{"id":17808,"date":"2018-06-01T13:07:18","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T11:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edimentals.com\/blog\/?p=17808"},"modified":"2019-03-18T14:09:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T13:09:23","slug":"hosta-icicles-yuki-urui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edimentals.com\/blog\/?p=17808","title":{"rendered":"Hosta icicles (yuki urui)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I discovered a long suffering Hosta that I\u2019d covered with a bucket in the spring. Surprisingly the blanched shoots were in good condition despite the warmth. We ate them as a salad with a simple dipping sauce (roasted sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper! And it was delicious, mild tasting, crispy and refreshing, the texture and shape of the leaf reminding my friend of artichoke! The day afterwards, I ate the rest lightly fried with garlic and chili in an omelette with sea kale broccolis! I\u2019m sure you can use any Hosta for this. In Japan, Hosta montana<\/em> is the main species cultivated for the markets. We found blanched Hosta<\/em> shoots or urui in all the supermarkets in late march \/ early april during my study trip to Japan. However, H. montana<\/em> is not an accepted species name by the Plant List (plantlist.org) and is often given as a variety, H. sieboldiana var montana <\/em>or var gigantea<\/em>. However, on the taxonomy account at http:\/\/www.hostalibrary.org\/species\/pdf\/species_part1.pdf, it is stated that H. montana<\/em> is so obviously different from H. sieboldiana<\/em> that even the average gardener can tell them apart! For this reason, I used H. montana<\/em> in my book as it is still commonly used in horticulture. For a list of cultivar names known as H. montana<\/em>, see http:\/\/myhostas.be\/db\/hostas\/montana<\/a>. Hosta undulata<\/em> is also noted on the Japanese Hosta wiki page as being used. This is no longer accepted as a species and is considered to be a group of cultivars H. \u201cUndulata\u201d <\/em>(see http:\/\/myhostas.be\/db\/hostas\/undulata<\/a> for a list of cultivars associated with Undulata).<\/p>\n

On the Japanese Hosta wiki (translated with Google translate), the main producing area for urui is given as \u00a0Yamagata prefecture<\/a> (north of Tokyo on the other side of Honshu), which ship light green young shoots which are used for\u00a0salads<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0pickles<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0stir-fry<\/a>\u00a0, with miso\u00a0sauce<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0vinegar miso<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0miso soup<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0mixed rice<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0sushi<\/a> rolls etc. This explains why we didn\u2019t see the production of Hosta during our farm trips south of Tokyo.
\nThe Japanese name is \u96ea\u3046\u308b\u3044 (yuki urui) which means snow leaf or icicles (google the Japanese name to see many pictures). They are produced in darkened greenhouses for an extended season or the rows are mounded outdoors. The production techniques seem to be different judging by the colour of the urui sold in supermarkets.<\/p>\n