From Farm to Table 10/29/10

Another busy day! Dave was feeling much better this morning, but opted out of the 6 AM walk as he didn't want to press his luck. John and I walked down to the palace gardens and grounds. It was a lovely place to walk. We saw people out jogging, walking and exercising their dogs (which for the most part are small breeds). After breakfast, we went to visit the Kiyomizu Temple which is on the east side of Kyoto in the "Blue Dragon" mountains. There were several buildings going up the side of the mountain and some lovely viewpoints from which to see the city below. There were again many children on school field trips. On the way back to the bus down the narrow town street, Dave was stopped by a television crew who interviewed him about his travels in Japan and if everything here was to his liking. We all kidded him about his new show, "Dave at Nine". Our next stop was to the west side of Kyoto near the "White Tiger" mountains. Before stopping at the farm which was our destination, we stopped at the huge and beautiful community center in the town of Kameoka. They were having a show of chrysanthemums and bonsai trees. Everything was just delightful - lovely colors and fantastic designs of the bonsai. We then continued on to Yuasa san's farm, which was 12 acres. This is an organic farm that mainly grows edamame (young soybeans), rice, barley and a spinach-type vegetable. We were charged with picking the edamame. We each had to pick one plant and then pick off the pods (see photo). We chatted with the farm owners and a neighbor couple (the husband raises bees and the wife raises beef cattle). We learned quite a bit about farming in this area. We also met a lovely young lady named Aoi from City Hall who was instrumental in arranging our farm visit. Saying good-bye to the farm and the owners, we continued on to the Heki Residence which is a lovely old 10 room house. The woman of the house said that is belonged to her husband's family whose ancestors went back to the age of the Shogun. There is a path in front of the house next to a bamboo forest that used to be a main street leading directly to Kyoto. We took off our shoes and washed our hands and then got a lesson on making vegetable sushi. We spread rice that had been mixed with rice vinegar and sugar on the sheet of nori (seafood). On top of that we placed squash, mushroom, spinach, carrot and
a roll of egg omelet. We then used a bamboo mat to help us roll up the sushi bar before cutting it into pieces (see photos). This was our lunch along with a salad with wasabi dressing, clear broth soup, a small plate of cooked vegetables: carrot, mushroom, green beans and a tofu dumpling with a lily bulb and a ginkgo seed cooked inside. There was also soy sauce for dipping and fresh ginger for garnish. The best part was the steamed edamame that we had just picked in the field. They were served hot with a bit of salt sprinkled on top (see photo). Wow! I think only one person was able to finish her plate - there was way too much food! We also were served dessert of vanilla ice cream with green tea powder on top. Dave being lactose intolerant was give a dish of grapefruit gelatin which he said was delightful. Junko talked about many things on the bus: patriotism, social security, the war, etc. She also said that we would be saying good-bye to half of the group tomorrow night as they are not going on the post-trip to Hiroshima. Someone said, "Boo-hoo" and she couldn't think of why we would use that expression to denote sadness. She said it sounded to her like the noise a pig makes and then she repeated back to us, "Boo-foo, boo-foo". Well, we all cracked up! So tomorrow night will be the Boo-Foo party! When we got back to the hotel, "the girls" went to do a little shopping. When we were shopped out (that doesn't take a long time on my part), we came back to pick up the guys for dinner. We walked down the main street thinking we might find a steak house. We did find one, but the price for a steak dinner started at 18,000 yen, which is about $225 in US dollars! We instead settled for a Japanese restaurant where again we sat at a low table with our feet in a pit underneath. We all ordered shrimp tempura and were horrified when it came covered in mayonnaise (the waitress said it was tarter sauce, but it was really mostly mayo)! We wiped it off with our chopsticks the best we could. It really was very good, but would have been so much better plain. We have been paying attention to the weather as we have heard that there is a possibility of a typhoon. Tonight's BBC channel said that we would probably be okay as it looks like it will strike further north that where we are. Tomorrow is another garden tour so I am hoping for good weather. Today was lovely - a bit windy, but quite warm.