Candy Corn and Spiders: Veggies and Summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZFiYDtHeT0
They don't do it by hand anymore, rice planting. I found a couple of videos on Youtube. The first is from Korea and this 2nd, w/the catchy little tune, is from Japan (you can tell bc. the mountains aren't as tall), as is the image above. But, I've watched this process all around here in Sacheon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=NxJeo3h-zDQ&feature=endscreen
It's pretty fun to watch, both in the video and in real life! I guess the fields without water that I thought were for rice, were for wheat.

So, according to my friend, Kim Soon Ii, farming is becoming a life-style choice by many retiring 50-60 year old Koreans. You see old folks out from dawn to dusk around here, planting every type of crop, on any little available plot of land. The old and bent, along with the newly retired--I love it! This is a photo I posted on facebook from the first day I went to help Kim Soon Ii with her small orchard/garden. I'm only good for a couple of hours of this. It's GORGEOUS up where she has her plot of land. So green, with a huge lake.

Kim Soon Ii wants to be a farmer fulltime too. She teaches piano lessons everyday, though, and then squeezes this farming-goal in and employs whoever is willing to help out. I adore this woman and admire her immensely! Luckily, she speaks just enough English and, with gestures, we manage to communicate. Both of us go it alone. She's a divorced mom and has a great son, as do I. That's pretty rare in Korea--being divorced. So, despite our communication obstacles, I feel like we're soul mates. I pick and weed and she sends me home w/lots of sangchu (lettuce leaves) and buchu (small green onions).

She got the idea that I love this spicy stuff bc. I experimented and rolled it up w/multigrain rice in seaweed for part of our after church light meal once. That's how I cook--try and see. It's great in buchujeon, which I can't tell apart from pajeon, that Korean pancake made with flour, oil and veggies.

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/vegetable-pancake-with-asian-chives

Also, I've started cooking multi-grain rice and/or brown rice more at home (thanks to the internet, I can succeed w/o buying a rice cooker!) and adding stuff to it. This practice is NOT acceptably Korean or Japanese. But, I add buchu to the rice while it's cooking, then stir in Korean curry powder and other veggies and egg whites, for protein (adding tofu next time--hate the taste, unless it's w/other flavors)
해초 (or haecho: seaweed) and/or lettuce rolled around it, makes it a veggie meal. It's so yummy!

This month at JC Academy, one of the subjects some of my 13 yr. old students learned, wrote up, illustrated and then recited for the Speaking Presentation on Friday, were vegetables. So, let's end w/some of their creations.

Diana's is sweet and she's a dream student in many, many ways. I LOVE her happy veggies! Here's another happy collection of vegetables w/faces, mixed in w/how her family members feel about each.

Then we have a war of vegetables by Evan. Notice the potato threatening to take the grater to the broccoli, and the mushroom and bell pepper running up to watch? Boys! Funny, Evan is such a polite young man.

Here's Daniel's (another quiet, respectful kid) artwork--again, one of the veggies is torturing the other. Notice the potato and pumpkin? Luckily, raised w/seven brothers, none of this disturbs me--it fact I laugh out loud and the boys are well pleased by my appreciation.