Sunki pickles

Kiso lies deep in the mountains of Nagano, and the area around Mount Ontake is far from the sea. In that setting, sunki turned red turnip greens into a preserved food whose acidity could serve winter meals. It is also treated within Nagano’s folk-cultural and regional food heritage contexts; the concrete practice behind those designations is Kiso people working with winter greens, warmth, starter, and lactic fermentation.

The main material is the leafy part of red turnips grown in the Kiso area. Six local Kiso turnip lines give that ingredient base a visible map: Otaki turnip from Otaki Village, Kaida turnip from the Kaida Plateau in Kiso Town, Kurose turnip from Mitake in Kiso Town, Yoshino and Ashijima turnips from Agematsu Town, and Hosojima turnip from Kiso Village. The practical name boundary is also tied to turnip greens grown in Kiso and production carried out in Kiso.

The work begins with washing and cutting the turnip greens, followed by brief blanching. While the greens are warm, they are layered with sunki starter, covered with warm liquid, and placed somewhere warm for fermentation. The starter carries one batch into the next: older examples include fermented wild pear or mountain grape, while current practice can use previous-year sunki that has been dried or frozen.

Many pickles rely on salt, but sunki is made without salt and without vinegar or soy sauce. Lactic fermentation lowers pH, improves keeping quality, and gives the red turnip greens a clean sourness. The process keeps attention on leaf fiber, fermenting aroma, and acidity, while showing how a mountain valley once conserved scarce salt through a winter vegetable technique.

Finished sunki can be eaten as it is, and it is also added to hot soba. Sunki soba and toji soba are associated with winter in the Kiso Valley, where sour greens meet hot broth and the aroma of buckwheat noodles. The making season from late autumn into winter links the pickle to cold-weather red turnip greens, household meals, and local noodle bowls.

Kiso communities continue the practice through cooking lessons, hands-on programs, fairs, and sunki contests. A Nagano transmission project included a recipe collection, cooking classes, and a contest that had continued from 1995 to its 20th edition; entries came from Kiso elementary, junior high, and high schools, as well as a university in Tokyo. These settings pass on the practical details of blanching, starter use, temperature control, and cooking in classrooms and local event spaces.