WELCOME to the JOURNAL

Drawing from the realms of travel, culture, and food, these collective writings explore how to craft a life where every ingredient, object, and action is considered and meaningful. Let's. cultivate beauty and ritual in our everyday lives.

THE LATEST POST

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 […]

REad post

ALL RECENT POSTS:

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 […]

Umeboshi | Cultivated Days

72 Seasons of Eating

The plum moon

A shiso laced ume sorbet looks like heaven on a spoon During a midsummer run of high heat in late July known as the doyo, the sun blazes and the cicadas roar. It’s a hot, dry (if you don’t count the humidity) interval between the tsuyu rainy season and stormy August skies seen when turbulent typhoons […]

72 Seasons of Eating

At the threshold 

Somen on ice for a sultry summer   The rains clear leaving a steaming cauldron in their wake. The sun burns brightly stalling any breeze that might whisper some small reprieve. Young hawks take flight, learning to soar through the hot summer skies. The heavy rains followed by sun has spurred a burst of growth […]

72 Seasons of Eating

A prelude

Ice brewed shincha for summer If June was any indication, we are in for a sultry summer. Alternating rounds of torrential rains that fall in this tsuyu rainy season and bright sun that vaporizes the gathered moisture bring on riotous thunder storms. Bolts strike alarmingly close to our hilltop home. On these muggy days a […]

Biwa and Gobo Shirae

72 Seasons of Eating

Sweet pleasures

Loquats are the sweet pleasure of June June is a month of sweet pleasures. After the hustle of staying warm all winter long, and the sprint through spring, we slow down at the start of June, if not in body, at least in mind. This season feels sweetly languorous with light that lasts so long […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Leave no trace

I would like nothing more than to cook all day After so many years living in this same rural corner of Kyushu, I still stumble upon sights I’ve never seen before. A wrong turn on a drive to a nearby town took me down a narrow country lane. Camel colored fields stretched into the distance […]

72 Seasons of Eating

The taste of the hand

As long as there is rice and Japanese pickles I stand on the veranda outside Kuniko’s kitchen looking across the treetops towards the facing hillside. The viridescence of spring is deepening into a concentrated and uniform shade. Kuniko hovers in the doorway. The green is thickening, she says. Soon it will grow heavy, as opaque […]

Browse by Category

Spring

Summer

Winter

Autumn

Profiles

STEP INTO these seasonal stories at the MIRUKASHI SALON

Join an intimate gathering of extraordinary guests and together we'll explore the flavors of the season in the context of one of the world’s greatest culinary traditions. I can’t wait to welcome you.

come to mirukashi