To the new solar term: Beginning of Winter (11th to 21st November, 2025).

From a seventeenth-century account of the customs and exotics in southern China.

老棗枝枝實， 深紅半帶靑。 盛來筐篚爛， 拾去里鄉聽。 百果知珍品， 三秋擅異香。 群兒應有索， 仙顆欲延齡。 The old jujube tree bears fruits on every branch, In deep red and half green, Coming with brilliance in baskets round and square, Going to the halls of villages and hamlets. A recognised treasure amongst hundreds of fruits, The sole bearer of a wondrous scent in the three [months of] autumn. The crowd will surely beg to have them, The immortality pills that would extend their life. * From Bak Yunmuk 朴允默, Jonjae jip 存齋集,

A summer-autumn delicacy.

An unusual incident from the Tang dynasty

To the coming solar term, Cold Dew, starting 8th October, 2025.

A joke from the Ming dynasty.

Harvest of the week.

An autumn delight.

A Chinese account of figs from a 17th-century gardening manual.

Next one to be harvested.

Trying another way of preserving pears.

Another harvest.

Time to harvest the plums.

Approaching the end of summer...

To the latest harvest.

Stay Zen in the heat.

A fly-fighting story.

An idiosyncratic solution to the summer heat.

In celebration of the first-ever loquat harvest in my garden.