This Week In Ag #110
Konnichiwa! This Week in Ag comes to you this week from Japan. I’m here for my son’s wedding. My new daughter chose this time of year to align with the famous blooming of the cherry blossoms. These Sakura trees provide amazing backdrops for wedding photos. You may have heard about Japan’s cherry blossoms and perhaps seen pictures online or on travel shows. But let me be clear: these do not do the flowers justice. The sights are awe-inspiring. Gardens, parks, temples, river banks and streets lined with Sakura trees provide spectacularly scenic backdrops. Pedals blow in the wind like gentle snowfall. A unique feature of some Sakura trees is their ability to bloom before leaves emerge, which further emphasizes the flowers. The tradition of viewing cherry blossoms, known as Hanami, may also be one of the world’s oldest if not original, forms of agrotourism. It’s a tradition that many believe dates back over 1,000 years. Today, more than 4 million visitors annually ascend to Japan to take in the sights, smells and tastes of the Sakura. There are ten wild Sakura tree species native to Japan. But as with any commercially viable crop, this has led to the man-driven practice of creating cultivars via plant breeding. The oldest cherry blossom cultivar, known as Pedula, or “weeping cherry”, extends back to the 10th century and is still enjoyed today by locals and tourists alike. Now, over 100 cultivars of Sakura exist. Much like pumpkin in the fall or prickly pear in the desert, Sakura has become a popular, if not trendy, food ingredient. There are Sakura-inspired ramen noodles, Dango rice balls, assorted candies and teas. And of course, there’s even a Sakura flavor at certain coffee shops.
Related Posts
The Impact of Commonly Abused and Illicit Drugs in Wastewater Treatment
By Heather Jennings, PE, Senior Project Engineer for Probiotic Solutions® I was attending a wastewater conference and overheard an operator talking about how a drug bust turned his lagoon orange and almost put him out of compliance with his permit. At another location, I was told that the city I was visiting had been hit by
Nitrification 101
By Heather Jennings, PE Today we are going to focus on nitrifiers, those wastewater treatment autotrophs that get energy from oxidizing ammonia. (Autotrophs are microorganisms that produce complex organic compounds using inorganic carbon from simple substances as a food source.) Oxidizing ammonia is a fancy way of saying ripping off hydrogens to stick oxygens onto
This Week in Ag #43
December 8th is #NationalChristmasTreeDay. This of course sets up the great debate, real or fake? While every family weighs the pros and cons of choosing the Tannenbaum they rock around, a popular nation is that fake trees are more eco-friendly. After all, they can keep for many years, right? And isn’t it bad to cut down real trees merely for decoration? Not so fast.
