Artichoke seed.  

We'e had a relatively cool summer in Santa Monica.  My vegetable garden was performing rather well in June, as you can see from the picture below, but the temperatures never rose high enough for the tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplant.  So I had to pull some of them out.  The peppers and zuchinnis are slowly coming along, and I planted more tomatoes and cucumbers this weekend. Let's see what's happens to the rest of our summer.  It was not all without hope though.  What did surprising well were the artichokes. I find artichokes tedious to eat but I love to have them in my garden.  The purple flowers keep my garden cheerful. Eventually, they turn brown and dry, but even then, I like them.  I had never paid much attention to ttheir seeds before until I saw them this afternoon. They were so beautiful, I had to run inside for my camera. Poor Ana had to wait for her walk until I finished taking pictures. But she never complains. She knows me.  Chelsea Clinton's Vera Wang's wedding gown was lovely but look at this one.  It took my breath away.

  

  Ready to take flight.

My last artichoke flower of this year Mass of seeds

Old beauty

My vegetable garden in early summer.   The artichokes are in the back to your right.

My apricot tree didn't produce much fruit this year.  But even a small 

basketful brightens up my kitchen.

Doing cooking workshops, I learned, takes more than teaching how to cook.  There is so much advance preparation involved, especially since Akila is coming from Japan, and this is the first official workshop we are doing together.  Getting the word out there is the challenge when you are not a famous chef but we got some good publicity. Here and also here. Akila and I also came up with another idea.  How about my neighbors? Would they be interested in making soba, cooking Japanese food? Why not?

We made some flyers. Akila did the graphics. I found some old origami, cut them up into little squares, and used them as stickers. I like the Japanese touch. A flyer needs to stand out to grab people's attention. These are not bad. Akila's tag line, Yes, straight from Tokyo, just for you, makes me laugh.  I spent half the day folding and pasting paper. I was in charge of distributing them, door to door. If any of these people signed up, I will have more friends in my neighborhood.

 I

I figured I could work one block at a time.  I have never been a newspaper boy or a postman or fuller brush salesman or a missionary of  any type, so it took me a little courage to walk up to people's mailboxes at first, especially if you have to open the front gate and step into their property. It's hard work. You feel intrusive.  My dog Ana was with me so I looked like a neighbor walking her dog but still it took a little getting used to. I have lived in this neighborhood for more than 15 years but I have never paid more attention to people's gates and mailboxes, as I did today.  You get a whole new perspective about your neighbors. 

I even started guessing which houses have potential.  When I saw a tree trimmed like a bonsai, for example, I decided this person might be interested in Japanese food. But cooking? Let's hope. I skipped some houses that had weeds growing in front and mean dogs barking. I did three streets today.  I will work on the north side of these streets tomorrow.  I walked a lot today. So did my dog, Ana.  

You really know how far you have taken your passion when you receive 25 boxes worth of soba equipment from the Tsukiji Soba Academy. I have another shipment of flour, sake, soy sauce, bonito flakes, etc. coming. This is all for the sake of  soba and the upcoming soba and homecooking workshop. My house has been rearranged to accomodate everything. The dining room is now a soba studio.  I am not complaining.

Here are the beautiful handmade sieves made by an artisan in Kawagoe                                 who is in his eighties. They arrived safely.   

So did my dried bonito (for making bonito flakes), and handwoven soba dishes.

Fissler (German) pots and Japanese saucepans. 

 

Two beautiful lackquered finished soba bowl and stainless steel spba bowl

Another sieve and some dishes

Noodle bowls, lots of them

Ana is barking at me.  "What is it with all these sieves and bowls?"

Ana watching the little league soccer players

English rose