フキノトウ：鬼さんとの山遊び

根のある暮らし編集室の新しい事務室に移って二週間ほど経ちました。

やっぱり、編集室では大森で働いている感じがする！楽しい！

個人的に気にっていることは、町の人が編集室に遊びにきてくれること。

ひょっこりと窓から覗いてくれたり、中に入ってきて話しかけてくれるのが僕にとって日常の楽しみ。

さて、今日のお客さんは鬼さん！大森町の大工さん。

相変わらずの軽トラに乗って、編集室の窓のそばにパーキングをして「ホイホイ」と手を招いて僕に何かを言おうとしている。

どうしたかなー、と思って外に出てみる。

「ふおい、フキノトウを取り行くか？」とニッコリと笑顔で僕を誘ってくれる。ついでに鬼さんの笑顔は歯が何本しかないが、それが鬼さんのチャームポイント！

仙ノ山への出張が決まり！出発！

鬼さんの手慣れたギアチェンジで軽トラのエンジンは仙ノ山の坂道も軽々と遡って行く。

「ありゃまーここら辺にはないのー」山の下には目的のフキノトウが発見できない。

「小野寺のおっちゃんがとってしまったかもしれんなー」阿部家の料理人の拓さんのこと。

僕たちはどんどん仙ノ山の登る。その間、外の雨が少しずつ雪に変わっていった。

頂上に着いた頃にはもう雪がかなり降り始めていた。ここが鬼さんのフキノトウスポットらしい。

最初はなかなかフキノトウが見当たらなかったが、一つ見つけるとどんどん見つかる。

フキノトウを取るのが初めてだったから鬼さんにこれはとっていいのかダメなのか聞くと、

「しゃあない、しゃあない」と答えてくれる。

これは大丈夫という意味らしい！

まだ鬼さんが言っていることが時々わからない時もあったり無かったり。

鬼さんによると、フキノトウが出てきた後に雪が降ってしまうと植物の中が真っ黒になってまずくなってしまうらしい。気を付けないと時々これが当たる。

30分ほど集めていたら袋がいっぱいになった。

雪のおかげで上着も相当濡れてきて寒くなってきた。

風邪を引く前に軽トラに走り、鬼さんは僕の濡れた頭のためにティッシュの箱を渡してくれた。

帰り道は天ぷらのことで頭がいっぱい。

その夜はお皿大盛りの天ぷらのご馳走。

まだ若いフキノトウの芽は苦味が少ないし香りが新鮮で本当に食べやすい！

里山がある暮らしをこれからもどんどん経験していって、レベルアップしていこう！

また鬼さんがひょっこりと顔を見せに来るのが楽しみだなー

It’s been about 2 weeks since my department moved to our new office, and honestly the change in work environment has been amazing. Our new office is now located inside of the town, so it really feels like I am part of the town. I especially enjoy it when the townspeople come look into our office to say hi or to stop for a chat.

Today we had a special guest, Oni-san who is the town carpenter.

He parked his little truck by our window and was waving me over.

“Do you want to go find some Fukinoto?”

Fukinoto is know as butterbur in English, and is a plant that grows out of the ground during the spring time.

Oni-san asks me with his signature grin, which includes his few remaining teeth.

Time for a business trip to Sen’no Yama, our local mountain!

Though the slopes up the mountain were steep, Oni-san guided his truck up the beaten road with familiar movements to his gear shifts.

We tried looking for the butterbur around the bottom of the mountain, but failed to find any.

Oni-san makes some guesses that Taku-san, Abeke’s (my company’s inn) cook, has taken these.

The light rain outside of the windows turned to snow as we climbed further up.

We reached the top of the mountain, which was Oni-san butterbur spot.

Finding these buds were hard at first, but as I found a few poking out of the ground I started to get a hang of it.

Since this was my first time foraging for butterbur, I would ask Oni-san if the ones I fond were good for picking.

“Sha-nai, sha-nai!”

Apparently this meant they were okay.

Oni-san’s dialect sometimes is hard to understand, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it!

According to Oni-san, the butterbur tends to turn black inside if it snows after they come out of the ground, making them not very tasty to eat. A good tip for the future.

As we gathered these little green buds for about 30minutes, my plastic bag was filled.

We ran into Oni-san’s truck before we caught a cold, since the snow was starting to fall harder and I was getting soaked. Oni-san gave me a box of tissues to dry my head from the snow as we got into his truck.

Going down the mountain back into the town, all I could think of was the tempura that I would make for dinner.

That night, I fried these fresh gifts from the local mountains, and ended up with a plate full of them.

Butterbur is know for its signature bitterness, but because these were young shoots they hardly had any, and my palette was left with the fresh tastes of spring. FYI spring tastes like the lighter and more delicate fragrance of burdock root.

I’m looking forward to leveling up my foraging skills while I live in Omori, its rewarding and fulfilling being able to live with the seasons and with my local mountains.

Hope to see you around the office again Oni-san!