Getting Ready for Winter with COVID-19: Naomi was busy this fall

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.

Mugwort tincture, made by Naomi.

Speaking of lotion, I’ve found ubiquitous Goldenrod (Solidago altissima), which is officially designated invasive species in Japan, is a medicinal plant for native culture of North America. With some reason, in Japanese cyberspace, it is commonly talked its “detox” power especially when we harvest the most matured buds of it. So, this year with COVID-19, I watched the buds of Goldenrod for several weeks, and harvested it when they’ve almost started to open, hoping the detox effect.

Goldenrod whose buds are swelling out …

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

Dried Goldenrods for me.

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.

And here comes saponin. Traditionally, Japanese villagers used nuts of Indian soapberry for washing. Indian soapberry (Sapindus mukorossi) is tree for tropics or subtropics, but some wild specimen live in the region west of Niigata 新潟 and Ibaraki 茨城 Prefectures of Japan. The tree we normally find in Yokohama is in a park or a sanctuary of shrines or temples. They are well-taken care of, and yield lots of nuts. The flesh of the nut contains lots of saponin. When we put them in a well-secured cheesecloth and throw it in a washing machine with dirty clothes, the laundry comes out sparklingly clean, they say. Oh, is that so? I’ve found a large Indian soapberry tree near my house and waited late fall when their nuts were matured enough to fall off. Bingo. One morning after a windy night, the foot of the tree had lots of nuts!

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

Just rinsing lightly the flesh yields this much of soapy bubble.

Drying the flesh

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.

Er, yeah, sanitization and boosting immune system is uber important these days … But it’s not easy to be preoccupied with such things 24/7 … So, another thing I tried in forests is Osmanthus tincture. Just a brief period of early fall, normally 5 days or so, Yokohama is filled with the fragrance from orange flowers of Osmanthus aurantiacus. The plant itself is not Japanese native. It is said that people imported the plant from China in the 17^th century. In China, their flowers are used for Osmanthus scented wine, Osmanthus tea, Osmanthus source, etc … Of course there are many brands of perfume from Osmanthus, like “Osmanthus” of Aux Paradis.

Fully opened Osmanthus.
 For making tincture, we need to pick them at this stage.

I’ve found lots of recipes for Osmanthus adventure (like here), but without fail, they demand lots of fully bloomed flowers to make. In Yokohama, Osmanthus are in our private gardens or public parks, which I find it unethical to collect substantial amounts of flowers at their peak. So, I picked flowers from my garden for the half full of a small glass jar, gently washed them with running tap water and steeped them in 35° liquor enough to fill the container. Next morning, the contents of my jar had color of flower like this.

In less than 24 hours, the flowers made this color.

Leaving the jar for 2 months and we have fragrant tincture. Add 1 tbsp of tincture to 100cc distilled water and spray it in the room. The sweet smell of Osmanthus will waft in our cloistered room running away from COVID-19. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm … We’re entering a strangely restricted festive season. At least the smell of Osmanthus is so delightful ...

2 months later.

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Sweet smell of Japanese spring: making paste from Japanese mugwort (Yomogui)

In Japanese fields, there are several kinds of plants that are edible only for new shoots. This week I tell you my cooking excursion for one of such herbs. It is Japanese mugwort (Artemisia princeps), or Yomogui in Japanese. Actually, this is a weed we can find almost anywhere, even in roadsides of downtown Tokyo. We also frequently taste their slightly bitter flavor in many dishes, like green Udon pasta, bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, traditional Japanese sweets, etc. etc. We can buy powdered Japanese mugwort, and knead it into dough for such things all year round. Though, I think using paste made of freshly picked Japanese mugwort yields the best result. Here is how I prepared such paste this year.

In a supermarket.
 Everybody loves Yomogui sweet dumplings!

First, let’s identify the site where we can legally pick fresh AND uncontaminated Japanese mugwort. … er, it would be a matter of opinion … Yeah, you can pick new shoots of Yomogui from a roadside near Tokyo Station. I think there is no guarantee that plant is free from car exhaust, or pee of city poodles normally dwelling in a high rise of the area. I prefer safer option, and go to a large forest with clean air. 😉

I prefer not taking them.

Very young leaves of Japanese mugwort

The plant loves sunshine. We have to search for an open space with lesser possibility for daily walking routes of pooch … it would be tricky in city parks, I presume. Anyway, you go there and find plant, and pick just young shoots of it, preferably during morning. You bring your harvest to your kitchen ASAP, and start working with them. They are young weak shoots. They soon become very soggy, and taste bitter. The way to prepare Yomogui is easy, but takes 2 days to complete. Here is how:

First, wash the leaves well with cold running water
 to remove any grits or else.

Next, you put them in a large pan
 of boiling water with baking soda.
 A rough standard is,
 for 300g of fresh Yomogi,
 we need 5-6L of H2O with
 a heaping teaspoonful of baking soda.

Boil them until the leaves become creamy
 when you pick them with your finger.
 For 300g, it would take about 5-6 minutes.

When leaves are soft enough and
 boiling water turns into yellow-green,

Take them in a bowl of cold water,
 and leave them for at least 12 hours.
 If you like,
 you can change water several times.
 But it seems to me too much of it
 removes flavor of the herb.

After 12 hours, take them in a colander,
 squeeze them (not too much) and
 put them in a food processor.
 If you don’t have the gadget,
 you can chop them with your knife.
 The point is

Cut their fiber as much as possible by mincing them finely.

We can freeze the paste in Ziploc to use it all year round.

When we dry completely boiled Japanese mugwort with sunshine (or microwave; er, this way is popular, actually), and powdered it in a food mill, that’s Yomogui powder we find in high-end food stores. (You can dry leaves without boiling or steaming. But they turn brown as they dry without being cooked.) As the other herbs, dried version has stronger but simpler flavor. I love frozen version. Especially when we bake bread by kneading defrosted Yomogui paste into dough, my kitchen smells very sweet. The bread has strikingly clear color of spring green! For one home-bakery cycle 1 tbsp of paste is enough. Please try. It’s a spring delicacy of Japan. 😄

White and Yomogui versions of bean-paste buns.
 We can find them in any supermarket in Japan.
 Yammy. 😋

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/