Let us help you de-stress!

During this time of isolation, I’ve found a way to alleviate not only quarantine stress, but everyday stress too—gardening! Not only is gardening a healthy activity but it is a fun activity for people of all ages. Whether it’s a small vegetable garden or a small container garden for your window sill, the JANM store can provide you with inspiration.

The JANM store carries Japanese vegetable seeds from the Kitazawa seed Company founded in 1917. Kitazawa seed company is the oldest seed company in the US to sell Asian vegetable seeds in the US. We carry seeds for Japanese eggplant, kabocha, daikon, edamame, cucumber, and my personal favorite red (aka) shiso. In fact I am including a recipe for a refreshing iced red shiso drink at the end of this blog!

Don’t have a green thumb? No worries we have a new shiso (green variety) growing kit that includes a pot, dirt and seeds. Just add water and place in a sunny window and you will have a beautiful plant in no time to feed your soul (and your body!)

Shiso Arnold Palmer Drink:

Ingredients:

2 cups red shiso washed & trimmed

3 cups water

½-1 cup sugar (or sweeten to taste with your favorite sweetener!).

 ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice.

Instructions

• Add red shiso leaves to a pot with water and heat to boil. Once the water begins to boil lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes. The color of the leaves will change from a purple to greenish color.
• Drain the shiso leaves with a strainer and squeeze the leaves to extract as much liquid as you can, be careful not to burn your fingers, you may want to use the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid.
• Place the drained liquid back in to the saucepan and bring it simmer.
• Add the sugar, once the sugar is dissolved, turn the heat off and add the juice of one lemon. The citrus acid from the lemon will turn the mixture a bright red, if the mixture does not turn red just add more lemon juice till it reaches the desired color.
• Cool down the mixture and serve in a glass with ice, and if you are an adult craving an adult beverage, the mixture makes a very nice cocktail!