Chiho is busy with Umeshigoto for this year. Umeshigoto literally means Ume=plum and Shigoto = work in Japanese and it is a traditional seasonal event for Japanese people to make plum wine, plum juice or pickled plum in rainy season. Rainy season in Japanese is Tsuyu and it is 梅雨 in Kanji character. And 梅 means plum. So actually rainy season is plum season!
How to make plum wine? The ingredient is simple, fruits of plum, rock sugar and any distilled alcoholic liquor such as Shochu, vodka, brandy etc. (Percentage of alcohol is more than 35% is better to prevent from spoiling plum while keep them in the container for certain period.) Put them together in the jar If you go to local grocery shops in Japan in this time of the year, you will see lots of plum fruits are in store now.
We use plum from my parent’s garden in Kobe. So our plum wine is real home made one!
We need to wait for at least half a year, better for one year. Then the color becomes this beautiful color.
The red cap container is last year’s and it is ready for drink!
Do you want to try it? Why don’t you join our cooking class? Jiro’s cooking class by TGT is specially featuring “pairing” between Japanese food and alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, Sak or, of course plum wine. We will organize more classes after July. So please check Jiro’s cooking class Facebook page. In rainy season, we need to cancel many of our outdoor activities, so doing something like cooking is pastime in rainy season, too!
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