October 23rd – October 27th, 2024 is Autumn – SOKO (Frost falls)-52nd KOU “First frost.”
As the first frost usually occurs around mid-November around here (southern Nagano City), no frost anywhere. And surprisingly the temperature at 6 a.m. this morning was 20°C!!! The forecast of minimum temperature for the week from tomorrow to next week says it’s around 15°C. Of course, not cold enough to cause frost.
Actually, the first frost is one of the signs that tells me when to harvest autumn vegetables.
SATSUMAIMO (sweet potato) are best harvested before frost, so I have already finished harvesting them. It was much earlier than the frost forecasted in the SHICHIJYUNIKOU calendar. The best time for SATOIMO (taro) is just before the first frost. I have to keep an eye on the weather forecast once in every day since November arrives, right? And NOZAWANA (a specialty of Shinshu) is said to taste better if it is exposed to frost two or three times, so let’s leave it alone for a while.
The SHICHIJYUNIKOU calendar was used as a guide for agricultural work in the days when weather forecasts and meteorological information were not well developed. However, what if the weather continues to be very different from normal, as it was this morning?
