A medicinal cuisine class that has run since the beginning
Minna no Uen Kitakagaya has a class that has been running for a very long time: "Easy Medicinal Cuisine," taught by a teacher of medicinal cuisine. Since the very early days of Minna no Uen, she has held it every season.
The best thing about this class is that she explains specialized knowledge in plain words, so anyone can bring it into their own home. The ingredients are ordinary ones from the supermarket, and the recipes build on familiar everyday dishes. In 2017, we held seasonal seminars on ingredients for spring, summer, autumn and winter, and in September 2018 a session on recovering from summer fatigue and preparing for the dry season.
The day a member became the teacher
In September 2015, something wonderful happened. A member who had been with the farm since its founding drew on what she had learned over more than two years in the class, and led a workshop as the instructor for the first time. Titled "A Tea Gathering Your Body Will Love," it covered the basics of medicinal cuisine and the effects of tea ingredients, and participants smelled the blends to design one that suits their own body. Men and women, and people from overseas, took part, and it was full from the very first session.
Someone who was a learner becomes a teacher. We were truly glad that a class the farm had kept going became the spark for a member's dream to start moving.
Health that lies between the field and the kitchen
In December 2021, we held a session to relearn miso soup from the viewpoint of medicinal cuisine. When you think of miso soup as miso, stock, ingredients and garnishes, you see that a daily bowl can help keep your body in balance.
Learning medicinal cuisine teaches you the power of ingredients and how to eat in a balanced way. When you grow vegetables in the field, you start to imagine how you will eat them, too. Grow, eat, and listen to your body. I believe a farm can quietly support the kind of health-building that comes before you ever need to see a doctor.