A cutting board on a kitchen counter, with a knife resting next to a glass juicer and a shiikuasa fruit that has been sliced in half. The cutting board is surrounded by a bowl containing squeezed citrus rinds, a glass bottle topped with a funnel and containing some juice, and a stainless steel mesh strainer.
There are six varieties of citrus in the back garden: mikan; yuzu; lime; lemon; hassaku; and shiikuasa. If you aren’t familiar with it, the last in that list is commonly grown in Okinawa and southern regions of Japan. It’s so common in Okinawa that, during the visit for Mieko’s last rights, I was hard put to find orange juice on the shelves of a local market, until I realized that shiikuasa was in plentiful supply.
