１１月２８日（火曜日）２０１７
日曜日にカフェをS.Kさんにお任せして群馬県の上州富岡へ行ってきました。近くに２０１４年に世界遺産に登録された富岡製糸場があり、外からちょっとだけ見学しました。東京で一泊して家に帰ってきたら、何と桃原ごぼうの頂き物が置いてありました。桃原ごぼうは多賀町で廃村の危機にある標高３５０mの桃原集落で３年ほど前から復活栽培が行なわれています。かつては「多賀ごぼう」と呼ばれ京都の料亭などに年末の正月料理として使われていた高級食材です。去年は私も収穫のお手伝いをさせていただきましたが、赤い粘土質の土に埋まったごぼうを途中で折らずに掘り起こすのは至難の技でした。中が真っ白で香りが良くそのままでも食べられるほど筋もなくシャキシャキとした食感です。その貴重な高級ごぼうを手伝ってもいない私がいただくなんて勿体無く有り難い限りです。今夜は鮭の糟汁に少し入れて美味しくいただきました。Last Sunday, I asked Ms. SK to take care of my cafe and went to Jyooshuu Tomioka in Gunma. There is a Tomioka Silk Mill near where I visited which gained World Heritage status in 2014. After staying Sunday night in Tokyo, I came back to home to find a package of Mobara Goboo (Mobara burdock). It was a gift from a friend. Mobara Goboo has started being planted again since a couple years ago in the Mobara area which is 350 meters altitude and in danger of becoming a ghost village now. The goboo root was called as "Taga-goboo" and shipped to Kyoto until several decades ago. Many high ranked Japanese restaurants bought them and prepared a New Year's special dish for the customers. I helped the harvest last year which is very hard because we have to dig up the root in a clayish ground. You definitely need a special technique to dig it up if you want to take a whole root. Mobara Goboo is beautifully white inside. It smells and tastes so good! I am so lucky to get it even though I didn't do anything to help the harvest this year.
