making umeboshi

[Elizabeth Sunderland]

Hi everyone,

does anyone have a recipe for making umeboshi plums? Someone have me a whole bunch of fresh ume plums and I want to do something with them but I need a recipe. Thanks in advance.

Elizabeth

[garymill]

Hi Elizabeth,

I might be able to get one.

I will know soon.

Gary

[garymill]

Hi Elizabeth,

David Briscoe has found a recipe to do this from Macrobiotic Kitchen by Cornellia Aihara and made a PDF document which you can find with other documents on doing ginger compresses provided by Bill Neall at http://www.cybermacro.com/forum-files/

Gary

[Elizabeth Sunderland]

Thanks Gary! I will let you know how they turn out (I guess in 2 years:) Thanks again-

Elizabeth

[Bo.Engborg]

Hello Elizabeth,

I think umeboshi is not made from regular plums. I have heard that it is a special kind of japanese plums (or maybe abricots) that are harvested before they are ripe.

Some years ago I tried making umeboshi with lingon berries (we have them in abundance here in Sweden). I used a few umeboshi plums and shiso from a box of umeboshi to get the process started. The result did not become umeboshi (of course) but it had a very pleasant taste.

Cheers

- Bo E -

[Elizabeth Sunderland]

Hi Bo,

These are small, unripe apricots, or at least that's what the guy that gave them to me said. I think that he was right because I started them using Cornelia Aihara's recipe and they are already smelling like umeboshi smell. Your ligonberries sound good and my husband would go crazy over them, since he is from Russia and loves berries. We went to Ikea once and there they sell ligonberry jams and juices, unfortunately full of sugar. He was very sad:(

I think that the tradition of pickling fruit is pretty wide spread. In the southern United States, watermelon rind is pickled. In Russia, whole watermelons are pickled. In India, limes are pickled in very hot spices. Um, I can't think of any more examples off hand but pickled ligonberries sound pretty apropriate for your region. How did they taste?

Thanks,

Elizabeth

[Bruce Paine]

Hi Yangwater and Bo!

Mr.Muramoto produced umeboshi using apricots and distributed them through various outlets including his store in San Francisco in the 1980s.

See his recipe in "Healing Ourselves"[out-of-print but often found through Bookfinder.com].

Dr. Ushio's "Ume Plum Secrets" ( http://www.celtic-seasalt.com/happresbook.html ) and ( http://www.gomf.macrobiotic.net/Books_Health.htm ) is an excellent book which not only teaches why the umeboshi works, and the many benefits of regular umeboshi consumption, and of course how to make umeboshi but also ume plum wine.

When available one can buy Junsei and Kazuko Yamasaki's umeboshi plums made with celtic salt ( http://www.celtic-seasalt.com/umeboshiplums.html ) as featured in the above book.

And if that's not enough, Michio Kushi with Doctor Marc Van Cauweberghe, M.D. have produced an excellent book: "Macrobiotic Home Remedies" ( http://www.gomf.macrobiotic.net/Books_Health.htm ) where the production, purpose of making, the scientific explanation of the effects of, the alkalizing effects of, the antiseptic and antibiotic potency of, and the general physiological effects of, as well as the various home remedies using umeboshi are discussed extensively.

Please enjoy.

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[Elizabeth Sunderland]

Bruce!

You are rocking my world with your umeboshi resources! My head is spinning and I can't wait to check out these books. Of course, Macrobiotic Home Remedies is one of my all time favorites and most used books. Thanks for the links!

Elizabeth

[Bo.Engborg]

Hello Elizabeth,

the lingon berry "umeboshi" had a great taste, and since they were quite small they were easy to use with rice, lt looked good as well.

We use a lot of lingon berries, blue berries and rasp berries but it is not possible to find any good quality of them in the shops. The blue berries are ready to pick now and we plan to do it next week, lingon berries come later.

By the way, my wife is russian (!), so she knows how to enjoy berries.

- Bo E -

[shb]

Can someone copy Cornellia Aihara's recipe? I cannot open the link. If you cannot put it here, can you send it to me by email?

[leodenn]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is any chance of you sending me some Home Remedies from this book in reference to Liver Disease. I have Cirrhosis. I've been trying to get this book from Amazon.com but it's not in stock. Thanks!