Traditional vegetable of Shiga Prefture, Yurugi turnip.

Today, I'd like to talk about the traditional vegetable, Yurugi turnip. This turnip is distinctive for its bright red color, but the inside is white. Originally, it has been cultivated at West-yurugi-cho,Takashima City, located at the west side of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefture, Japan. This turnip is known as a specialty product of Shiga Prefecture.

At Hikone City located at the east side of Lake Biwa, it was common scene to harvest this turnips, hang on and dry them before making pickles.  It had been known as a scenic feature of Lake Biwa in late autumnn.

However, in recent years this custom has become almost no longer seen. So, local farmers are trying to revive this custom.

According to the Japan Agricultural News dated November 28th, it was reported that the local farmers were hanging Yurugi turnips on pipes at the farmers’ market at Hikone city. So I went to see the site.

The newspaper photo showed a lot of turnips were hanged tightly on all the six pipes approximately 15 m long.

But, when I went there, the turnips became down to about half. So, I asked the staffs of the farmers' market the reason. They told that many turnips were certainly hanged like the photo about two weeks ago, but they have already sold the turnips in order that were ready first.

They also added that turnips were dried for about 5 days and were sold only for pre-order clients. I thought I should have gone at an earlier time.