Here's the yurigumi class 2010! ; ) On Saturday, our yochien met up at the appointed farm that we go to every year. The kids got to dig and pull sweet potatoes and pick grapes. The weather was blazing hot, but it was really fun! From 9:30am to about 11:30am, so 2 hours was a great amount spent there on Saturday.
A Noah close-up! ; )
If you can see, the grape orchard is right next to where the sweet potato field is. One class picked sweet potatoes first. Meanwhile the yuri class went and picked grapes first. And then we switched. And we went digging for sweet potatoes.
The farmer had told us all that the grape batches were tinier then last year, because of the heatwave Japan has had this Summer. Noah found a fairly big batch. Which was nice because I was looking too and I only found tiny bags full, no big huge bags like last year. : (
Noah cut his batch of grapes. Noboru held the bag to make sure it didn't fall.
And of course we had to let both the boys get a pack. Don't ever want one feeling left out. And with 2 kids you always have to watch out for that, as you know of course. And we do. I recall even when it was Branden in yochien, we would always let Noah cut a bag too. ; ) Anyway, Branden looked and looked and found this bag. I thought he picked a very good bag of grapes.
As usual, we get to have the sweet potatoes whatever is between the 2 chalk lines. It adds up to a whole lot of sweet potatoes. Way more then enough.
Both Branden and Noah dug, dug and dug some more. Hmm, they had that tiny rake yet they preferred dig with their fingers instead. Go figure.
Noah pulling some right out of the earth. Boy the kids enjoyed this so much.
And then we all went and sat down and as usual, we were all given grapes and steamed sweet potatoes to eat. They came around a few times with even more sweet potatoes for us to eat. All of the kids brought themselves drinks, us parents did too. Noboru brought his thermos filled with iced water. Noah brought his Pokemon thermos filled with jasmine tea and Branden brought his thermos filled with jasmine tea with ice. After everyone ate and ate some more, all the kids went and did a prayer and a song, they also thanked the farmer and bowed. And we all said our good-byes. We went home and had leftover fajitas for lunch. ; ) And then we went in the backyard for some slip and slide play. We had to....it was just such a hot day, plus all 4 of us were home and it was just a good way to finish out the day.
Grapes and a whole lot of sweet potatoes. I see, steamed, baked and tempura battered sweet potatoes in our future. Oh dear...by the end of this week we will definitely be sweet potatoed out. Good thing we like sweet potatoes. ; )
Look how small a batch. And this is 2 different batches, Noah's and Branden's. More effects of the sizzling Summer we've all had here in Japan. Oh well, we still had fun letting the kids pick and cut their own grapes. And they are still so so sweet. So that's a positive.
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