other names are: Japanese angelica, Tomorrow-Leaf
Ashitaba - an endemic rarity from Japan!
The island off the coast of Japan is also called "Long Liverty Island", which roughly translates to "Island of the Long Lived", from which this angelica originally comes. The inhabitants of the island are older than average and have an exceptional constitution. Japanese scientists have attributed this good constitution to the consumption of this special angelica.
We have been growing Ashitaba ourselves for a few years now and she is truly fascinating! Sowing is more demanding and lengthy compared to other Angelica species.
Please be sure to follow the sowing instructions - we were only successful with them!
Once the cultivation is done, the Ashitaba proves to be surprisingly robust and strong-growing and can produce a lot of crops for you in the first year. It is used both fresh as a vegetable and dried as a tea. For this, the bizarre-looking, almost mandragora (mandrake)-looking, huge rootstocks are harvested and dried.
My first contact with the powers of Ashitaba Angelica was when I clumsily snapped off a piece of a plant in early summer. A yellowish orange plant juice immediately escaped. I tried it bravely. In addition to the suddenly occurring, astringent feeling in the mouth, a few minutes later there was a lightening effect, which I noticed both physically and mentally. Best to compare with a good green tea. This experience stayed with me the whole day in the garden and is still so present in my mind that I occasionally cut off and chew an Ashitaba leaf in passing.
Ahitaba defies the cold and wet. Only the heat and drought in summer are not their best friends. Here they thrive best under fruit trees in perennial beds. In winter, when it gets really cold, they are covered with leaves or fleece. But even if the plants above ground have died after extreme winters, they usually sprout again reliably in the spring. Plants grow best in damp spring and autumn. In autumn, the flowers usually only form on 2-year-old or older plants. If the focus is not on seed production, these should definitely be cut out, as the Ashitaba will die off after flowering.
The germination rate, tested by us, is 80 percent.
Series of pictures: from the seed to the annual plant with a beautiful rootstock