My Mother, the Varied Tits, and the Awaiting Ferns

My mother has been diligently harvesting the ferns she planted in the garden. It seems she has already harvested them about three times since spring began. It's nice to be able to pick them at home without having to go into the mountains.

“A varied tit came by and was pecking at the ferns. I wonder if they eat them?”

my mother said, tilting her head.

The varied tit has been coming by incessantly for a while now, grabbing sunflower seeds and flying off with them.

“A varied tit came by earlier, looked at me, and tilted its head, so I put out some sunflower seeds,”
my mother said.
When the varied tit wants sunflower seeds, it peeks inside the house.

There were plenty of sunflower seeds in a plastic dish weighed down with a stone so it wouldn't blow away in the wind.

I placed the harvested ferns on the wooden deck and drank a café au lait outside while watching the varied tits fly.

The flight of the varied tit is cool.
It comes swooping in without hesitation, grabs just one sunflower seed, and then swoops away again.

If they come this often, I could film them, I thought, and started recording with my smartphone.

As I was zooming in on a varied tit that had come to grab a sunflower seed, my mother said,
“Oh! It's pecking at the ferns! Ah, I see, it's using them for nesting material,” she said in a bright voice, as if the mystery had been solved.

So, I immediately pointed my smartphone toward the ferns.
The varied tit had its beak full of only the fluffy parts of the ferns.

Even though its beak was already full, it kept snatching away more of the fluffy parts.

The fluffy part of the fern is what protects the new buds. It must be the perfect bedding for a varied tit that has just found a mate and started building a nest.

Small birds that hatch in trees have bare skin when they are first born. They must line their nests with fluffy material so the newborn chicks don't get hurt.

It must be a lovely home that smells like spring.

Now, here is how to make dried ferns.

Before it dries completely, gently rub it by hand. Rub it several times.

Once dried, it will easily last for a year.
You rehydrate it little by little to eat until the next batch of zenmai appears.

When rehydrating, soak it in water overnight, then boil it in fresh water.

Drain it in a colander, stir-fry it in oil, and season it only with mentsuyu.

This is truly delicious.
I imagine many families have been eating zenmai this way for generations, haven't they?

When you've been eating it every year since childhood, it becomes one of those treats your body craves when spring arrives.

Since it lasts a long time when dried, it is also excellent as a preserved food.
I am impressed by the wisdom of people in the past.

When this season comes around, my aunt, who farms, harvests a lot of aralia sprouts planted in her garden and brings them over.

So, every year, my mother and her sisters make aralia sprout tempura and have a 'Tarabo Party' together.

This time, I was lucky enough to be invited to join them.

Oh my, the freshly fried aralia sprout tempura was crispy and chewy, and delicious!
I also ate Japanese pepper leaf tempura for the first time. It was fragrant, sweet, and delicious.

My mother and her sisters' Tarabo Party menu consisted only of vegetables, but everything was truly delicious. It was an eye-opening experience to realize that you can make such a feast with just vegetables, even without meat.

My mother's zenmai was well-received, and the plate was empty in no time.

The zenmai ohitashi (blanched greens) that my aunt brought was also delicious.
It seems you can also eat it as ohitashi if you remove the harshness by soaking it in carbonated water overnight before boiling.

With this method, you can eat every bit of the new sprout part, which is protected by fluff.

After eating plenty of spring delicacies, I felt like both my heart and body were rejuvenated.