When I moved to Roy Steevensz's macrobiotic center in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, I was put to work making takuan (rice bran pickles) which are made by taking fresh large whole daikon roots that have their leaves still attached, rinsing them in cool pure water, separating the leaves in a clump from the top of the daikon root with a sharp knife (the clumped leaves are then hung on a tight clothesline in the shade, outside for a number of days until they become yellow-brown and brittle, and then...