Traditional Japanese Umeboshi Plums

The organic umeboshi plum that I love to eat and use in all my classes is a traditional Japanese pickle. Unusually salty, sour and subtly sweet, they are great at helping you digest carbohydrates and proteins.
Ume means plum in Japanese, but they are actually a Japanese apricot.
Fresh ume plums are very astringent and can’t be eaten raw as they’ll give you a tummy ache. But in salted pickled form, they’re perfectly safe to eat and are quite delicious.

According to Muso International Japan (the suppliers of my favourite Spiral Foods Organic Umeboshi), there is a traditional saying in Japan, ‘Drink morning tea with umeboshi’.
The reason behind this saying is that umeboshi contains citric acid, which helps sterilize the intestines while the stomach is empty in the morning. Also, the pyruvic acid in umeboshi helps activate the functions of various organs. Umeboshi has been an indispensable health tool for many years.

Traditionally, ume has been used in the following ways:
• For gastrointestinal ailments: stomach ache, diarrhoea, bad breath, constipation, indigestion, food poisoning, motion and morning sickness and other forms of nausea, and lack of appetite. (Sucking on the sour pit is an aid for neutralizing acid reflux.)
• For antibiotic, antiseptic and anti-dysentery purposes.
• For fatigue, as they fight the harmful effects of excess lactic and pyruvic acid, which are the normal products of energy production in the body.
• As an antioxidant.
• For miscellaneous other purposes: anaemia, acne, headache, heatstroke, hangover, problems due to excess alcoholconsumption, earache, colds and flu, and post-surgical recuperation.

How to use umeboshi
Umeboshi plums – Cook with grains, chew.
(FYI: The shiso leaves used to give the red colour of ume are also known as perilla or beefsteak leaves.)
Umeboshi puree – Mix into dips, drink in Kukicha twig tea.
Umeboshi vinegar – Use as a salad dressing or instead of brown rice vinegar for making sushi rice.
(Umeboshi vinegar is the juice extracted from making pickled umeboshi plums. It is the liquid that rises after the salt-soaked plums are pressed with stone weights. Although it is called plum vinegar, it is not true vinegar. Unlike brown rice vinegar, there is no acetic acid but instead plenty of citric acid, which lends it a relatively strong sourness.)

Ume Sho Bancha
A favourite macrobiotic home remedy to warm you up and alkalize and support your immune system.
• Brew kukicha twig tea according to instructions.
• Mash a half or whole umeboshi plum in a cup and mix well with 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of naturally brewed, organic Japanese shoyu or tamari.
• Pour boiling Kukicha twig tea into the cup and add a few drops of ginger juice. Serve hot.

Please enjoy my chat with Libbi Gorr on Melbourne radio ABC 774 about Umeboshi Plums on 6 April 2019.