🍱 Yukina no fusubezuke (Pickled yukina cabbage)

"Yukina no Fusubedzuke" is a pickled dish using yukina, a snow cabbage. Yukina is one of the Yamagata-Okitama traditional vegetables, a special vegetable of the Okitama region. The name "Fusubezuke" comes from the dialect word "fusuberu," which means "to quickly dip in hot water". Yukina cabbage is a rare, blanch vegetable that grows in the snow in Japan. It is said that Lord Uesugi Takayama encouraged its cultivation in order to secure fresh vegetables in snow country. It is said to have been selected and bred from a natural crossbreeding with Nagaoka cabbage introduced from Echigo. This is a vegetable that can only be produced in deep snow. It used to be called "kabunotou" (turnip's stem), but in 1930, the name "yukina" was given after improvements were made to encourage its cultivation. Currently, yukina is grown in the Kaminagai area (Sasano, Koshida, and Toyama) within Yonezawa City. The edible part of Yukina is its inner center, which grows in the snow. It is sown in late August or early September, and harvested in early November when it has grown to 60 to 80 cm in height, with the roots intact. Because yukina is susceptible to frost damage, the growers bundle 12 to 13 plants together, tie them up with straw, surround the bundle with more rice straw and soil (a process called "tokoyose"), and wait for the plants to be covered with snow. The temperature and humidity are maintained in the snow, and the plants nourish themselves with their own leaves and grow stalks inside. Only the inner center is used to pickle, which is about 20% to 25% of the whole amount of cabbage before being covered by the snow.