Snap peas & shiitake mushroom

At the beginning of May, my mother and I went to Shirawaki Branch of JA Topia Hamamatsu Farmers’ Market. It is right across from Muhammadi Masjid Hamamatsu in Minami-ku (South Ward) and has big signboards in front of its parking lot.

In a farmers’ market, you can find local fresh flowers sold at reasonable prices.

Now is the season for snap peas and green peas.

I bought a bag of snap peas and got a bag of fresh shiitake mushroom from my mother.

With them I made two kinds of vegan dishes. First, I strung some snap peas and broke off the stems from the mushroom caps.

Then I cut the caps, sauteed them with snap peas with sesame oil, grated garlic and salt, and sprinkled black pepper. According to the recipe on the Internet, you should saute them with olive oil, but I thought it was also good with sesame oil.

Another dish was miso soup. Usually, Japanese vegan broth is made from dried shiitake mushroom (or kelp), but I used the stems of shiitake mushroom instead. I boiled snap peas and sliced stems in 200 cc of water for about 5 minutes and added a tablespoon of miso.

I found this miso soup was satisfactory. Maybe some other ingredients such as leek can make it tastier.

Farmers’ markets are nice places for vegans to visit. In addition to fresh vegetables, you can also find seasonal fresh sweets. My mother and I ate kashiwamochi or a rice cake wrapped with an oak leave in the car before we left. I introduced kashiwamochi several days ago in this blog, but this one from the farmers’ market was also delicious. It may not be as good-looking as those in confectionery stores, but it had a hand-made feel with much adzuki bean paste in it.

Drive to enjoy lake & ocean view (2) - Michi-no-eki Shiomizaka

After we strolled around Hamanako Garden Park, my mother took us to Michi-no-eki Shiomizaka. It is a rest area along National Route 1 in Kosai.

Shiomizaka literally means a “tide viewing slope.” It is located near the Shirasuka Post Station on the Tokaido Highway in the Edo Period, and ancient travelers who walked from Kyoto to Edo could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time just in this place. Michi-no-eki Shiomizaka is quite close to the ocean.

And it had a foot bath outside! Unfortunately, all the sitting places were already occupied, but it would be very relaxing to take the footbath with a view of the vast ocean.

The inside of building was spacious. Like other michi-no-eki, there were a variety of local products.

My mother bought a bag of mandarin oranges, and I bought a bag of sweet potatoes. In addition to fresh vegetables and fruits, there were processed products as well, like dried strips of radish and kikurage mushroom.

They had also sweets made from natural ingredients such as mandarin orange yokan (jellied sweet bean paste) and chestnut yokan. According to the note, the amount of the chestnut contained in the chestnut yokan has been increased by 1.2 times because the product has been gaining popularity. These two kinds of yokan looked very delicious, and my sister bought chestnut one with some other food.

In a michi-no-eki, you often find fresh snacks that are appetizing.

My sister bought us a set of three skewers of dumplings. As they were still warm, we ate them immediately in the car. In ordinary confectionary stores and supermarkets, you can hardly find such warm dumplings. They were very good with a flavor of soy sauce.

In Michi-no-eki Shiomizaka, my sister got interested in local lemons because her husband likes to make lemonade and wants to avoid agricultural chemicals applied to imported lemons. When we came home, my mother gave her some lemons from the trees in her garden. Though they were a bit greenish and were not bright yellow like those sold in supermarkets, they were big enough and looked more natural. I hope he can make good lemonade with them.

Tojikuri - Traditional sweet from Misakubo

Hamamatsu is the second largest city in Japan in surface area (about 1,558 km2). In Soramo, a space between the two buildings of Entetsu Department Store, an outdoor market is held sometimes, in which you can buy some traditional food from mountainous area that is several tens kilometers away from the downtown. Today I found Tojikuri from Misakubo, the northern most area in Hamamatsu that is adjacent to Nagano Prefecture. I bought one pack with six pieces.

They were gray as they contained buckwheat flour. Other ingredients were rice, beans, sugar, and salt. I wondered why Tojikuri contained rice as Misakubo is a mountainous area that has no rice field. In addition, what kind of beans are they? According to some websites, Tojikuri is a traditional sweet in Misakubo and Sakuma in the northern part of Hamamatsu. It was originally made for Buddha’s birthday only, and its shape is made to resemble the head of Buddha.

In fact, I ate three pieces at a time because they were so good. They contained roasted soybeans, which gave an accent to the mild sweetness of the buckwheat dumplings. I think Tojikuri was a real find in the outdoor market where you can find many other vegan products as well.

Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi (6) - Sweet corn on the cob in farmers’ market

Visit to Koshoji Temple was so enjoyable that I almost forgot to write about what I did after leaving the temple. Before I went back to Hamamatsu, I only had to buy corn on the cob, one of the specialties of Mori-machi. From Koshoji Temple, it was just 1.3 km to the railway station. On my way there, I dropped in a farmers’ market JA Mori-no-Ichi. Like other shops and stalls, corn on the cob was sold as a set of 5 ears of corn, categorized as Class A and Class B. I bought one set of Class A, expecting a good quality.

I was very satisfied when I arrived at Enshu-Morimachi Station of Tenhama Line, the goal of Sawayaka Walking. I got a stamp on my card from a staff member of the walk. As it was the fourth station from the starting point Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station, the return ticket was a little more expensive than the one to come to Mori-machi. Like Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station, this station was small but looked newer.

As there is only one train an hour, the platform was already crowded with people when I got there. The train had only one car, but all of us managed to come inside. To my surprise, many of them seemed to be local people because they got off the train at Totoumi-Ichinomiya Station. Then, I could have a seat. On my way back to Hamamatsu, I was thinking that it was a pity that public transportation to Mori-machi is inconvenient, and sightseeing spots there didn’t seem to be known to tourists from foreign countries.

If you are interested in the life of people in Mori-machi and their traditional food, I recommend searching with “kippeikun” in YouTube. It’s a series of short videos about a little boy who ran some errands with his sister. At the beginning of the first video, they get some dried fish from their grandfather in a port town, but you’ll also see some vegan food in the local mountain area. The videos are from a popular TV show “My First Errand”, and you can enjoy them even if you don’t understand Japanese, I guess.

The corn on the cob I bought is called “Kankanmusume” that literally means a sweet sweet girl. It was so sweet that you can eat it as it is without boiling. After taking this picture, I bit into the raw corn immediately.

It was sweet and juicy as I expected! Perhaps this is the best way to eat this kind of corn on the cob. But I had to keep the rest of them in the freezer, wondering how I could use them for cooking.

Drive to Horaiji (5) - Floating bridge in dream

After leaving Mokkulu, we didn’t drop in any other places in Aichi Prefecture but returned directly to Hamamatsu. Flowers in the mountain area were beautiful, and I though it was a pity that I couldn’t take pictures from the running car. But in Okuyama, where a large temple Hokoji is located, my mother stopped the car to let me take pictures. This is Okuyama Park with a wooden floating bridge on a pond. Beyond the trees, I could also see the pagoda of Hokoji Temple. Some cherry trees were almost in full bloom and looked splendid.

I walked on the long bridge called “floating bridge in a dream.” According to my mother, there are carps in the pond. But I was so absorbed in the cherry blossoms and other flowers that I didn’t notice them. I learned later that this park is lit up like other cherry-viewing spots during the night. You can enjoy a dreamlike view with cherry blossoms reflected on the surface of the water.

Hokoji Temple is a magnificent temple where visitors can experience zen meditation, for example. I think I’ll introduce the temple someday. This time, we left the place after I took pictures. After that, we dropped in the last destination, JA Topia Hamamatsu Farmer’s Market Mikatabara Store.

My mother often goes to this store. Recently, she has started drinking soy milk sold there. When I drank it at my parents’ house for the first time, I was surprised because it was much thicker compared with other soy milk available in ordinary supermarkets. It is expensive, but I think it is worthy to pay the price. So, I bought one bottle myself this time. The producer of soy milk is an old tofu shop Marumori (丸守) founded in 1897. In addition to this, I bought a pack of rice cakes with soy beans in them.

Now I still wonder how I should use this soy milk. I’m thinking of making buckwheat pancakes with it, but I’m not sure.

Drive to Horaiji (4) - Local specialties in markets

After leaving Horaiji, we dropped in a farmer’s market Kontaku Nagashino (こんたく長篠). In the same building, there was a big beef barbecue restaurant. So, I didn’t feel like taking a picture of the premises. But the farmers’ market itself was interesting.

As in farmers’ markets in Shizuoka Prefecture, there were many fresh vegetables and fruits sold at reasonable prices. But I was more interested in processed food. In Horaiji, we had a lunch set that included sashimi konnyaku. Konnyaku is one of the specialties in this mountain area in the eastern Aichi Prefecture, and they provided various types such as ball-shaped konnyaku, three-colored konnyaku, konnyaku noodles, and sashimi kyonnyaku. There was also sauce sold separately, and my mother bought it. Maybe it can be also used for some other food.

Near the shelves of konnyaku, they had dried shiitake and tea.

I found some products that looked delicious, but I intended to buy something in the next destination. It was Michi-no-eki Mokkulu Shinshiro located near Shinshiro IC of Shin-Tomei Expressway.

Inside of Mokkulu looked like a fashionable supermarket. It was crowded with people, especially families with children. I thought it was a nice place to spend the weekend. There were many kinds of local products including sweets, but I remembered that I had eaten too many sweets recently. So, I just bought a rice ball with nozawana or turnip greens to eat for dinner.

Beside the building of Mokkulu, there was a little shop selling goheimoshi. It is a specialty of the mountainous areas in Central Japan including Aichi Prefecture. The goheimochi we ate there was a typical type: a flat cake of mashed rice skewered and grilled with sauce, but it was bigger than those I had seen before!

In fact, the sauce of this goheimochi contained bonito broth. After I ordered two skewers of goheimochi, I had to wait for a while. Then I found that the sauce was on sale and read the label of ingredients. In many cases, the sauce of goheimochi is vegan, but not always!

After we finished eating goheimochi, we took a free foot bath near the parking area. It was very refreshing to soak my feet in hot water. According to their website, this water is from Yuya Spa with a history of 1,300 years.

Finally, we returned to our car. Then, my mother took out something she bought in the building. They were karinto manjyu or little fried buns with adzuki bean paste inside. She game me one of them. It was a simple sweet but was very good with the thick fried surface, smooth azuki paste, and the flavor of black sugar. I have to remember the shop’s name Sakaeya (さかえや) that made this karinto manjyu so that I can find it again.

Marche du Soramo - Outdoor market selling local specialties

When the weather is fine, I sometimes go out during lunch time and stroll in downtown. Between the old building and the new building of Entetsu Department Store, there is a space called Soramo, Marche du Soramo is an outdoor market held there several times in a month. There you can buy fresh vegetables, tea, hand-made sweets and foods from local farms, as well as flowers, handicrafts, and some fancy goods.

Today, I found canola with flowers and some other edible plants on a long table. They looked so similar that I couldn’t distinguish them very well, though their names were presented in front of them. The farmer who sold them explained one by one and how to eat them.

As for canola flowers, he recommended me to eat them by adding sesame after boiling. He said that he had eaten it as an appetizer when he traveled to China. I got interested in it and bought a pack of canola. This is what I had for dinner, boiled canola flavored with soy sauce and ground sesame. It is difficult to explain the taste of canola, but it had a pronounced flavor of a vigorous plant. “That’s why I like vegetarian diet“, I thought.

From the same farmer in the market, I bought also colorful tomatoes and cauliflore, a new type of cauliflower. The farmer said that they cultivate 12 colors of tomatoes and sell them to restaurants and a cruise ship.

Cauliflore was the most interesting vegetable I saw at the market. I had eaten just white cauliflower before, but cauliflore on sale were violet, yellow, greenish yellow, and white. With these, I also made soup for dinner.

In the soup, there were also onion, potato, and brussels sprouts. They were cooked with water and soya milk, and the soup was flavored with salt and hard tips of shiitake mushroom (taken out later). In addition, I used almond powder. Vegetables in Marche du Soramo are sold at a reasonable price, but you can make rich soup with them.

Sun Sun Farm - Tourist farmers' market in Kakegawa

Yesterday afternoon, my mother and I went driving to Kakegawa, a town about 30 km from Hamamatsu. My mother is a pensioner. She got her driver’s license more than 50 years ago and still loves driving. She often goes to countryside to buy fresh vegetables and fruits of reasonable prices. The destination of yesterday’s drive was Sun Sun Farm, which is one of her favorite farmers’ markets.

Sun Sun Farm had two buildings, and we entered this building first. As you see, they still had Halloween pumpkins outside. Even in Japan, Halloween has become more and more popular in recent years.

There were a lot of local fresh products such as mandarin oranges, sweet potatoes, and persimmons. Like mandarin oranges, persimmons are also a specialty in western Shizuoka Prefecture. These big sweet persimmons were from Mori, a mountainous town near Kakegawa. When you are in farmers’ market, you can sometimes have a little bit of fruits to taste.

In another building, I found many processed products that were completely vegan-friendly. Especially, I was amazed to see a variety of unique vegan candies.

They are blueberry candies and acer maximowiczianum candies, agar candies flavored with root tangles, melons, mandarin oranges, and persimmons, and black sesame & soybean flour candies. The first two are said to be good for eyes. Maybe similar candies are sold in some drugstores as well.

There were also tea leaves and buckwheat noodles with yam (unfortunately, bonito flake broth was used for the attached soup),

locally brewed liquor, including sake, beer, and even distilled spirit flavored with tea leaves,

and wakame seaweed, which you can put in soup or salad.

Near the ceiling of the building, they displayed traditional kites in Kakegawa (Yokosuka kites). They have a history of 500 years and were originally used for land survey of the enemy territory or as communication tools in a provincial war.

As Shizuoka Prefecture has both mountains and sea, it has a great variety of local products. But what I like most about farmers’ markets is that they have simple food or sweets made of only natural ingredients.

The upper left sweets are made of rice flour and sugar and colored by gardenia, mugwort, etc. The right ones are mainly made of sweet potato paste mixed with white bean paste, sugar, and agar and wrapped in a thin skin of wheat flour. They are called suhama and imokin (imokintsuba) respectively. I’d like to taste them next time because yesterday, my mother bought us another kind of sweet to eat in the car. They were daifuku or rice cakes stuffed with adzuki bean paste. Daifuku is very popular and good to eat especially when you are hungry.

Sun Sun Farm
Address: 1456-312 Obuchi, Kakegawa-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 0120-55-3386
Open hours: 9:00-17:00
Closed: Thursdays (if a national holiday falls on Thursday, it is closed the previous day instead)
Access: 20-minute drive from Kakegawa IC of Tomei Expressway
             25-minute drive from Fukuroi IC of Tomei Expressway