Daikon, carrots and chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums (kiku) are the national flower of Japan. Late fall and winter are when they are at their peak in our area. I'm no expert at growing them but many people keep a few plants along the sides of the vegetable garden and then cut the stems to arrange in front of the home altars and tombstones. One of the villagers has a collections of them that would honor any botanist - they grow along the edge of his field and right now are gorgeous. I'll try to sneak over there for a picture.

Carrots are growing quickly - it's hard to eat them fast enough before they become baseball bats. That goes for the daikon radish too. They aren't my favorite vegetable in the world but they would make really good weapons. Most of these will be turned into pickles or dried but for now, the rather spicy roots are added to miso soup; boiled in soy sauce; grated on top of fish; made into vinegared salads.