投稿の詳細: 冬の楽しみ　Joy of winter.

蕎麦を作っている仲間と
玄蕎麦を製粉してもらいに
製粉所に行きがてら
食べ歩きをした。というか、
なってしまった。

製粉所を持つ蕎麦屋さん
を飯山に訪ね、蕎麦を食べながら
栽培についていろいろと
話を聞く。

行きとは別の道を通っての帰り道
蕎麦産地として有名な土地にある
蕎麦屋さんの側を通ったので
寄ってみる。
ここも自家製粉をしている。

先ほどの蕎麦とはやはりいろいろと
違う。両店ともオヤマボクチを使っては
いるが、食感や味、つゆもちがう。
どちらが好きかは人それぞれ
だろう。が、ここでは「はや蕎麦」という
物も頂いて、一同感心。蕎麦がきに近い
がそれとも違う。千切りの大根を煮た
所にそば粉を入れてかき混ぜ、つゆを
かけたもの。簡単にしかも手早く作れそうだ。
今度、これにも挑戦してみよう。

農作業もひと段落して
こんなことに遠出するのも
ちょっと楽しいものだ。

夕方はアートパークで
ライトアップの1日目。飾りつけ
を少々直して点灯を待つ。
入り口のトンネルが虹に
なったり、林の中に
屏風がいくつも現れたり、
去年より寂しいという人がいれば、
私のように、手作りの素人っぽさ
の多い電飾がいつもよりよさ気に
感じるものもいる。

人形博物館の中ではオカリナ
のコンサートも演奏されて
いました。

With the buckwheat growing
friends, I went to Iiya for
soba tasting, as well as for
grinding to soba powder. It became a
little soba excursion.

First, we visited a soba restaurant
in Iiyama which owns its own milling factory.
The owner told us a lot about the soba
growing, how to grow good soba.
We were very much inspired with his
talk.

On the way back home, as we took
different route, we happened to come
by another soba restaurant which owns
its own milling factory, too. Then
we decided to drop by.

Even both restaurant use Oyamabokuchi
plant fiber as the binder when they
make soba noodle, each soba tastes different,
and the texture and soup are different, too.
But at this second one, we tried Hayasoba or
Quick Soba, which looks like Soba Gaki.
The thinly sliced radish is boiled and
soba powder is mixed into it and is
beaten. It is served with soba tsuyus soup.
It is simpler and made quickly than ordinary
soba. We all decided to try it at home.

After hectic growing and harvest season,
we can enjoy such a little excursion
in winter.

In the late afternoon, I went to the
Art Park for the first day of the light
ups. After checking my work, I walk around
to see others' works. The entrance
tunnel is modified as showing like
a rainbow. Many brilliant partision like
light ups are built in the woods. The
30 meter tower with rotating globe is huge
as always. Some say it seems less animated
than last year but others say the decoration
is better this year with many hand-made
figures with own imagination.

In the World Folk Dolls Museum, a concert
by ocarina players were held tonight.