In this mini series I share with you my experience as I reacquaint myself with gong fu brewing of Dan Cong tea.

(This episode was shot shortly before the birth of my second child. The ending can use more work; and there were plans to re-shoot this episode. With a newborn, Spring planting fast approaching, and many more video topics to cover, the re-shoot won’t happen for awhile. Rather than hold this series up, we’ll go with this shoot. I hope you enjoy.)

This is a longer episode and I hope you watch the housekeeping segment. There are many videos that cover gong fu brewing (and they do a better job at it) but the housekeeping segment is one that is important and not often covered.

“The History of the Teochew People-The China History Podcast, presented by Laszlo Montgomery”

I normally grow carrots and harvest them as I need them. As the plant matures, the carrot becomes more and more dense. More mature carrots are perfect for stewing. Today, we harvest our final three ‘Red Cored Chantenay’ French heirloom carrots for Japanese curry.

Drawn by plants whose colors are so deep that they appear black, I had to grow this radish. Today, we harvest a few heirloom ‘Round Black Spanish’ radishes for dinner. This is video of our harvest.

Raw tasting: Spicy! With a nice smoldering burn.

A tour of some of the garden’s newest arrivals.

A quick update on what we did today in the garden.

We have had a couple of good months of cool weather. During this period of the year it was expected that we would find a tremendous amount of growth. Unfortunately, expectations have yet to be met.

The wasabi plant starts that we received from our first vendor are rather small. It is becoming obvious that it would take at least three years before they reach a size worth harvesting.

Remembering http://www.thewasabistore.com, and seeing how large their plant starts are, we thought that rather than calling this project that we would double down on our efforts and purchase additional plants.

Zone 10b. Southern California / Los Angeles / San Gabriel Valley

Round 2: Mounding the  ‘Tokyo Long White’ and ‘Ishikura Long Winter’ green onion plants.

Green onions / spring onions / scallions / bunching onions are either in delicious dishes or make dishes delicious. The two varieties mentioned will be grown in a side by side contest to observe how they grow.

My favorite scallions have been the Japanese heirloom varieties. Very easy to grow and can be grown year round in the southern California – Los Angeles area. Though an inexpensive produce it is the convenience of walking to the garden to find some that makes this plant worth it to grow. Moreover, fresh harvested scallion has more spring in its texture and is more aromatic.

In this mini series I share with you my experience as I reacquaint myself with gongfu brewing of Dan Cong tea.

In this episode we’ll look at and talk about the many different ways tea is enjoyed. In the next episode we’ll gong fu brew dan cong tea. Before we do that, we’ll use this episode to highlight that while tea ranges in price and “quality,” there is not one that is better than the other. Rather, they are unique from one another and their characteristics play a role in how they are enjoyed.

In this mini series I share with you my experience as I reacquaint myself with gongfu brewing of Dan Cong tea.

In this episode we’ll talk a little bit about the tea plant, camellia sinensis.

Other than why I keep saying, “stretch out our feet” instead of “stretch our legs,” 2016 has been a great year. In our final episode of the year we will talk about:
The Weather, Highlights of 2016, & Things To Look Forward To In 2017.

Thanks for taking part in our productive year! Everyone have a wonderful NYE and Happy 2017!