{"id":50,"date":"2021-07-02T15:03:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T15:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cultureofgardening\/?p=50"},"modified":"2021-07-02T15:29:15","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T15:29:15","slug":"tyler-growing-nira-and-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/cultureofgardening\/2021\/07\/02\/tyler-growing-nira-and-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler, growing Nira and family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am a Japanese American and almost graduate at OSU in bioresource research. I conducted my research with Gail Langellotto in the Garden Ecology Lab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My journey towards gardening.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Boring Oregon. It\u2019s very rural, with a lot of farmland. My neighbors had all sorts of animals. I grew up around gardening. My father was a big gardener. My mother, as well. And then we moved to the city (Portland, OR), and I went to an environmental middle school, where gardening was just a big part of the curriculum. We did around 20 hours of gardening in a week. Every Thursday, we would go to places for eight hours, like Johnson Creek Watershed. We would do water sampling and learn about native plants. On Wednesdays, we would go to a different place, like a community garden, and work for the community. We learned about native plant ecology, and how to build things out of cob. We\u2019d still have our homeroom classes, where we learned things like math and English, reading and writing. But the big majority of [school] was community service, learning how to garden, and getting out there in the environment. It was very much a hippie culture, very untouched by gentrification in Portland, which wove really nicely with my Japanese culture. It was the best school. I highly recommend it.<\/p>

One thing that I\u2019ve developed and learned about Japanese culture is Shintoism, which is one of Japan\u2019s oldest religions. It stems from the belief that nature is the start, is our creator. So like respect to everyone and respect in nature. Which is another reason why like I talk to my plants. It\u2019s not scientifically proven, but I definitely believe it, waking up in the morning and walking around and checking on everyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My relationship with gardening, today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardening is definitely a huge part of my life now. I\u2019m moved away from my family and budgeting my money a lot more. So dinner isn\u2019t provided by my family, or my mother more specifically. I needed to learn how to grocery shop. And grocery shopping really wasn\u2019t doing it for me. So gardening really filled that niche of being able to get fresh produce on days that I wasn\u2019t able to go to the farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have cultural traditions that you integrate in your gardening?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think I have any cultural traditions that I integrate into my garden, necessarily. It\u2019s just how I\u2019ve been raised around my mother in Japanese culture. It\u2019s shaped how I garden and how I feel. It\u2019s kinda hard to describe. I definitely feel that I like to look at plants like, \u201cOh, what can I make with that in this Japanese recipe that my mom used to make?\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The plants that are of significance to my cultural traditions include: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shishito peppers. I love those. They\u2019re used in tempura and pickling. And then there\u2019s also different greens like the Choi greens. Purple shiso and green shiso leaves, which I\u2019m growing for the first time. They\u2019re perennials, and very hard to start. I found the (shiso) seeds at Nichols Nusery. When they moved to Philomath, they were like five minutes away from me. So I was like \u2018Oh my gosh. I have to go.\u2019 And they had both kinds (purple and green shiso). They had a few other culturally significant seeds, not for Japanese culture, but just in general.<\/p>

And then the hardest ones that I had to find was nira, which is also known as Chinese chives. I bought nira for the first time a couple years ago, and I tried to use them in stir fries and was never truly happy with how the dish was coming out. The smell and the flavor wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>

And that was one thing that I learned is that the nira that\u2019s available in Corvallis isn\u2019t actually nira. It\u2019s Chinese chives or American garlic chives. So it\u2019s kind of something that\u2019s been deemed similar, even though it\u2019s definitely not. The smell\u2019s not the same. Neither is the flavor.<\/p>

I found real, actual nira, kind of by random. I found it because I belong to this gardening Facebook group. It\u2019s a wonderful community that trades and barters. I offered up bay saplings, because we have bay trees on the property. So I dug them out, and then I posted on the Facebook group. And this Chinese lady asked to come pick up like six of the saplings. And in return, she gifted me all these plants: chamomile, mugwort, irises, lilies. But one of them was nira. And it\u2019s not like the stores\u2019 Chinese chives. Its actual nira where the leaves are a lot thinner and softer. And it was just this one little plant that looks like a little onion start. But now it\u2019s like an actual plant that grew through the winter and survived. <\/p>

One of the things that I really remember is making the pot stickers or gyoza with my mom, like since I was a kid. She\u2019d make this huge bowl of ginger ground pork and nira. And it\u2019s kinda like that green eggs and ham thing where there\u2019s this big bowl of green.<\/p>

And as a kid, I thought it looked so strange. But you grab a little ball and you wrap it up in the gyoza paper. And I would do that with my mother all the time growing up. And that smell was very distinct and something that\u2019s not the same from the nira that I purchase at the grocery store.<\/p>

So having real nira in my garden is really special. I\u2019m taking this wherever I go. And I just want to reiterate that having moved to college, not having my family making the food is why nira has been so significant. Because it is that connection to family, especially during the pandemic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Nira in Tyler’s garden. Nira is hardy in zones 4-9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your #1 gardening tip for growing nira in your garden? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating microclimates. This is something I learned about more this term, in Lloyd Nackley\u2019s greenhouse class. Using other plants as a sun barrier or wind barrier. Keeping one corner of the garden different, which is how I was able to keep my nira plant over winter. And it didn\u2019t die over the winter because I had kale growing around it, and it made the shield around and over the nira. And I was really happy about that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Three words to describe nira:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n