Wild foraging - sansai season in Japan

This is a post that I intended to write last week, when I was still in Japan…but I will post it now, a week late, because I think/hope it might be interesting. As I mentioned before, people living in rural Japan collect and eat a huge variety of wild plants. Some of the people in my village have been teaching me how to collect and prepare these plants, so in an attempt to put this knowledge to good use I've been spending my pre-waking hours (by which I mean, the time before 6.30am, the time before one needs to be up and about, the time I should perhaps be spending running and/or working on my vegetable garden but somehow the idea of morning foraging was just so attractive..) heading to the forests above my house and collecting wild plants. And, as a result, I have learnt a great deal about some common wild plants that can be found during late April in rural Japan!

Each of these photos, below, represents 20-30 minutes of foraging in the forest as the sun was rising over Kushihara last week:

In these photos, there's 

'koshi-abura' ( Eleuthrococcus sciadophylloides, shoots of young trees, usually cooked as tempura but also good chopped finely and used as a herb to flavour salads or rice paper spring rolls. Known as Siberian ginseng, according to Wikipedia, and a close relative in the same genus is used in Chinese medicine to 'increase energy')

'tsukushi' (Equisetum spp, young horsetail grass, which should be boiled for at least 15 minutes before preparationn to remove the bitter taste, these are usually lightly fried and cooked with eggs  but also prepared as tsukudani - simmered in soy and mirin for longer term preservation - or pickled in soy, mirin and vinegar)

dandelion leaves (These are a European wild-collected plant and not commonly collected in Japan! But, they are abundant in the area where I live, so I thought I'd try them. Eat them as hitashi, a recipe that is common here for other wild leaves, or fried with garlic, onions and chilli)

'warabi' (Pteridium aquiline, young ferns. I was able to collect SO much warabi! The ferns are bitter and must first be prepared by chopping off the heads and then place in boiling water with a substance to take away the bitterness. This substance can be bought in shops and when it is, it is known as aku-nuki, but the traditional method used ash. Once the water has cooled the ferns can be removed, washed and pickled in soy, vinegar, and mirin.)

unknown leaf (Shown in the bottom right photo, very recognisable, almost like an ornamental plant, but in fact found growing wild and cooked as tempura)

udou (Aralia cordata, Japanese spikenard. The stems are peeled and then cooked as described above for warabi to remove the bitterness: thrown in boiling water with ash or shop-bought bitter-taste-remover. These are a bit thicker than warabi and therefore it's best to actually boil the plant in the mixture for 5-10 minutes or so. Then, they are served with a dipping sauce, usually su-miso, a combination of vinegar and miso. I served them with wasp larvae miso, though, and no one complained… the young leaves at the top of the stem are also eaten, these are usually cooked as tempura.)

I hvave also collected (but failed to take photos of)

'take no ko' (Young bamboo, the pointed heads barely reaching above the earth. These are harder work than most mountain vegetables, as they have to be hacked and dug from the ground with a large spade,  but definitely worth it. Once retrieved they are boiled with nuka, the discarded rice husks leftover after rice is polished in the Autumn, to remove the bitterness. Depending on size and thickness this can take up to 2 hours of boiling. Then, they can be sliced and eaten as they are, perhaps with a dip on the side, used in salads, or boiled in soy and mirin.)

'tara no me' (Aralia elata, the shoots of young trees. These are most commonly cooked as tempura)

wasabi leaves (Wasabia japonica, the young leaves of the wasabi plant, found growing wild in water logged areas, and one they have been washed and cut they are placed in boiling water, which is then rinsed. Then, sugar is added and the leaves are shaken with the sugar in a tupperware or other container, to release their strong spicy flavour. These leaves are rinsed and then pickled in soy, mirin and vinegar.)

Here are a couple of photos of some of the plants being processed (bamboo shoots boiled en masse with nuka; warabi; wasabi leaves in boiling water.) 

Thank you to Tetsuo for letting me use his camera for these! And thank you to Yuko, Teru, Tetsuo, Sayoko, for teaching me about sansai and showing me how and where to collect them.

If you are reading this and have any questions about these plants please feel free to email me (I know very little myself but I can ask around), and also if you know anything about similar practices for preparing wild-growing vegetables in the UK, also please be in touch.