A breeze rustles through leaves of oyamabokuchi plants on a farm in Katsurao, a village in Fukushima Prefecture.
The herb, an edible variety of thistle, is normally found in the mountains. It is ground up and mixed with rice to produce a local delicacy called shimimochi, or frozen rice cakes. The plant once grew in abundance in nearby forests, but harvests have been limited since the Fukushima nuclear crisis in March 2011.
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