Hot Stuff
by James O'Regan
I must say I was warned. "It will only grow on Mt Fuji or in a plantation with cool fresh running water all the time." No problem, I thought, I'll build something in the backyard with a hose set up. I'll do anything for a fresh supply of Wasabi! You remember wasabi don't you? It's the green hot paste on the side of a sushi plate - good for head colds and sinus irrigation - efffff ouch.
7,800 yen later, I was the proud owner of 15 wasabi roots. Keep them in the fridge I was told. I had two weeks and three cities to go in Japan, in deepest July-August with 36 degree Celsius bandying about everywhere. My first question, hopping from the air conditioned train, was "Wwwwwwhere's the fridge!" It's difficult to explain in pidgin Japanese that the wasabi roots you want to store in your hosts' fridge are for export to Canada and not for immediate consumption, especially when the Japanese tradition is to come bearing gifts.
Arriving back home to Canada, with a quick dash to the fridge, the problem became, "Oh yeah, sure, you'll build something in the back yard, eh?" Knowing nothing about wasabi cultivation, or building stuff for that matter, except that they want cool fresh water flowing nearby, it struck: hydroponics is the answer - nothing but water and pebbles. If I keep the water reservoir on the basement floor it should stay cool? Huh?
$300 later, I'm mangling some stiff tubing and plastic buckets together, placing the washers on the outside of the buckets because what do I know. This whole exercise is one of working from ignorance, in the fastest time possible, to save a pile of plants relegated to the fridge for the last two and a half weeks. Although, they're starting to sprout stems and leaves. A good sign.
Unless you plant them in a hyrdoponic garden where they are now withering away to nothing. Fortunately, I only had room for six pots in the house. Another six wasabi plants nest in the freezer for consumption, one sits in the kitchen window in a pot of soil just in case everyone was wrong about the old running water bit: it's dying a slow death as well. Two sit withered in isolation in the backyard just in case miracles would happen. Of the six in hyrdoponics, two were cuttings - they have to grow from something don't they? Four were full roots just in case they send out runners and form other roots. Like I said, what do I know? And I'm not heading back to Japan in the forseeable.
Death reigns supreme. Nevertheless, I'm saving one plant from the freezer to plant next spring in the hyrdoponic garden. Who knows maybe all they need is a little frost to get going. If it works I'll be the Wasabi king of Canada. Every Japanese restaurant in the country will beat a path to my door. Or I'll be out 7,800 yen & 378 bucks. What'll it be, what'll it be.
From Moncton, NB, this is James O'Regan.