Nozawana

(Japanese turnip) Traditional leafy vegetable from Nozawa, a small village in the Nagano mountains in central Japan. A Buddhist master is said to have brought seeds to the local temple in the 1700s and eventually the area became famous for the delicacy. The fresh leaves are something like a turnip green or a mustard green but milder, very tender, and very tasty. They can be added fresh to salads and soups, or added to stir-fries. Because the season for fresh nozawana is short, most of the harvest is pickled. Pickled nozawana is wonderful straight out of the jar or it can be used as a filling for onigiri rice balls and for oyaki dumplings made with buckwheat. Pickling recipes vary according to each family’s traditions. When lightly pickled for a short time, the result has a bluish colour and a crunchy texture; when pickled for a longer period, the colour turns amber and the flavour deepens. Learn how to pickle nozawana. Easy to grow. 40 days.