots once they start germinating.

Two weeks waiting and watering seeds for germination is very long….  especially compared to my cabbages and beans sprout really quickly only after 2-3 days!

It took nearly one month for perilla seeds to germinate and produce small new leaves.

I decided to bring pots outside, now that seeds have started to grow 2-3 cm tall ….. but this was a BIG mistake.

One morning when I came out of the house, many Perilla purple seedlings that were growing in my pots all disappeared!

Did they all die and melt down over night…. ? No.

It is most likely that bird outsides ate them all.

Even in Japan, birds like sparrows love Perilla seeds and sprouts.

I mean, even humans eat Perilla leaves and seeds, so they will be some delicious treats for wild birds.

Come to think of it, I did hear many birds jumping close by the window this morning…..

So my first attempt to grow Perilla purple from seeds, failed and I wasted a whole month….. orz

Trying again!! Growing Perilla Purple!

So I decided to try again.

Perhaps this time, I will grow them to be a larger size plant indoors first, then take them outside.

Perilla purple seeds germinating on wet tissue papers; it takes two weeks to get to this stage.

Some main new leaves starting to come out…. 2-3 cm tall.

Plant size reached 10cm… Leaves are much larger now too!

Too early to relax just yet, but I replanted the into larger planter.

Planter is placed under our room where we regularly hang washings and put other outdoor items, so hopefully birds will not come near it.

Perilla plant is still young and small, but when you pinch an end of a leaf, you can smell its characteristic fragrance…. yummy smell!

When plenty of leaves are ready for harvest,  I may use the to make Shiso-drinks (Perilla tea), or perhaps salted-perilla red flakes that tastes great on rice.

I just cannot wait for them to grow larger and start producing more leaves for harvesting!

Enjoyed cherry blossom? Enjoy cherry leaves too!

Spring is here in New Zealand.

Until about last week, cherry blossoms around Auckland were in full bloom. So beautiful!

But when cherry blossom flowers finish and trees start to learn green…. you might wan to go back to cherry blossom tree again.

Because if you want to make edible pickled cherry leaves, now is your chance….

Spring Gardening with Children: Best Vegetables to Grow with Kids

Every year, we plant some vegetables in our garden at the start of spring.

Even when we only had a small space in our garden, we had in our garden to place planters and pots, to grow some vegetables.

Children love sowing seeds and watering. They love it even more when plants start to grow day by day.

And they get a real excitement and a sense of achievement when vegetables are harvested in their own little vegetable garden!

Growing your own vegetable is the best way for children to learn values of food AND get them to start eating more vegetables!

But looking after a large field of vegetables can be  a hard work at the same time as looking after little children.

So I chose below a few best plants I like growing with children. These can be grown in a small space and are easy for beginner gardener.

Choice 1: Radish

Radish are perhaps the easiest and fastest grown garden vegetables.

Small red radish can be harvested in 30 days after sowing seeds in warm season.

You do not need much space to grow these radish; a long planter can accommodate two rows of radish easily.

After sowing seeds, they start germinating after only a few days, and they grow fast day by day.

Because they grow so fast, children do not get board of watching and watering them everyday.

One thing to be careful though, when the base of the radish plant start to become round, children get more and more urge to pick them.

So when they start to say “I think they are ready, can I pick them!?!?”, you have to stay firm and tell them to wait.

While growing radish is a real exciting experience, not many children would say “I love radish! Radish are my most favorite food!”.

One of the best way to eat radish with children is to cook them in a miso soup. You can wash and chop up both radish root and leaves, to eat the whole thing.

You can also make a pickled radish by slicing radish root and marinating them for a few hours in some sushi-vinegar. (Sushi-vinegar is mild and sweet so many children can eat pickles using sushi-vinegar).

Mixed radish from our vegetable garden last autumn.

Choice 2: Cherry tomatoes

Growing vegetables in your garden costs some money for fertilizers and seeds. So often it is cheaper to buy vegetables rather than growing them.

But out of many vegetables, apparently tomatoes are easy to get the value back.

This is because tomato plant if grown right, bears many fruit over the summer and the retail price of tomatoes being more expensive than many other vegetables.

Especially easier tomatoes to grow is cherry tomatoes.

Their fruits are smaller and faster to mature. It is fun to watch them flower, grow in size and start to change color in the sun.

Growing well! Pot-planted cherry tomatoes.

You can grow cherry tomatoes from seeds, but they can also be grown from seedlings.

Some grafted tomato seedlings are very strong against disease and especially easy to grow.

So you may like to buy grafted tomato seedling from a local gardening store; better seedlings to start with, easier and more successful it will be for beginners.

Note that some type of tomatoes grow like a tree or mini-bush, while others will stay pot-sized.

Depending on the space available in your garden, you should choose the type of tomatoes or cherry tomatoes to raise.

Choice 3: Strawberries

Kids love strawberries. If you plant them, you can enjoy pick-your own strawberries in your very garden!

Strawberry flowers are white with round petals, yellow in the middle. So they are very nice to watch.

As flowers will bloom one after the other and it is a great fun for children to watch the middle part of strawberry flower enlarge gradually, eventually starting to turn red.

They are easy and fast to mature, so children will not get bored; instead, they will be checking them every day, saying “are they ready yet!”

Strawberries are grown from seedlings that are available from local gardening stores.

You can grow them on a field, or in planters and pots.

In New Zealand, you can enjoy strawberry fruits growing from spring till summer.

If you plant one- or two- strawberry seedlings, you will not have enough strawberries to feed the whole family, but will be enough to enjoy watching them grow.

If you want to get more serious and grow enough to eat, you apparently need 5x plants per person in your family.

I found the following website useful for learning how to grow strawberries.

 https://www.palmers.co.nz/top-10-tips-for-growing-strawberries/

Finally, if growing strawberry yourself is not right, how about picking your own strawberries in a farm?

There are many ”Pick your own strawberry" farms throughout New Zealand. They usually are open to public people to pick their own strawberry over the summer.

Choice of Tree: Citrus (Orange, Lemon, Mandarin)

If you want to grow a fruit tree, easy and highly recommended are citrus trees.

They are relatively easy to grow, and once the tree reaches certain size, they will bear many fruits.

Some fruits trees like blueberries require two or more of different types of trees to be planted together to bear fruits. But this does not apply to citrus.

Citrus flowers are white and small, but very cute in appearance too.

If you plant lemon tree, you can make lemonades with children using lemon they picked themselves.

Or you can just eat it fresh if you plant a mandarin or orange tree. Either way, children love picking fruits off the tree!

Small seedlings are weak against insects, so do look after them properly when you just planted a seedling.

Once my friend had a mandarin tree completely stripped off leaves by voracious caterpillars.

Small citrus trees for planting are available from local gardening stores.

Make sure to purchase a seedling tree from proper gardening store; grafted seedling grown by professionals start bearing fruits much earlier than a random seedlings that have grown from fruit seeds.

Spring Gardening with Children＊Summary

So above are my favorite and recommendation of plants for gardening with children.

• Choice 1:Radish
• Choice 2:Cherry tomatoes
• Choice 3: Strawberry
• Choice 4: Citrus tree

I think the key points for picking what to plant when you are trying to enjoy gardening with children are:

• Easy to grow = kids can help, less chance of sad failure
• Fast to grow = kids do not get bored watching plant grow
• Edible and Easy to eat =Good education for kids to learn where food come from

I also grow some herbs in my garden. While I personally love them, herbs all look the same “green” and this does not interest children very much.

Sometimes I pick them and let children smell, and they say “nice smell!!” but that’s about it.

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Auckland Nature Park: Let’s go to Western Springs Park!

Last weekend, we visited the Western Springs Park, one of great nature parks in Auckland.

It is a great place to have a picnic throughout the year, but especially in the spring – early summer because you can see baby geese and swans!

Where is the Western Springs Park?

The Western springs park is located next to the famous Auckland Zoo. Address of the park is 731 Great North Road.

It is right next to SH16, Northern-Western Motorway.

It takes approximately 10 minutes by car from Auckland CBD.

There is a bus stop right outside the Western springs park, where several different buses stop at.

It may take around 30 minutes of travel and changing buses, if you travel from Auckland CBD to the western springs park by public transport.

The Western springs park is popular place to visit throughout the year; both local families and oversea visitors come to enjoy the beautiful park and wild life in the park.

Animals you can meet in the Western Springs Park

In the Western springs park, there are many wild life flourishing around the lake.

These include native birds, like Pukeko and black swan.

Children love to see the close, and photographers love taking close-up photographs of them.

Birds like Pukeko are rare overseas and many oversea visitors enjoy meeting them here in the Western springs park.

While the park contains plenty of natural resources and food that birds can eat, it is not forbidden to feed these birds in the park.

You should feed them on land and not in water, as remaining food in water will easily spoil the water.

But otherwise, if you bring a bag of old bread, you will have an awesome time feeding these birds throughout the park.

Birds are everywhere in the Western springs park.

Here are some of birds we encountered this trip.

Pukeko: Porphyrio melanotus

Native to New Zealand, Pukeko are found near water throughout New Zealand.

Characteristic blue feather and red beaks, these birds look really pretty.

In the Western springs, they are found on grass near the water, and love eating bread.

Goose

There are so many families of geese in the Western springs park.

From spring to early summer, you can see many baby geese, or goslings, walking around with their parents.

Babies are soooo cute and fluffy, and quite adventurous.

They will happily eat your bread, but be careful that some of adult geese are large and aggressive.

You might stay away from aggressive geese if you have small children with you, as aggressive birds may try to steal food directly.

Mother geese are often irritable while they are raising babies or hatching their egg, so stay away from them.

Black swan: Cygnus atratus

Also native to New Zealand, black swans have beautiful black body feathers and bright red beak.

Very beautiful and gentle birds.

Often they are swimming in the lake, and may be interested in your bread.

In the spring, there are many fluffy little babies too; the real “ugly duckling”. They are NOT ugly, but super cute!

They are curious and often swim towards you.

Australian Coot: Fulica atra australis

Medium size birds slightly smaller than Mallards, with black body and sharp white beak, with big feet.

These coots are also native to New Zealand.

They are often swimming in the lake. When chased by another birds, you may see them “run” on water at an amazing speed.

Some of them are quite brave and come close to human, asking for some bread.

We spotted a family with baby coot this trip in the spring.

Eel

In the lakes of the Western springs park, there are many eels.

They often swim towards you, asking for some bread.

Some of them seem to be tailing black swans, perhaps they are hoping to steal their bread?

Native to New Zealand, these eels are well looked after by the council.

In nature reserves and parks of New Zealand including the Western springs park, it is forbidden to catch any plant or animal species.

You must not try to catch any birds or eels, or other species in the park.

They are all very friendly and will come close to you if you bring a bag of bread for them, so enjoy watching them up close inside the park.

Play park inside the Western springs park

There is also a playground located inside the Western springs park.

There are many play gyms and outdoor toys that both young and elder kids can play.

Kids get so excited in the play ground!

This playground area is adjacent to the Auckland zoo, and occasionally you can see an elephant walking through a fence.

There is a small shop that operates in the Zoo, that also sells some food and ice creams to the Western springs park visitors.

There is a BBQ area nearby too.

From the Auckland Zoo shop, you can purchase scoops of Tip-top ice cream.

Ice cream after walking around the park and playing in the play ground taste fantastic!

To enjoy the Western Springs Park

The Western springs park is a large park. You can easily spend two hours or even a whole day there.

So when you are visiting the park, make sure to bring proper sunscreen, hats, plenty of drinks and snacks.

Also, you are allowed to feed birds and this is a real exciting event for both children and adults.

So don’t forget to bring a bag of old-bread from home to feed birds. Many visitors bring a bag full.

There are some families with kids teaching them how to ride bicycles in the park.

It is pretty safe inside the park without cars, so you may like to bring kids’ bicycles.

You do need to be extra careful of other visitors though, as there are many animals and small children running around in the park.

When it starts to get dark in the late afternoon, birds will go back to their nests and become less active.

So if you are hoping to meet active birds, you should come earlier during the day.

Summary of the Western Springs Park

One sunny day on the weekend, perfect for a picnic?

The Western springs park is a perfect place to go on such day, if you live in Auckland or visiting Auckland.

Pack your picnic gear, sunscreen and hats, a bag of bread and go to the Western Springs!

It is not far from other shops and amenities, and there are toilets inside the park too, which makes it an easy place to go with children.

Summary of Western springs park

• Beautiful park perfect for walking and picnic
• Many New Zealand native birds can be seen
• Bring a bag of bread to feed birds and eels!
• There are playground for children
• There are toilets and a shop in the park
• Only 10 minutes drive from Auckland downtown
• Free because its a park!

Barley rice for healthy eating

It is well known that rice is served daily in many Asian countries as the main source of carbohydrate.

In Japan, many people eat rice daily. But did you know that Japanese people often mix other grains into their rice to make rice more nutritious?

One of the “healthier” rice that is popular among people of Japan is barley rice.

What it barley rice?

In normal white rice, the bran and skin of rice is removed. While this process makes rice white and tasty, it removes most of nutrients.

So people in Japan sometimes choose to eat brown rice, or mix other grains with white rice to supplement nutrients.

One example of this is barley rice; where white rice is cooked with some added barley.

Many people in Japan  eat barley rice because it has many health benefit.  These include:

• Improving constipation
• Helping you lose weight
• Reduce bad cholesterol level
• Reduces high blood pressure
• Lower glycemic index – better for diabetic people

So when our family used to live in Japan, we cooked barley rice  often.

But now we are back in New Zealand, we wondered if we can find “barley” suitable for cooking barley rice.

Pearl barley: can they be used to cook barley rice?

So we headed to our favorite organic shop: Huckle Berry.

Huckle Berry　→　http://www.huckleberry.co.nz/

Huckle Berry sells many types of organic food. They also sell various beans and grains in bulk (priced per kg).

Many of these organic bulk beans/grains are hard to find in a regular supermarket.

Some of grains/beans that are sold at Huckle Berry, that may interest Japanese food lovers are….

• Millet …these grains are sometimes mixed with white rice to cook nutritious grain-rice. Japanese cooking uses specific millets called “Hie” and “Awa”, but I am not certain which these millets are closely related to.
• Azuki Bean　…These beans can be used to make red-bean pastes, used in Japanese traditional sweets.
• Rice Flour　… Rice flour. You can use them to make some Japanese sweets, or these can simply be used for gluten-free bakings.
• Miso、Wakame、Kombu　…Miso (Soy bean paste for miso soup), Wakame (Sea weeds for soups and salad), Kombu (Kelp for cooking or making soup) are also sold at Huckle Berry. These are all nice to use in Japanese cuisine, but many of these are organic and high in price. It may be cheaper to find alternatives at Japan mart.

At Huckle Berry, we found barley we were looking for.

These were called “Pearl Barley”.

Barley that have skins and bran removed are called “pearl barley”. They can be cooked with other ingredients to make a nice filling for a soup.

Mmm these “pearl barley” do not look that pearly. They look rather brown, compared to barley we get in Japan.

Barley that are used in Japan to cook barley rice are flattened by mechanical pressure. That way these “pressed-barley” are cracked and easier to absorb water/cook.

Pressed barley look similar but not as flattened as rolled oat.

Anyway, we decided to give these “pearl barley” a go and used them to cook barley rice.

How to cook barley rice

Cooking barley rice is simple; you wash and prepare white rice and water,  then add barley and extra water.

Typical ratio is one cup of uncooked rice, add 50g of uncooked pearl barley and 100ml extra water.

Of course if you prefer more or less barley, you can adjust the amount of barley.

For each 100g of dry pearled barley added, you want to add 200ml of water.

This time, I decided to reduce the amount of barley than the typical ratio, and cook 1.5 cups of uncooked rice with 50g barley, following steps below.

Step by step: cooking barley rice

1. Wash 1.5 cup of uncooked white rice.

2. Place washed rice in a rice cooker with right amount of water. I simply use the water level guideline on the rice cooker bowl.

3. Add 50g of pearl barley. Add extra 100ml water.

4. Mix barley and rice.

5. Let it sit for at least one hour, to allow both rice and pearl barley to absorb water. I recommend letting it sit longer if you can (like 2 – 4 hours) if you have enough time before meal.

6. Turn the rice cooker ON and cook rice.

7. When cooked, let it sit for 10 minutes, then use rice scoop to gently mix rice a few times.  Serve in a bowl.

FINISHED!!

How do barley rice taste?

When we tried barley rice…. rice is well cooked, but pearl barley grains stayed quite hard.

Pearl barley were very chewy. I think they could be softer if they were allowed to absorb water for longer.

In Japan, barley rice is cooked using pearl barley that are partially flattened by mechanical force; these are called “Oshi-mugi” (=pressed barley)

These pressed barley absorb water and cook faster, so they have similar consistency as rice, while having more sticky-texture.

So overall, the attempt to cook barely rice using pearl barley available in New Zealand was a success, with some room to improve.

Perhaps soaking pearl barley alone over night before mixing with uncooked rice may help.

Barley rice does have characteristic brown appearance of barley and some taste from barley.

So I do not recommend using barley rice for a dish that requires plain white rice, like sushi.

On the other hand, barley rice can be easily combined with curry or stew, or used in fried rice.

Summary

Pearl Barley available from local store in New Zealand can be used to cook barley rice!

• Barley rice has many health benefits compared with regular white rice
• We found some pearl barley in local Huckle berry store
• These pearl barley can be used to cook barley rice, albeit a bit firmer than ideal.
• For 50g dry pearl barley, add 100ml extra water.
• Let pearl barley absorb water for at least an hour (a few hours + desirable)
• Barley rice goes well with curry & rice, or fried rice meals.

Today, barley rice was served with Japanese fried chicken and miso soup, a nice authentic healthy Japanese meal!