Final Harvest of the 2005 Season

Back in the late spring we sowed some seeds of greater burdock (gobo in Japanese) that we brought with us from Japan. We struggled to keep them watered through the summer and watched as the local insects devoured the exotic delicacy.

The foliage didn't grow well, and we'd really given up on them. During the autumn we pulled a couple of roots (quite a task -- they can go down a metre or more) and found them edible. But of the four or six, only one or two were any length at all. Things didn't look too good, but we left them in the ground anyway. Finally, during the first couple of days of January, we decided we had to dig them up. The foliage had been killed by frost (so offsiding our plan to leave them to seed this coming summer) and they were looking very sad.

I had to do some serious digging. A couple of plants that we'd thrown down in some reasonable looking soil near the house had gone down very deep. Getting the roots out was a bit like grave-digging! Anyway, Megumi made up mounds of gobo salad and kimpira-gobo (a wonderful dish of gobo and carrot that can't really be described) which we then took around to a few friends whom we thought would appreciate something a little unusual. I have to say the results were excellent and we look forward to growing more this coming season. In fact, I have plans for a special bed that will allow for easy harvesting (by removing wooden boards at the end). We'll have to see how it goes...