Fern Shoot (Warabi)

vegetable

Sansai (山菜) is a Japanese word literally meaning "mountain vegetables", originally referring to vegetables that grew naturally, were foraged in the wild, and not grown and harvested from fields. However, in modern times, the distinction is somewhat blurred, as some sansai, such as warabi (“fernbrake”), have been successfully cultivated. For example, some of the fern shoots, such as bracken (fiddlehead) and zenmai, shipped to market are farm-grown.