Some Lotus Root Science

lotus-rootThe lotus is certainly one of the most meaningful and symbolic plants in the world. It is the most sacred flower for Buddhists and admired throughout Asia, and the “water lilly” is also popular in gardens in the West. Since the beautiful lotus flower springs up from muddy and challenging surroundings, the lotus became a symbol of hope and transcendence. The lotus is also a sign of wealth, knowledge, purity and things achieved through adversity and challenge.
What we at Good Roots care most about is the root of the lotus of course…

The lotus root is embedded in the mud or silt at the bottom of the pond. The lotus root is a “rhizome,” meaning the root grows horizontally as a line of interconnected root stubs connected by “nodes.” So when you are viewing raw lotus root in the food store, you are actually seeing one root stub (internode) of many interconnected internodes that feed the lotus flower. For freshness and transport purposes, we receive our lotus root as connected internodes.

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Our Story: The Roots of Good Roots

first-blogWell, this is our first blog, so what to write about?  I suppose writing a little more about the Good Roots story, how we started, and how we got to this point is the best jumping off point for this first blog. In future blogs, I hope to write more about different subjects like complementary dishes, cooking process, nutrition, store partners, and the Good Roots team. But back to our story…

I was born and raised in Kagoshima, Japan, where the root of the lotus flower is known as “renkon.”  Renkon is most commonly used as an accompanying root vegetable for a variety of dishes, rice plates, and soups. Lotus are grown in Japan but are also frequently imported into Japan from other countries including China, where they are prominently farmed and known as “lian ou.”  Renkon chips, or lotus chips, are more common as a special side dish in restaurants in Asia and much less likely to be made at home. They are typically made by an experienced cook and the lotus root itself can be hard to tame on the stove top.

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