The pickling containers are out at the hardware store, the farmer’s markets are abounding with amazing vegetables…How about joining the rest of the Japanese housewives and start pickling?

Japanese summers are a hot and sticky business, so hot that you often don’t feel like eating anything. Somen noodles are the perfect fix for the summer funk. It’s THE simple, refreshing meal beloved by all Japanese. Somen can be eaten cold or hot, but the cold version is the perfect food to fight the summer heat. It’s also extremely easy to make. No culinary degree required!

Ratatouille is the epitome of French gastronomy, yet it’s the perfect recipe for Japan if you want to use the fresh summer veggies that flood the supermarket during the summer. Japan produces amazing eggplant, and ratatouille is the perfect dish to make with them.

Making umeshu, or plum liquor, is a highly orchestrated and seasonal activity in Japan. Walk into any supermarket at the end of May and you are bound to see a display of glass or plastic jugs, plums, rock sugar and cartons of mysterious alcohol that you can use to brew your own batch of this sweet yet sour beverage. It’s the perfect umeshu kit just waiting for you.

I am addicted to pickled rakkyo. Half small onion and half garlic tsukemono, rakkyo is a crunchy delight that you can prepare easily at home. The end of May is the official rakkyo pickling season, so let’s get pickling!

Ask any Japanese person and they will tell you that spring is the season of bamboo shoots, or takenoko. I fell in love with freshly made takenoko spring rolls last year and I tried to learn more about this odd vegetable. There is a good chance that you will find some in your school lunch this spring, probably in the form of bamboo shoots rice. Cooked takenoko is available all year in ready-to-serve portions at pretty much any supermarket, but I want to share with you the technique to prepare these shoots from scratch. Bamboo shoots are impressive looking vegetables, and they’re not something familiar in the American kitchen.

Wondering what to do with that big pile of persimmons a co-worker gave you? Drying persimmons is super easy and they’re really delicious! Here’s how to do it.

It’s daikon season folks! Daikon, or Japanese radish, will always mysteriously find its way onto your plate, be it in a sushi shop’s fancy stringy garnish or the oden tub next to the cash register in pretty much any konbini in Japan. It’s also a school lunch favorite. Like it or not, you are probably eating daikon almost everyday or at least every week. This Halloween, I went to the Sera Daikon Festival, where I saw just how much Japanese fancy their daikon. Fall is the season when the vegetable is firmest and sweetest.

Late summer is the prime season to eat kabocha. This green Japanese pumpkin is actually a winter squash very similar to the American buttercup squash. The deep orange flesh of the kabocha is sweet and can be used in numerous recipes. You will often see long and thin slices of kabocha in vegetable tempura alongside the onions and mushrooms.

While it is possible, living in Japan, to purchase imported foods to cook some dishes that remind you of your home country, it can be inconvenient and expensive. Learning to cook some of the unfamiliar vegetables you see temporarily grace the supermarket shelves as the seasons pass, however, brings its own sense of satisfaction and introduces you to new aspects of food culture in Japan.