Everything is a bit off for the New Year’s Holiday of
2020/21 … I’ve realized for us Japanese who are non-religious in majority,
Christmas has been a party time, really. The things we meet in town now are all
subdued … there was no queue for a popular waffle shop. It is very awkward … COVID
thig. At least, we’re not locked down (yet). Maybe we’re lucky. Fingers crossed.
Please take care, and have a peaceful holiday season.
Love, Naomi 😷
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| A day in a supermarket. I realized all the sweets in this photo contain sweet Adzuki paste, called Anko in Japanese. Hmmmmmmmmm … |
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| These
days, a sort of popular products for sweet Adzuki paste is a bag of paste with a nice piping corner. There are many brands of this type. This one happens to be in a supermarket near my home. |
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| My
indulgent snack under COVID threat these days … I piped sweet Adzuki paste over a mochi rice cake soften by microwave, then pour the kinako (roasted soy flour) … Mmmmm. |
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| A bag
of Dinagon. You can find it (of many brands) in almost all supermarkets in megalopolis Tokyo. |
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| Dainagon
and var. nipponensis. See? Wild one is tiny. |
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| Vigna angularis var. nipponensis in a
corner of Yokohama’s forest. I won’t tell you where. 😉 |
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| My Vigna angularis var. nipponensis, ready to be cooked … |
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| Vigna angularis var. nipponensis in late autumn |
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| Hair
oil containing the extract from camelia. I’ve heard communities in Oshima Island have public oilpresses in their neighborhood. People there use them to harvest their annual supply of camelia oil. So, making tempura with their homemade oil is regular … At least USD 100 in Tokyo for one small plate … |
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| The
seeds of soapberry, collected after the flesh for soap removed. |
With the seeds I separated from the fresh of the soapberry fruit, I tried to make beads. Yeah, I don’t have 108 of them, but my catch is enough to make a rosary for one hand, say with 27 beads? I tried to make a hole on one of the seed with a pin vise, and … struggled to pierce it for an hour. Doing it for 108 times!? Oh, no … Nirvana is at the edge of universe for me … Then, I recalled something traditional in Japan at the level of my kleshas.
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| After
one hour, I decided to use a gimlet before pin vise. The seeds were about 1cm in diameter and hard. It was tricky to make a hole even with gimlet. |
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| I was ecstatic
when I reached here, I tell you! |
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| Coix lacryma-jobi in Yokohama |
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| Bracts
of Coix lacryma-jobi. Nobly colorful, don’t you think? |
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| The anatomy of male flowers for Juzudama |
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| I
think it’s matured stage of seed for Job’s tears. When we pull the papery thing out from the tip of Juzudama carefully, such things come out. Inside of bracts conveniently becomes hollow to be beads. |
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| My
collection of Juzudama, seeds of Indian soapberry, and the brown large one of which I’ll tell you what shortly. |
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| My rosary of Juzudama |
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| Lindera
praecox. Their fruit looked perfect to be beads … |
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| Hagoita
for New Year decoration. It is said that just placing the ornament in some main place of a house would do the magic against mosquitos. Really? |
You can send an
enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/
Hm. Temperature drops in Yokohama. COVID-19 has been back in honest. Although there is no strict regulation about our movement here unlike some other parts of the world, we feel something foreboding to travel. Naomi, wearing mask of course, has resumed regular visit to the neighborhood greenery, rather than entering deep mountains. In the end, we must use some form of crowded public space to move long distance from the metropolis. Besides, nature my next door continues giving me a surprise. I’ve found the way making personal care products out of wild plants in forests. It is a fun! I tell you, I have a definite success with my potion made of bishop’s weed from backyard (my post on July 1, 2016). Since then, I’m using the toner for more than 4 years, and my skin keeps VERY good condition! Why not trying to get another win?
First, returning to Japanese mugwort (Artemisia princeps Pampanini), I noticed there are many products for skin toner made of mugwort. Well, I have more than enough harvest of mugwort tea this year. So I put some mugwort bunch in a glass jar and poured 35° liquor, like this.
I waited for one month, and the jar yields the mugwort tincture. The standard of such tincture for skin toner is diluting it with at least the same amount of glycerol water, unless you’re allergic to it. I have not yet tried the tincture for my skin. But, with my experience with bishop’s weed, I’m optimistic about the result with this lotion.
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| Mugwort tincture, made by Naomi. |
Goldenrod
whose buds are swelling out …
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| This is already opened. So I skipped it. |
I washed and dried them planning to use it as a sort of bath salt. Then, one of my Niiharu Senior volunteer ladies told me. “Oh, Naomi. Goldenrod is uber strong! I had a problem with my face when I applied it. You’d better be careful with them.” Hmmmmmm, that’s why Japanese cyberspace recommends it as a detox herb, I guess. I decided to play it safe. I’m using it for my foot bath. So far, no harm done to my toes. Rather, it seems to me, anti-inflammatory effects from its saponin works well for my callus …
Drying
washed Goldenrods
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| Dried Goldenrods for me. |
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| I cram
some of them in a tea filter bag and made “tea.” I stored this tea for my foot bath. For about 2 tablespoons of dried Goldenrods, I made about 600cc of Goldenrod “tisane,” and used it up in 3 days. I don’t think it can last more than that. |
One of
them must be a tree of Indian soapberry,
near my home …
Indian
soapberries I’ve found. 
My
catch!
We can use the nuts as it is for washing, but I had another idea. (More to it, next week.) So, I opened the nuts and separate flesh and seed. What is effective for washing is the flesh of soapberries. I first rinsed them with running tap water for removing dirt and the other debris of the ground. It was amazing! They became soapy and blew lots of bubble. I then dried them under direct sunshine in order to store. For washing, it is said that 10 or so nuts would be enough for 30-40kg of washing load. Moreover, the bag of berries can be used for 3-4 times. It does not use any fossil-based ingredients to be washing agent. i.e. The ultimate eco-friendly product. I haven’t used them for my washing yet. But I know after preparing the berries to dry, my hands certainly become clean, and keeping the moisture unlike the other chemically processed hand-washing materials. I don’t know if Indian soapberry is effective for sanitization against COVID-19. If so, it should be very good news for us these days damaging our hands many times a day with soaps and sanitizing alcohol. Is there anybody who can scientifically prove the sanitizing power of soapberry?
Separating
flesh and seed of soapberries
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| Just rinsing lightly the flesh yields this much of soapy bubble. |
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| Drying the flesh |
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| Flesh
and seeds of Indian soapberry. Oh, by the way, I’m nurturing moss in my room that is in the bottom of this photo. |
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| Fully
opened Osmanthus. For making tincture, we need to pick them at this stage. |
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| In less than 24 hours, the flowers made this color. |
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| 2 months later. |
One of
my seniors of Niiharu Lovers told me. “I love enzyme extract from wild plants,
When I feel tired, I always take it with tea. Naomi, I tell you it certainly
has healing power!” Hmmmmmmmm. “Besides, it’s easy to make. I bring you next
week a book that tells us how to make it.” So, she lent me book, “Living with Wild
Grass: wild grass recipes to sustain body and mind 草と暮らす：こころと体を整える雑草レシピ” by Yoko Kawashima かわしまようこ (Seibundo-shinkosha, 2016; ISBN9784416616321). Inside, Kawashima explains how to make enzyme extract from wild
plants. The way to make it is simple. Collect plants, wash them in pure water,
cut them, mix them with sugar, and ferment plant-sugar mixture for 7-10 days in
a clean jar. Kawashima’s points are
1. While
we collect wild plants, we should humbly thank the mother nature. If possible,
choose early morning of full-moon for the operation, as this is the time the
power of moon concentrate on the leaves of plants,
2.
Preferably, water is from spring in deep mountains, not tap of chemically
treated water,
3. When
we mix the plant and sugar, we should use our cleaned hands, massaging the
ingredients gently, and silently chant our gratitude to the nature. If you have
good friends, please mix it together, always appreciating the love they give
you, and
4. Never think something negative during the cooking; otherwise, the extract becomes bitter with lesser potency.
Er …
it’s like a process of religious gathering ... I mentally negotiated with
Kawashima’s suggestion for the urban constraints of Yokohama. Thank God
(Buddha, Allah, Mother Nature … please pick your affiliation), mine does not
become bitter. Here is how I made enzyme concoction from wild plants.
First, collecting plants. Kawashima says spring or autumn is the time. Whichever season, we can thank nature and collect wild plants from clean field. For autumn, she suggests obtaining roots as well. Though, I have a reservation to this approach. When we dig the roots of perennials, it won’t come back next year, right? So, this fall, I only collected leaves, flowers, and/or stems of Japanese mugwort (Artemisia princeps Pampanini), Canadian clearweed (Pilea pumila), Oriental lady’s thumb (Persicaria posumbu), Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba), and Isodon inflexus. Those are edible plants in some form or the other so that I surmised they were safe. So far, I did not have any problem tasting enzyme extract from them so that my choice was OK, I guess. Oh, my schedule did not allow full-moon day for gathering the grass. My enzyme may have lesser potency …
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| A
field of Canadian clearweed and Oriental Lady’s thumb. I don’t tell you where, but it’s in Yokohama. |
Washed
grass, with tap of water.
Third,
cutting them to mix gently with sugar by hands. I used very simple and popular
sugar available from ordinary supermarket. Actually, Kawashima recommends this.
Japanese ordinary sugar is refined enough, but does not go extreme like
granulated or caster sugar. When we mix it with wild grass by hands, the normal
bacterial flora, which exists on our palm even after strong-wash with soap, decompose
sugar into glucose and fructose. These in turn encourage the cut plants to be
fermented by bacteria powered up by broken down sugar. I guess caster sugar can
do a similar trick, but it may take longer for the plants to be fermented.
Ubiquitous
package of sugar in Japan.
It’s slightly moister than caster sugar.
Kawashima
says using brown sugar is not recommended
as its flavor can interfere the taste
of wild grass enzymes.
I imagine the extracted enzyme with brown sugar
has its
own flavor.
If you like, please try.
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| A bowl
of wild grass with sugar. The amount of sugar is the same as the grass, or slightly more. |
Forth, mixing the mixture once a day by hands … er, I did cheat. I mixed the sugar-grass thing once a day, yeah, but not necessarily by hands. I confess: my jar has a bit small mouth so that putting my hand in it was rather hard. In the end, I fermented the mixture for 10 days, but mixed the contents by hand only twice, and the rest with wooden (er, no, bamboo) spoon. Using hands has meaning to add more bacterial flora into the concoction during the fermentation. Mine may not have received enough boost … It started to emit bubbles of zymolysis on the 7th day. I followed Kawashima’s recipe to store the jar in a dark corner of my house. Granted, it was already in November, and my method for daily mixing did not help to speed up the cooking … The process must have been slow.
My
mixture in a jar.
It was hard to jumble them by putting hand in it.
No
matter. By the 10th day, the plants turned their color. Kawashima
said max 10 days of fermentation would be enough so that I strained the mixture
on the 10th day. According to the book’s recommendation, we should
not squeeze the fermented plants, but leave them on the strainer and wait
gravity does their work for dripping the enzyme. So, I left it on the sieve
overnight, then filtered the extract by paper towel.
The 10th
day. Enzyme syrup is dripping … 
The
paper towel after straining had this much of dregs.
It would be a matter of
opinion,
but I imagine leaving them may affect the shelf life of syrup.
Although I did not do the ritual of cooking enzyme extract as recommended, I found the simple process itself is very soothing. Maybe, some needs praying and chanting, but the others, like me simpleton, can enjoy the offering from the forest in whatever routine. The enzyme extract has sweet herbal taste. Unlike herbal tisane, its taste is not so strong even with lots of mugwort. It maybe easier to enjoy flavor this way. If you have any chance to make it by yourself, please try. If you like you can add your way of thanking somebody beyond … it’s very relaxing conversation with the forest.
Wild
grass enzyme extract.
Kawashima says there is no strict “best by” date for
this.
But it’s not much.
I doubt I have it next March … 😋
Oh, by
the way, this week’s enzymes are a kind of protein which can be destroyed by 40°C (or up) heat. We have to enjoy it with
lukewarm tea or water. The strained plants can be composted or used with bath
salt for your spa. It is said that the extract can also be utilized for body
massage. Er, my concoction is not much in quantity. So, I treasure them simply
tasting them with tea, little by little. It’s cold here, difficult to make additional
extract until spring, you know? Anyway, we have to persevere this winter with
COVID. Organic enzyme extract may help boosting my immune system …
