(Pics to be added, tweaking to be done, please bear with…)
To Eat Or Not To Eat: That Is The Question
To eat or not to eat: that is the question
Whether ‘tis nobler to pick the wild,
To masticate the Devil’s Gut?
Or dream instead of alchemy, gold untold,
From this Midas root?
(With bows and apologies to Bill S.)
Spring is here, established and unfortunately, this year, wet. Indeed, it’s wet enough for the oxen tractor to be a stick-in-the-mud were it to be used. And we don’t want that; it’s hard work (made harder by accompanying wife belly-laughs) getting it out.
Bah, humbug.
But besides mixing up authors, there’s still things to be done; this afternoon, we pulled, peeled, salted and squashed another 30 kilos of daikon, most of which will be used to replace the already-gone takuan (our social experimentation continuing apace).
Sandwiched in the pulling and the peeling, there was time today, between cloudbursts, for a quick forage.
On the embankments and by the rice fields, つくし (tsukushi), common name Common Horsetail, but also known, (among others) as Devil’s Guts, Frog Pipes, or Snakegrass, are now in abundance.
Funky, fungi-looking, they’re factually ferns. And, according to the elder folk round here, absolutely edible, with what’s said to be an asparagus-like taste. They’re also made into a tea.
Other research on-line tells us that, high in silica, Horsetail can not only be used as a scouring agent, (meh) but that – Alchemists Arise! – it also produces gold.
Gold? GOLD! Gold in them there stems! Apparently, they can produce a whopping 4-and-a-half ounces per ton. Though it’s un-harvestable.
Alchemists, you better sit down.
On-Line Research further counters Local Knowledge by saying Horsetail (I prefer “Devil’s Gut”) is toxic, and has been known to kill grazing cattle, so until I can come up with a bona-fide recipe in Japanese that Izumi can trust, “Not to eat” is the Answer.
Bah, humbug.
Any help out there?
kitchengardenjapan
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