Table of Content
She stops by an old folk house/restaurant to order naturally raised, stone-baked bread. At a blueberry orchard in Shiga Prefecture run by a friend of hers, she harvests the last berries of the year and makes jam. She admires how her friend, who also grows organic cotton, appreciates nature's blessings we eat and wear. A horticultural-therapy school teaches Venetia, who can no longer garden the way she used to because of her failing eyesight, the importance of appreciating plants with all senses. At Ei, known for its incense production, the Koh-shi, responsible for how the incense smells, shows her the centuries-old method. A keeper of indigenous honeybees shows her the "nectar-supplying forest" he spent 7 years growing.
She heads to Nara City, where she sees an old friend. She walks through Kasuga Shrine's sacred forest along a mountain trail that was once a busy trading route. The hiking course leads to a view of Nara Basin from the top of Mt. Wakakusa. She goes to the studio of a young sculptor who uses his skills honed from carving Buddhist works to create his own art pieces. It was an enjoyable show and it's sad that it has been canceled due to her declining health. I just saw the other day a show with her and her sister, where they reminisced about their childhood and their mother, who was a pub owner.
27 The Gift of Herbs
She tastes a precious cup full of the farmer's passion for 100% locally grown coffee. A friend treats her to dishes flavored with muscovado. She then visits a sugar maker who makes muscovado the old-fashioned way. He quit his job a few years ago to become a sugar maker.
With the severe winter just around the corner, Venetia enjoys the calm and fruitful fall season in Ohara. She arranges flowers from her garden and makes apple compote with her daughter. Another fall delicacy she finds at a morning market is mackerel sushi, with Ohara historically known for this fish. She decides to have her long-broken toy bus fixed so that her grandchildren can play with it. She befriends the couple running a woodworking shop she visited and digs up potatoes in their garden.
05 Okinawan Tastes
She imagines the colorful floral array of spring while planting the tulip bulbs. She was surprised last year by the deliciousness of some ginger sweets a local farmer gave her, and grew her own ginger this year. She asks the local farmer around to teach her how to preserve ginger in sugar and is highly satisfied with the taste.
An admirer of Japanese traditional chests of drawers, or tansu, she takes a trip to Iwate Prefecture and visits a tansu workshop. The elaborate craftsmanship dating from the Edo era impresses her. In Tono City, she visits a couple living like she does and tries cooking a local delicacy, hittsumi with them.
Special 18 Living with Plants
She also spends some relaxing time with her son's family. As a new daily routine, English-born Venetia goes on walks in Kyoto Prefecture with a friend. Walks filled with such sounds as birds chirping and a stream babbling are precious to her with failing eyes.
Worried about her failing eyesight, her half-sister Lulu comes to Japan for the first time. Venetia left the UK feeling ill at ease in aristocratic society. They reminisce about their mother over bread & butter pudding, their childhood favorite. At Venetia's friends' herb garden, Lulu shows interest in how herbs are grown in an herb-unfriendly humid climate just like Ireland's. Venetia enjoys a handcrafted life in Ohara, Kyoto Prefecture. On one mild day, she takes some long-unused items to an antique shop.
05 Venetia's Herb Notes
Tono, where horses are integral to local life, reminds her of her horse-riding days back home. There, a couple about her age show her clothes made with a local technique and baskets made with tree barks, reaffirming the value of handcrafted life. She tries cooking a local delicacy hittsumi with hand-picked mushrooms and enjoys dinner with them.
One of the singular delights of sheltering in place is the stumbling across hidden gardens on the internet that in the fast-paced rush of ordinary times would have remained unexplored. In 1971, at the age of 19, Stanley-Smith fled her aristocratic roots in the U.K. To wander the earth searching for a more meaningful purpose in her life. Her travels led her to India and then to Japan where she started an English-language school and fell in love with a country that would become her home for the next forty years. Venetia is a real herbologist with more than 150 useful herbs in her Ohara, Kyoto garden. She gives a public reading in English about the wisdom and efficacy of herbs.
At the morning market, which she goes every week, she is delighted by the flavor of the yuba . She sets out for the tofu shop to discover how it is made. Share Venetia Stanley-Smith's seasonal living in rural Kyoto, as she introduces us to local people, produce, cooking and crafts. Venetia lives among her herbs in the Ohara district of Kyoto Prefecture but comes originally from Britain. She visited Ireland, where her mother spent her final years, in the summer of 2010 and met up with her younger siblings for the first time in a long while. English-born Venetia organizes an open garden for the first time in a long time.
She is a firm believer in living in accordance with nature, and utilizes its gifts in all aspects of daily living. Venetia’s garden is filled with over 100 varieties of seasonal herbs. She uses them in recipes for cooking, cleaning, and beauty in her own unique style. In Iwate Prefecture, British-born Venetia visits a workshop for Japanese chests of drawers, or tansu, dating from the Edo era.
As “Venetia” concluded its 10th season in 2019, 69-year-old Stanley-Smith’s journey took an unexpected turn once again. Because of her failing eyesight and memory, the host lost her ability to cook or visit with her long brocade of friends; even the simplest tasks now required the assistance of her husband and extended family. The show has since gone on an indefinite hiatus with its future yet to be determined. Venetia lives surrounded by her herbs in the mountain community of Ohara in Kyoto Prefecture but comes from an aristocratic family in England. A visit to her homeland in the summer of 2010 was also an opportunity to look back on her life so far.
With the soundless cold hovering over the plants in her garden, she enjoys meditation. During a walk, she stops by her favorite café and appreciates homemade sweets with seasonal fruit and tea. She has been a herb expert since childhood and has edited a book about edible wild herbs.
HAWAII OKINAWA TODAY
Discover her original recipes, watch her journeys across Japan, and experience Venetia’s unhurried lifestyle and truly eco-friendly way of living. I agree, this lady had a lovely life and she apparently shared it most generously with everyone who was interested, least all the NHK viewers, in Japan and abroad. She must have clearly been a bit of a rebel in her stiff upper lip British aristocratic family and then to do all the things she did ...
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