Travel Blog April 2024: Herbs Garden in Japan, Kobe
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The views in this blog is purely the impression and views of the author, Wan Ying. Others views may varies. No part of the write-ups from this site can be reused in any way without written permission from the blog writer.
#HerbsGarden #KobeNunobikiHerbGarden #LotsofHerbs
Kobe is renowned for it's Kobe beef. We came, however with 3 objectives in mind, to explore the Nunobiki herbs garden, explore the Kobe city on foot and finally to have a taste of the kobe beef. This article focus mainly on the edibles.
From Osaka, take a train to Sannomiya Station in Kobe. The journey is about 1hr. There are clear signages leading to the garden. Take the rope ride all the way up to the top station, No. 5 on map, explore and trek downwards is what typically recommended to visitors.
#HerbsKiosk #AtTheTop #PrettyView
There are small cafe/snack kiosk at this area if you need some refreshment.
We however, decided to proceed to trek down and explore the rest of the huge compound. You will need at least 2 hrs just to walk and looked through everything.
We are especially interested in edibles. Hence Kitchen and herbs gardens are of specified interest to us. Along the way, you will be greeted by four season gardens and all different types of flora and fauna too.
We visited the place during mid spring. It started to get pretty warm. Some cool weather crops have started to bolt, such as lettuce. One thing about growing edibles, you cannot expect them to look pretty whole year round. Some imperfections are expected from time to time.
What they grow however really reflects their food culture. The crops are typically what we see in japanese crusine. All types of radish, from the tiny cherry red radish to the long huge white radish can be seen everywhere in the kitchen garden.
The radish here are really fat and juicy. I guess they really like the cooler weather. Back home, under the heat, our radish size is much smaller. The cherry radish is quite a challenge to grow in tropical weather too.
The swiss chard is doing pretty well despite the heat. We did managed to grow this in tropical weather too but they are not very happy when temperature soars beyond 40 degree C. My indoor chard however typically do very well ( about 28-30 degree C ambient temperature).
Cabbages are a common sight, however they start to show sign of stress due to the heat. My guess is that they are also a bit overdue for harvest already. We can grow heat resistant cabbages in the tropical region. That will be able to withstand the mid day heat.
Wasabi Green is another very common greens for the local. We can grow this quite well in tropical super hot weather too. They look so pretty. The Japanese love to cook them with mushrooms and mayo sauce. We love it the chinese way, stir fry with roast pork. It takes so so good.
Found lots of beetroot in the kitchen garden too. I am frankly not aware that this is common in Japanese cuisine. Upon googling, however realised that they do have quite a fair bit of recipes using beetroots or beets as ingredients. Maybe I should try to taste them the Japanese way one day.
I love sashimi and sushi. The bring yellow flower that comes with most sashimi or sushi plating is a common sight since the day I eat sashimi. They are plastic though. In Japan, however, most of the time, they are real common dandelion flowers. They are everywhere in Japan even along the road side. So pretty!
Found some overdue lettuce and kale in the garden too. They may not look good but certainly still taste good especially when freshly harvested.
The purple cabbages at the background of the bolted lettuce are not very happy due to the heat. ( about 24-28 degree C ). That's why we typically mentioned it is a challenge to grow purple cabbages in tropical region.
One thing very encouraging for growers that I have seen in this trip is that the Japaneses do not seen to mind having not so pretty looking but tasty vegetables.
I have seen lots of not so perfect looking odd shape cauliflowers sold in the supermarkets at equal price as the rest as long as they are grown locally such as these cauliflower.
We typically have to sell at a discount if the cauliflower does not form into perfect round flower. It usually happens if we do not harvest them on time, like 1 to 3 days passed their harvesting date or when the weather gets too warm suddenly.
They are also willing to pay high price for good quality fruits grown locally too. They have a very matured valued consumers market. Something that I really envy.
There are lots of herbs in the herbs garden too. Most are quite commonly found in our region. I just listed a few mint here. It is inline with what we observed so far in our garden. Spearmint & peppermint typically do very well in heat as shown in these two pictures.
Apple mint seen to do very well here. Back home at high heat, they are not as lush.
Lemon balm however hates it when the weather gets too hot. They start to develope burnt edges/leaves and die off.
There is a lavender garden too but unfortunately, it is too hot for them to bloom now. The smell from the leaves is still heavenly though.
At the mid station you can visit the glass house. The flowers displays is so beautiful. You will not want to miss it.
The herbal house and spice museum in the same area are something you will enjoy visiting. They are so tastefully done. Pretty!
After all the walking, it is time to reward ourselves. We have lunch at The Veranda. The beef sandwich and the pastries are so so good. simply love them.
After lunch, we continued our way down hill. No more edibles after this point. But is a relax walk with nice trails and waterfall.
We truly enjoyed our short visit to Kobe.
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