Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog » Heart-shaped cucumbers up close

Heart-shaped cucumbers up close

Written by: Rebecca Milner on February 29, 2008 at 8:14 pm | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends |

Heart-shaped cucumbers made news last summer, but I just recently found them in my local grocery story, a discovery which prompted a little more research into these strangely shaped salad staples.

As it turns out, they are grown by a co-op of nine women called Heartstick Ojaru in Chiba (a suburb of Tokyo) using plastic molds affixed to the stem of the plant, which create heart and star shapes visible when the cucumber is sliced cross-wise.

Compared to the square melons that made headlines a couple of years back, which were designed by vegetable growers to make melons easier to transport and stock, these creative cucumbers are representative of what appears to be a grass roots effort to make meal preparation a little bit more exciting for suburban housewives.

In addition to being more fun, they are also considerably cheaper. One cucumber runs only ¥105 (about 2-3 times the price of a normal one) and , as the product website demonstrates, the creative applications are endless.

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Tags: Agriculture, Customization, food
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends

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Another reason why I

Comment by Emily — February 29, 2008 #
Another reason why you WHAT? Finish your sentence, woman! >:(

Comment by Callaigh — March 6, 2008 #
[...] Heart shaped cucumbers and moffles are not isolated incidents. The industry concerned with making lunches and lunch time preparation more fun is growing to meet the demands of competitive kindergarten moms determined to make sure their child is the most loved on the playground, or at least looks it. [...]

Pingback by Trends in Japan » Eat your cute in a character lunch — March 28, 2008 #