Tokyo: Am I the only male tenant?

"Chiaki, taking time is not a problem! Listen, the cuteness of growing strawberries at home is priceless!"

“Why is the classic product ‘Wild Strawberry’ from the famous porcelain brand WEDGWOOD their eternal classic? Because it’s so cute!”

"As long as the flowers are lovely, the fruit will be lovely, and the leaves and stems will be lovely too."

"Anyway, cuteness is justice, let's plant strawberries!"

"Sister, aren't you interested in gardening? Why are you bringing up this spiritual theory now?"

"Uh... that..."

Chie Hoshino just thought the strawberry patterns on the bowls and plates were cute, but that was not a sufficient reason to spend time and effort growing strawberries.

"Qianqiu suggested growing broad beans?"

After listening to the sisters' argument, Tomoko Matsumoto continued to ask.

"Yes, because broad beans are really delicious~"

When Chiaki Hoshino made her proposal with a smile on her face and cheerfully, she looked full of the sunny charm of a girl next door.

"Indeed, in terms of practicality, it is more important to taste good."

"Right? You can make it into fried broad beans, fried with shrimp and onions, it's really delicious."

“You can also grind it up and make croquettes.”

“Boiled broad beans with just salt are also delicious.”

“If you’re tired of the salty taste, you can add curry powder to make it curry salt flavor, which goes well with beer.”

“Broad beans and rice.”

“It’s also chewier than other beans when used as a topping for pasta.”

"But if we cook it that way, it will all be used up in no time, right? If we can grow our own, we can eat as much as we want, which is so wonderful."

"I understand how you feel."

Tomoko Matsumoto and Chiaki Hoshino, two culinary masters, can't stop talking about this topic.

Although Ginjo and Chie Hoshino couldn't get a word in, just listening to their descriptions made them feel hungry again.

I really don't want to accept this. I have already eaten at noon, but now I am craving for broad beans so much.

Ah! Broad beans! Deep-fried broad beans! Crushed and made into croquettes! Curry salt!

"The freshness of beans is surprisingly important. Edamame is also sold with its branches and leaves. I heard that this way the freshness won't fade too quickly and it tastes better."

"Huh? So that's how it is."

"It seems so. I originally thought that they were just too lazy to remove the pods and sold them directly."

"I thought it was because it looked like it would sell better."

"From the perspective of the freshness of home-grown cultivation, growing broad beans is worth discussing..."

It seems that the wife's heart has begun to waver.

"That's right, so Sister Tomoko, why don't we just buy some broad beans and plant them?"

"But Qianqiu, the broad beans will grow unexpectedly bigger. If you want to realize your promise of 'all-you-can-eat broad beans', you must use up the space used to grow bitter melons and the 24-liter flower pots."

"So it's not possible?"

"I think it's a matter of time. If we plant broad beans now, it will take at least until May for them to grow big enough to be picked, which will completely overlap with the planting period of bitter melon."

Tomoko Matsumoto pressed her fingers between her eyebrows, her peach blossom eyes slightly closed, as if she was desperately trying to build a vegetable growing schedule in her mind.

"If I could stagger the planting time, I might be able to expect some kind of harvest, but I've already planned the best schedule for harvesting during the May holiday, and it would be a pity to break it..."

The wife fell silent, then made some kind of decision and spoke slowly.

"It looks like I'll have to put broad beans on next year's schedule, Chiaki."

"Well, it still doesn't work. There's nothing we can do about it. Let's just plant the bitter melons first~"

Although Chiaki Hoshino was a little disappointed, she still listened to her wife's advice.

"Okay, we're back to where we started. What should we plant?"

"Sister Tomoko, what do you think of this?"

In between their discussions, Yincheng was not idle either, and looked at all the potted plants around.

The wife looked in the direction of Yincheng's finger and found that it was a pot of cabbage sprouts.

"Oh my, Sosuke-kun has a really good taste. I was just about to recommend this to Tomoko."

I don't know when Nakajima Eri came over to them again, but there were obviously many other customers in the store.

Moreover, she had just met Ginjō for the first time today, but she had already learned to call him Sosuke-kun in a lady's tone.

“Although you have to start from seedlings, it will grow quickly even if you start now, and it won’t take up space for other plants!”

"Yeah, that's really good. I want to buy one."

With the dual recommendations of Ginjo and Nakajima Eri, my wife quickly placed her first order of the day.

"As expected, Sister Tomoko listens to Sousuke the most. Those cabbages that look like unripe cabbages are not cabbage sprouts at all!"

Chie Hoshino pursed her lips and muttered softly.

"Hey, Chie, look carefully, this isn't cabbage sprouts, what is it?"

However, her complaints were heard clearly by Ginjo who was standing behind her.

"They said it was a cabbage that hadn't grown yet. Could it be cauliflower?"

Chie Hoshino looked at the potted plant that Ginjō was pointing at.

From her perspective, it looked more like a tall leaf peony than a cabbage, with round rapeseed leaves at the tip of a thick, light-colored stem.

“Do you know how to pick cabbage sprouts?”

“Pick the cabbages while they’re still young.”

"Fool."

Ginjo Sousuke only uttered two simple words.

Recently, he has learned a lot of useful knowledge while accompanying his wife to pick vegetables on the balcony.

"There's a limit to how stupid you can be. Cabbage sprouts are a completely different species from the cabbage you normally eat. Have you heard of its alias 'Brussels sprouts'?"

"I've never heard of it...it's not a saury..."

Chie Hoshino had never heard of such an unfamiliar name, and there was nothing she could do even if she wanted to deny it.

"So, it's the opposite of baby corn?"

Baby corn is corn that is picked before it matures.

Ginjo Sousuke nodded.

"The so-called cabbage sprouts are the plants that grow from the axillary buds in the middle of this stem and form a head. Although they may not look very noticeable now, they will become like this in the future."

After he finished speaking, he pulled out a card from the potted plant and handed it to Chie Hoshino.

That's a grown-up photo.

Chie Hoshino and her sister stared at the photo together, both of them were so surprised that they were speechless.

The little puff-sized cabbage sprouts she often saw were "densely packed" on stems of some height.

"So, so cute...?"

"Really? Qianqiu, don't you think it's a bit disgusting?"

"You can't say it looks like a barnacle, sister..."

Sometimes I can’t help but feel that the shapes created by the gods of nature are really too avant-garde.

That being said, during Christmas time, cake shops or hotel dessert buffets often stack eclairs densely until they are as high as a tower and use them as decorations.

What kind of taste did this bring about? Could it be imitating the cabbage sprouts in the photo?

"Hmm, I didn't expect Sousuke-kun knew so much. Who taught you all this?"

“And most importantly, cabbage sprouts can be picked in winter, which is very convenient.”

“It can be used for stewing, and it is also suitable for making oven dishes.”

Nakajima Eri was always paying attention to the situation in Ginjo, so she couldn't help but add something.

Of course, the Hoshino sisters also like to eat cabbage sprouts added to stews or soups.

Regardless of the mystery of Christmas, it will indeed get cold afterwards, and this may be a very practical and grateful vegetable.

However, after saying so much, it seems that what Manager Nakajima and Ginjo say still carries the most weight with my wife.

"Then there are the common leafy vegetables. There should be no way to deal with turnips, right?"

Although Matsumoto Tomoko said this, she still selected seeds of rapeseed, Chinese cabbage, arugula, turnip, etc., and also bought soil and fertilizer.

While his wife was paying at the cashier inside the building, Chie Hoshino, who quickly lost interest, dragged her sister to the door early to wait.

“It gets really cold when there’s no sunshine.”

Chie Hoshino breathed out hot air, trying to warm her cold fingertips.

"It's going to get colder and colder, and the sun will set earlier and earlier."

Perhaps, as Eri Nakajima said, now is the only time to grow varieties that can be harvested in winter.

As a result, there are no tomatoes, eggplants or zucchini, but only leafy greens, turnips and cabbage sprouts...

It feels like the balcony is getting closer and closer to the "lush green".

There are no flowers, no decorative colors, and the only decorative color is the orange color of the mini radishes my wife planted last month, although most of the color is buried in the soil.

Chiaki Hoshino laughed helplessly. It seemed that the time had come to say goodbye to the colorful and blooming autumn roses in front of her.

Until her eyes rested on one of the pots of roses.

"Chiaki?"

"What color is this? It looks like pink and beige, and it also looks a little orange?"