I have been interested in eating wood for 5 or 6 years. I like Hinoki (Japanese Cypress) fragrant, so I thought if I could eat this. And one day, I finally ate a chip of Hinoki which was sold as fragrant for room. At first, it tasted bitter, but later tasted slightly sweet.
Then, I searched for some information about eating wood and someone eating wood. Though there were not so many search results in internet, I found a person who is professor of Japanese university and tried to eat cedar. He made Japanese Green Tea with Cedar Powder with a tea farmer “Mr.Taruwaki” of Taruwaki-en.
He often comes to Tokyo for opening a stand in marche, so I made a contact with him and interviewed him for web magazine “Qorretcolorage” I run.
He grows Japanese tea organically (organic grown tea is only 2% of Japanese tea market), and picks tea leafs in accordance with lunar calendar. Wax and wane affect tree nature. When moon waxes, trees suck up so much water and turn to solid. When moon wanes, water in trees runs down to earth and trees become soft. So, tea leafs are also affected with wax and wane. Farmers in Kawane area of Shizuoka Prefecture use this natural system as an old traditional way.
I like this good old Japanese tradition and great nature (and eating wood too). I decided to revive foresty in Japan (which declines every year), and these cultures.