Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
Sep 23, 2021 12 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Foraging trip today. Great work for children. Here's five minutes of Juglans ailantifolia, Japanese Walnut (lit. demon walnut, onigurumi, on account of its devilishly hard shell). In most of them the husk had completely rotted away saving us much labor. Image
Another bonus of waiting until the husk has rotted away is that you let squirrels have the first pick (they tens to go for the smaller ones you don't want anyway with a thinner shell). Here are empty walnut shells discarded underneath a tree with a squirrel nest. Squirrel tracks! Image
Here's a large stand of egoma (Perilla frutescens, or Korean perilla). The leaves are great in salads, as garnish or as tempura or in sauces. A couple of weeks more and they'll be seeding: makes for good lamp oil! All indoor lighting in Japan used to be egoma oil until 19th c. Image
Here's Dioscorea japonica, or Japanese mountain yam. They'll be ready in a month or so. Follow these heart shaped vines to the earth and dig a meter and you'll find the most wonderfully nutritious yams. For free. The seeds are also edible/yummy. Image
Bonus: here's a pair of Atractomorpha sinensis or lata (I couldn't get close enough to tell). Called ombubatta in Japanese (lit. "carrying on your back grasshopper"), because the larger female often carries around the smaller male on her back. Image
Very rarely can you spot a walnut by sight. You have to walk to around barefoot or with thin soled shoes (no sneakers) to find them by "touch". Can you spot the walnut here? It is impossible! But if I move the grass around a little, you'll see it almost buried in the soft ground. ImageImage
Higanbana (Lycoris radiata) red spider lily. Nearly bloomed over here in Tokyo but some holdouts still remain. Image
Ginkgo nuts from the female Gingko biloba. I picked these from the ground, soaked in water, peeled, dried, washed again (first photo), slightly cracked open and roasted in a pan with salt water. Absolutely delicious. Not too different from pistachios. Very healthy in moderation. ImageImageImage
Today's foraging trip: a large batch of fresh Glechoma hederacea subsp. grandis, a herb of the mint family. Called Kakidooshi in Japanese, it is delicious in salads and soups, but also taken anti-inflammatory, in pediatric epilepsy, as tea for dieting, against diabetes etc. Image
Common bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon) feeding on rosemary flowers (garden!), and what looks like a cabbage white or small white feeding on Goldenrod (invasive, not too well read on either of these two). ImageImage
Yomogi (Japanese Mugwort) a.k.a. the Queen of Herbs. Edible, nutritious, and with tons of medical uses, especially for women, hence it's genus name of Artemisia, from the Greek goddess of childbirth. A perennial traditionally picked in May and eaten in rice cakes and sweets. Image
Yomogi is also a key ingredient in an incredibly unlikely Japanese recipe for gun powder that was manufactured in secret hidden underneath hearths in remote rural villages and transported on secret roads to make sure that no-one knew what was being made, how it was made or where. Image

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More from @wrathofgnon

Apr 1
It is well known warehouses built in earth plaster using inoculated fermented straw and soil keeps fruits, vegetables fresh longer and inhibits mold and microbial growth on paper, books, clothes, antiques etc. Hence Japanese "Dozō". But you can build miniature storage boxes too.
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A Japanese master plasterer designed boxes built exactly like regular earthen warehouse walls, except he reused wooden wine crates. He sells kits, or you can use your own materials to make your own if you feel up to it.


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These boxes are intended for grain, vegetables and fruit that you would normally keep in a "dark and cool" place. And they work. Here is a comparison with a polystyrene box and three mandarin oranges after 45 days. The blue box is more like what most modern homes are built like.
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Read 8 tweets
Mar 25
The practical skills in thatching can be difficult to acquire by videos or books alone, especially how to find materials and the binding. In Finland there is a traditional thatching technique that uses only easy to find reed and no binding: just spread it out and weigh it down. Image
A bound reed roof is far steeper and thus lasts longer, but it requires more skill to do correctly. Reed is often available for free and in vast quantities anywhere it grows, harvesting it is doing nature a favor. All materials used in a reed roof are compostable, all hand tools.


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For a standard roof of say 100m² you need to harvest about three hectares. You can harvest that by hand in about a month, or in a day if you have a reed harvesting machine. In Finland you harvest in March, April.
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Read 5 tweets
Feb 29
Maybe one of the oddest professions in Japan is that of the bokka (歩荷). Porters who carry supplies to remote mountain guesthouses inaccessible to vehicles. A bokka uses customized wooden ladder frames to carry 100-165kg of supplies on day long marches (walk up, run down).


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The job is popular: not surprisingly veteran bokka routinely tests as fitter and healthier than elite athletes. Both men and women take on the job, the average weight of a bokka is 60-70kg.


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Still not much of a chore compared to what some farmers used to handle.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 28, 2023
Iriairinya (入会林野) is the Japanese term for "commons". In the West the term "commons" are usually meant as fields for grazing but Japanese commons were traditionally the mixed grass and forest lands between mountains and flatlands usable in agriculture. Image
Iriairinya are typically from a couple of hectares up to 50-60 hectares. Still a valid legal concept, village's who manage commons also have the option to incorporate them (as modern organizations), to make them more compatible with modern legal practices. Image
Commons were meant to be vital lifelines for rural villages, providing its members with food (forage), feed (for livestock), fertilizer (leaves), fuel (wood, charcoal), building material (roof thatch). When modern lifestyles took over in the 1970s commons were mostly abandoned.


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Read 6 tweets
Aug 24, 2023
The miracle of Usami: at 11:58 A.M. Sept. 1st 1923 a great earthquake struck the Tokyo region. Near the epicenter was Usami village, where no one was killed or injured while neighboring villages each had hundreds dead and wounded. How?
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The villagers of Usami had an exceptionally long memory. Records, monuments and tales of a huge 1703 quake had been preserved and stories of what happened was still in vivid memory. The locals acted unbelievably fast, evacuations started as soon as the trembling stopped.
An 8m tsunami struck the seaside village only 5 min after the quake. Locals were already arrived at and safe within historical evacuation grounds: temples, bamboo thickets, stands of trees, where their ancestors had marked out safe spots centuries before (circle: 1703 tsunami) Image
Read 4 tweets
Aug 11, 2023
The post town Tsumago-Juku (pop 400) in Japan was founded in 1601. In 1960 it took a unique decision to dedicate itself to its own preservation by three golden rules: "No selling, no letting, no destroying." Every renovation or rebuilding even of private homes is done in common.


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The town's main income is obviously tourism, but in order to preserve the town the locals figured out a method where they build and renovate as much as possible by themselves, together. One ex. is the town's six remaining "ancient style" ishiokiyane: shingle roofs held by rocks. Image
The roofs are made of wood shingles, only the bottom row nailed, the rest held down by horizontal battens and rocks. They are relaid every few years, broken shingles discarded, leaks fixed etc. Work is led by the most skilled townsperson while a team of 5-20 volunteers help out. Image
Read 5 tweets

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