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Here you'll find my collection of essays called 72 Seasons of Eating, a gastronomic journey through the seasonal rhythms of the kitchen and the table in the heart of rural Japan. The Mirukashi Collective series of essays introduces our collaborators.
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THE LATEST POST

Yubeshi: winter cured savory citrus The solstice has passed and though the shift feels incremental, our trajectory points towards the light again. A gift of this darkest time of year is the beauty of the sunrise. Mornings open late and its easy to be up before the sun crests the distant mountains outside my window. […]

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ALL RECENT POSTS:

72 Seasons of Eating

On the savory side

Yubeshi: winter cured savory citrus The solstice has passed and though the shift feels incremental, our trajectory points towards the light again. A gift of this darkest time of year is the beauty of the sunrise. Mornings open late and its easy to be up before the sun crests the distant mountains outside my window. […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Of pickles and preservation

 The first snow and salted cabbage Today the first snowflakes fell. We’ll never get a white Christmas here like the holidays of my childhood in Vermont, but still, celebrating Christmas is one of the few inherently Western customs I’ve firmly installed in our life in Japan. My New England roots kick in, I grab a […]

Persimmon Chrysanthemum Salad

72 Seasons of Eating

A festive fruit

Persimmons are ripe for the holidays Perhaps persimmon is the only tree that looks better when its leaves have fallen. The fruits are revealed and the tree comes alive. They look downright bejeweled, dotted in coppery orange globes, and I find them endlessly enchanting. There is one tree in particular I have fallen dearly in […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Matsutake memories

Relating to and through flavor As autumn gives way to winter we find ourselves in a season of abundance and loss, of beauty dazzling in the face of death and decay. The maple trees blaze red until denuded by wind and rain. A praying mantis expires in situ moments after laying a frothy capsule of […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Of tips and tails

It’s a fine time to make home your haven Soft clouds float by like a flock of sheep grazing in the wild blue yonder. I spot a small bamboo tray on Kuniko’s balcony that holds a few carrot peels drying in the sun. This is her admirable thrift, her equal regard for elegance and economy […]

72 Seasons of Eating

A cultured confection

A very Japanese take on marron glacé The fierce winds of a typhoon brought down a bounty of chestnuts and we gathered baskets full. Most were still green so we let them ripen for several days on the deck. As I waited for the urchin-like casings to crack I researched the many ways I could use […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Tone and texture

Cooking with chrysanthemum petals Chrysanthemums symbolize the month of September, the season, and the imperial family in Japan. But mums remind me most of autumn in New England where avid gardeners bring them home to enliven a fading landscape. Here too, we’ve crossed the autumnal equinox and gradually the light and the brilliant hues of summer […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Clear into autumn

Savory eggplant to welcome autumn My love of autumn quells the sorrow of summer passing. In the pink glow of a lean morning the raspy coo of doves opens the day, while the pulse of cicadas brings it to a close, urging us into the the gloaming. A week ago today we were preparing for […]

72 Seasons of Eating

The last throes

A kombu appetizer to open any meal As the sun sinks behind our hill, the collective cry of cicadas swells to a crescendo before fading with the light. We are allowed a moment of quiet in the gloaming before the gentle reverberation of crickets’ wings start pulsing through the late evening air. These days a […]

72 Seasons of Eating

More than one occasion

Celebrating shiso at the apex of summer We are at the apex of summer, which in Japan is already deemed to be the start of autumn. This is the custom here, to look ahead with anticipation towards the beauty held within the bud rather than be reminded by a flower in full bloom of its swift […]

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