Red hot chili peppers laid on snow ground. Local elementary school children also come to do Yuki Sarashi. (In Kagamino-cho, Okayama Prefecture)
Kotaro Yamada
Members of Tecchiriko, a non-profitable organization based in Kagamino-cho, Okayama Prefecture, know how to make red hot chili peppers taste milder and smoother making use of nature: Leave them on the snow ground. The practice is called Yuki Sarashi.
They use red peppers that are harvested the year before and pickled in salt. The peppers are spread over the snow of about 20 cm, and the snow will absorb the bitterness and excess saltines from the salt-pickled peppers and make them taste milder. A few days later, they collect the snow-rested red peppers and mix them with malted rice to start three-year fermentation process. Then the product will be used as a base for making hot soy sauce or miso.
Tecchiriko began working with local farmers in 2006 to make the peppers one of their local specialties. It invites local elementary school children to the sites, time to time, so that they can experience planting young peppers and also doing Yuki Sarashi. “It’s the power of nature that makes peppers taste so good. I hope many to enjoy it,” said Tatsumasa Ando, 74, the director of the NPO.
(Feb. 3, 2015)