Coordinator Aladdin's Blog #54 Wild Vegetable Tempura and Spring Observation Meeting (1)

Wild vegetable tempura (1)

Two dormitory students participated in helping with the "Kiryu River Spring Observation Meeting." We received words of gratitude from the members of the "Kiryu River Appreciation Society" as well as from the parents of the children who participated.

On May 13th, at 8:30 AM, we gathered at Kiryu River Waterfront Park for a staff meeting. We confirmed the schedule and assignments, and by 9:30 AM, when the general participants arrived, we walked around the area to collect wild plants that could be used for tempura.

When it comes to wild vegetable tempura, I can only think of things like koshiaura, butterbur sprouts, wild udo, and ostrich ferns, but we had to collect edible wild plants from around the Kiryu River. This year, we had many warm days in April, so those plants were no longer in the area. I wondered what we would do, but the staff members said things like, "Dandelions are delicious," and "Philadelphia fleabane and annual fleabane are also good."
The dormitory students also started picking flowers, saying, "Can you eat dandelion flowers?" and "There's plenty of Philadelphia fleabane."

They even found some field garlic and made quite sophisticated comments for high school students, saying, "I'd love to have this with vinegar miso."

"This is sorrel, try sucking on the stem." "It's sour!" "Right? But it's delicious when you make it into tempura," they were taught various things by their elders.

For now, we lined up various wild plants and prepared to introduce them to the children who would be joining us later.

We had initially expected that most of the participants would be elementary school students, and we had told the high school students to teach them various things, but the people who actually came were small children aged 1 to 8 and their parents.
That's Hakuba for you. Many people with roots overseas also participated.

Along with the organizers and staff from the Hakuba Village Agricultural Administration Division, the "big brothers and sisters" from Hakuba High School were also introduced to the general participants.

Now, the spring observation meeting begins.
The facilitator, M, said, "Listen closely. What can you hear?"
"The sound of the river flowing!" "I hear birds." "The sound of a bell?" "That's someone's bear bell."
It was a very good question to get the children to focus.

After that, we introduced the edible wild plants that everyone had collected in advance to the children, and then we all walked around Kiryu Park while picking such wild plants.

"I never knew there was such a beautiful place nearby."
"I didn't know that Japanese pepper trees grew wild in the forest."
"I love Japanese pepper," said a father from Germany.
"This is 'mizu' (clearweed), try sucking on this part." "It doesn't taste like anything." "That's right, that's why it's called 'mizu' (water)! They say that in the old days, when people got thirsty on mountain paths, they would suck on this. Since it has no taste, you can suck on it as much as you want, right?"

"That is the poison ivy we warned you about earlier. Even if it's not wrapped around a tree, it has many young shoots coming up from the ground, so you must be careful not to touch it. Pay attention to the three leaves and the red parts of the stems." "Oh, scary!"

After our walk, we moved our bodies with yoga exercises and enjoyed playing with a handcart? before eating the tempura... I will introduce it in the next issue.