🌿BUTTERBUR & NANOHANA💛
In early spring, before our thoughts are dominated by the cherry blossoms, canola flowers begin to carpet the countryside.
Praise Buddha!
my little side-field
has bloomed with rape
なむあみだおれがほまちの菜も咲た
-Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶), 1812.
Trans. David Lanoue.
#canola #rapeseed #菜の花 #butterbur #Kyoto #京都 #wagashi #和菓子 #菜蕗
Spring is heralded in Japan by many different plants and flowers, but one of the most keenly anticipated is 'fuki' (菜蕗), the 'giant butterbur'.
As soon as the shoots appear, they are plucked from the ground and cooked as a delicacy.
We have a little patch growing in the back yard.
There is a small butterbur patch beside the backyard shed, so today we harvested a few of the fuki for a mid-morning tempura snack.
For a taste of spring...dip in batter, flash fry and enjoy with a simple sprinkling of salt😋🧂🍤👏✨
Earlier in the year, to coincide with a period in the traditional calendar known as 'fuki-no-hana saku' (款冬華 'butterburs bud' - January 20-24th), Nona (のな) created a special sweet called 'fuki-no-hana' (ふきの花). It mimicked the head of a butterbur flower.
Miho-san kindly brought back some usual sweets called 'saikatō' (菜花糖 'sugared rapeseed flowers') from her hometown of Sabae (鯖江市) in Fukui.
A speciality of Daikoku-ya (大黒屋), the small sweets are made from roasted rice dough coated in yuzu peel and sugar.
Saikatō (菜花糖) were first created by samurai in the Edo period to enjoy with tea ceremony. They can be eaten by themselves, or added to water to create a fragrant, yuzu-flavoured drink.
Saikatō are coloured yellow by pigment taken from the gardenia flower.
The yellow appearance of saikatō for the people of Sabae conjured images of spring, when rape flowers would bloom in profusion along the riverbanks.
Regular shipments of the sweets were sent to the imperial palace, indicating just how popular the sweets were during Edo times.
Camellia Tea Ceremony