Ready When You Are

Chestnuts growing under the blue sky...ready for you to pick! Yum! Wish you all a fun filled weekend!

Take a look at more beautiful skies all around the world here.

Favorite Fall Fruit

I forgot to post photos of when I when I went fruit u-picking, this time "Nashi (梨)!"

Nashi is what we call Japanese Pears, although they are more like apples. They are really crunchy and juicy, which is why I love them! 

Like the grapes, the Nashi were also wrapped to protect the fruit and we would have to rip the bottom of the bag open to look inside to see which one we wanted to pick (although there's really no need to actually "pick" any because all of them are well-made)!

The lady in the photo above told us that the Nashi this year were small compared to recent years. But they look pretty big to me! Yum!

I'm Nuts for Chestnuts!

Tis the season for Japanese chestnuts!

Japanese chestnuts are called "Kuri (koo-ri)" here. My favorite dish is the ever popular "Kuri Gohan," which literally translates to "chestnut rice." It's simple but tasty, especially with a sprinkle of "Goma Shio (black sesame salt)!"

Under the Vines

This is a shot of the sky through the grapevines from my day at Kitada-en (posted here).

I'm pretty short so I could easily stand under the vines, but for anyone taller than 160cm (around 6'2"), they would definitely have to angle their necks to the side or crouch over. But it would be worth it. The Kyoho grapes were delicious!

Take a look at more beautiful skies all around the world here.

Vineyard Fun

This weekend I had fun grape-picking at Kitada-en, a local farm in Tokorozawa. Right now the Kyoho, Pione, and Beni-izu grapes are in season.

This was my first time at a Japanese U-pick farm so I was curious how it operated. I should of known everything would be all professional...the good grapes waiting to be picked were wrapped in white paper!

So what we'd do is, look inside the white paper and choose which grape we wanted, which isn't a hard choice at all, as most are waiting beautifully to be picked!

Then we'd take the scissors and snap the stem. Very easy, right? And don't forget, the longer the stem the longer the grapes stay fresh!

I think I'm going to make this an annual outing. I loved walking under the grapevines! And the grapes were really delicious! Yum!