We don’t have sea asparagus in Maebashi: I hadn’t heard that name before but I think it’s the same vegetable as sea beans, samphire, and salicornia. We used to get them every once in a while at a sushi bar that I worked at in Lafayette. I liked them in a shiromi tartare. Yummy We do have a type of iceplant here called “barafu” that has that same kind of crunchy and naturally salty thing going on though. Apparently it’s also know as “ficoide glacial,” and while I was looking that up, I found out that the Japanese name probably comes from the Swahili word for ice… I guess it’s true that you learn something every day.

Funny that you should mention ume, I just got some from the same teacher that I got them from last year. He said that the harvest was really bad this year (he usually gets 300 kg, but this year he finished harvesting in just 10 minutes). So those ume only made one jar of jam and I’ve been on a desperate search this afternoon to find enough green ones to make ume-shu and some more jam… I finally found them at a local Fressay. So ume-shu and jam will be my big project for tonight.

I’ve been linked to a few times from various American food blogs, so it sounds like they’re starting to sell ume at farmers’ markets in LA and maybe NYC. I heard that they have them at Uwajimaya on the west coast sometimes too. I’m totally building a plan in my mind that after I get home I’ll invest in some ume trees so I can keep myself in ume-shu and ume jam for the rest of my life (Apparently you can buy the trees, they’re called Japanese fragrant plums). Anyways, good luck in your search for real ume. I’m off to start jamming.

Have you tried making sea asparagus yet? Got some from the Japanese market here in Vancouver. So good.

Are you making your own umeboshi this year? I really want to, but can’t find the right type of ume.