日本[にほん]は今[いま]、春[はる]です。いろいろな花[はな]が咲[さ]いています。そして、つくしもあります。
It is spring in Japan now. You can see all sorts of flowers and apparently it is the season of tsukushi as well.
つくしを知[し]っていますか。このブログにつくしの写真[しゃしん]があります。今[いま]、辞書[じしょ]で調[しら]べたら、つくし=a horsetail と書[か]いてありました。Horsetail って変[へん]な名前[なまえ]! 日本[にほん]の食[た]べ物[もの]の本[ほん]で調[しら]べたら、以下[いか] (= the following)の説明[せつめい] (= explanation)がありました。
Tsukushi: spore-bearing shoot of a plant called sugina. These shoots appear in spring and are a feature of sansai ryori. After blanching well to remove the bitterness, they are prepared as aemono, sunomono, and o-hitashi. (Hosking, 1996, pp. 162-163)*
NB. Sansai: mountain vegetables, aemono: cooked salad, sunomono: salad dressed with vinegar, o-hitashi: soused greens
子[こ]どものとき、田舎[いなか] (= the countyside)に行[い]って、つくしをとりました。そして母[はは]に料理[りょうり]してもらって食[た]べました。とてもおいしかったです。また食[た]べたいなあ~。
Have you ever heard of tsukushi? You can see a photo of tsukushi in this blog; the third photo shows tsukushi. In English, this is apparently called horsetails. What a strange name! I have no idea why it is called in that way. It does not look like a horsetail at all. I checked with a book of Japanese food and it gives the above explanation for tsukushi.
When I was young, I went to the countryside, picked tsukushi in the field, and got mum to cook it. That was yum. I wish I could eat it again!
* Hosking, R, 1996. A dictionary of Japanese food. Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle.