Wild Food: Seven Herbs To Celebrate The Return Of Green
Sirerdrick made a good point in the comment to Bonnie's post about Food Foraging, noting that in Japan, you can find a lot of wild foods, including bamboo shoots, fern saplings, and ginkgo nuts. Actually, today, January 7 is a traditional day to celebrate the first herbs that grow this time of year. This afternoon I noticed that my supermarket sold the herbs, so I didn't have to do much foraging, but I like the way they make stuff available:
(Seven herbs from wikipedia)
(Seven herbs from wikipedia)
* Water dropwort (seri, Oenanthe javanica)
* Shepherd's purse (nazuna)
* Cudweed (gogyÅ, Gnaphalium affine)
* Chickweed (hakobera, Stellaria media)
* Nipplewort (hotokenoza, Lapsana apogonoides)
* Turnip (suzuna)
* Daikon (suzushiro)
* Shepherd's purse (nazuna)
* Cudweed (gogyÅ, Gnaphalium affine)
* Chickweed (hakobera, Stellaria media)
* Nipplewort (hotokenoza, Lapsana apogonoides)
* Turnip (suzuna)
* Daikon (suzushiro)
Since there is little food to harvest in early January, these fresh green herbs bring colour to the table and eating them suits the spirit of the New Year. At temples and shrines around Japan, this is a day to celebrate the return of green, as farmers start harvesting the tiny leaves and roots.
And if you ate too much during the holiday, you will appreciate the light, simple fare, usually eaten with a rice porridge
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