Kudaka's Courtyard - Life ReRoute: April 2022

I love to throw herbs in my cooking. Not only do some herbs enhance the taste, smell and colour of the food, but herbs have also added health benefits to our body. My houseman used to grow flowering shrubs around the house but those shrubs are only enjoyable to the eyes. I prefer a more functioning benefit.

During the New Year season, some herbal plants started to sprout. After months of lethargic winter, I make rice porridge from the pickings of various herbs around the house. These are sweet potato leaves, fennel leaves, spring onions, chives, kesum leaves, coriander leaves and Japanese pennywort or pegaga leaves.

Below is the moringa plant. It is flowering from Feb till April. I'm expecting its long bean to appear but since this blossom is the first, I've to wait and see.

I even add herbs to my pasta dishes to get that extra kick.

These are coriander plants. Trust me, coriander plants are so easy to grow. Just throw in some coriander seeds and leave them to grow.

This is daun limau purut or the Indonesian called it daun jeruk. If you are lucky, you can find it at some garden shops in Okinawa but I doubt if it is sold in shops on the mainland of Japan. I got it as a small plant about 8 years ago. It has grown almost shoulder length now and we've cultivated 2 plants from 4 limes when it has fruited one season. I used daun limau purut generously in Malay cooking or to get the zesty lemony taste, I even drop lots of it in beef dishes.

This is a lemongrass plant. I use the root of lemongrass for Malay dishes like rendang, sambal tumis, serunding or asam pedas. The leaves are dried and added to chamomile or mint to make tea instead of throwing it away.

The above picture is a fennel plant. Yes, fennel. Those seeds are used in curry. I throw some and it grows quickly. As I'm writing now, the fennel plants are flowering in yellow sprays.

This last picture is coriander plant. Normally, I would use the coriander plant before it flowers in my cooking but for this planter, we let it blossoms to collect seeds for future planting and to add to my storage of spices.

We've more herbs other than those listed here. Most of them are various varieties of mint that I use to infuse as tea or as added flavour to my drinks.

Haiku

Chamomile blossom

knock me out solid all night

in heavenly sleep.

This is a lane in front of my daughter's house. This is the group of school-going children walking together with a senior man who volunteers to walk along with them all the way to the school.

Kameyama, Mie is a village on mountain trail. It is forested with bamboo groves scattering.

Most houses here are belong to farmers or people with farming-oriented jobs.

This pink and white sakura are a variety that blooms earlier than other varietiess.

There's a shinto shrine behind the house. This shrine is always deserted. There's a senior man who has a house next to the shrine. He's the person whol knocks the bell every morning. I heard the chime from this bells for a couple of days but I guess, after that, my hearing ignored the chime and I was not aware of it anymore.

The laundry balcony is on the second floor facing east and west, which catch abundant sun till late in the afternoon. The large space is an advantage for my daughter's family of 6 persons.

This is the nearest shopping area which is about 2km away. One shopping mall, one DIY, one take-away is all I can see. There may be more shops but they are spread out in a bigger area.