A 730-Yen Plum Wine and the Season of Ume ーJune 17, 2026 (Wednesday) R8

A residents' meeting was being held at Eden no Sono.

The financial report and other presentations were being broadcast on Channel 11, but I found myself thinking about something else.

In front of me was a carton of plum wine that I had bought at a Lady drugstore.

Two liters for 730 yen.

It says "Made with 100% Japanese ume plums," but it is so inexpensive that I wondered whether it was really plum wine.

The alcohol content is only 8%.

Even for someone like me, who is very sensitive to alcohol, it feels almost like flavored water when I drink a small amount.

Yet before I knew it, I had bought a second carton.

When I think about it, plum wine is not just an alcoholic drink to me.

When I was a child, my mother made plum wine and pickled plums every year.

First came the green ume plums.

Later, the ripe yellow plums appeared.

Finally, the small koume plums arrived.

The changing plum displays in the stores marked the progress of the season.

After I got married, I also made plum wine and pickled plums for several years.

But life changed.

My children left home early, and eventually it was just my husband and me.

Ume plums became more expensive.

White liquor became more expensive.

Even rock sugar was no longer cheap.

I also had years when the pickled plums did not turn out well and seemed close to developing mold.

Gradually, I stopped making them.

It was simply easier and cheaper to buy them.

Recently, I saw green ume plums at a supermarket in Matsuyama.

My first thought was:

"Ah, it must be June."

But I did not think about making plum wine or pickled plums.

At my parents' house, several large jars still remain in the kitchen.

Each one has a year written on it.

My mother now lives in a care facility and can no longer remember new things.

Yet those jars seem to hold the memories of the years when she was active and busy with her seasonal work.

This 730-yen plum wine is probably very different from the homemade plum wine of those days.

Still, whenever I smell plum wine, I remember the rainy season and the kitchen of my childhood home.

Perhaps plum wine is not really about alcohol for me.

Perhaps it is a memory of the seasons themselves.

#PlumWine
#UmeSeason
#FamilyMemories
#MothersKitchen
#EdenNoSono
#LifeInMatsuyama