Wasabis

These photos were taken on Tuesday, which was obviously a beautiful day and one during which I finally got around to re-potting the wasabis.

What is a wasabi? A Japanese plant, rare and expensive, that is a traditional accompaniment to sushi. The real thing, the rhizome freshly grated, is most extremely rare in the US. What most people here call wasabi is a paste or powder made primarily from horseradish. Wasabi is often referred to as Japanese horseradish.

Mind you, at this point I’ve never eaten it myself, but it is supposed to be hot upon the tongue turning quickly to a sweet aftertaste. Something like that.

It was husband that got the wild hair about wasabi, and did the searches, and came up with a guy not far from here who had some seed. Joe Hollis’s place, Mountain Gardens Herbs, is so cool. We went down there and bought a tray of plants and met him and walked all around his place and the whole vibe was just totally awesome. We brought the tray of plants home and killed them. Not all at once but by the time Joe visited us here last July, they were all dead. Thankfully Joe is a most gracious and generous fellow and brought us some more with him.

Those I adopted. I put them in my kitchen bay window and learned to speak wasabi. They are really plain spoken plants. I usually don’t do that well with plants but these do talk. I swear. Loud. And they thrived under my care, if I do say so myself. And this spring we started repotting them, and one, even in a pot, is blooming. Four are sitting out in a suitable biome. We have, we think, several places where wasabis may be happy here but I am being cautious. These are my babies! The rest are still in my windows for now.

One day maybe they’ll be a cash crop for us. Or maybe we’ll just enjoy them here. But they’ve already been a great joy.