Fresh wasabi grows in Oregon

(JULY 7, 2025) Wasabi is a green, spicy paste. People often eat it with sushi. It is very popular in Japan.

Most wasabi in the U.S. is not real. It is horseradish with green color. It looks like wasabi, but it is not.

Markus Mead and his wife, Jennifer Bloeser, live on the Oregon Coast. They grow real wasabi. Jennifer started growing it in her garden. Now they grow it on a small farm. Their company is called Oregon Coast Wasabi.

Wasabi likes cool weather, rain, and shade. Oregon is a good place to grow it. The wasabi plant grows in water and gravel. The part we eat is called the rhizome. It looks like a small green carrot.

Only four farms grow wasabi in North America.

Chef Kate Koo owns a sushi restaurant in Portland. When she started her job, fresh wasabi was hard to find. She used frozen wasabi from Japan. But it was mixed with horseradish.

Then, one day, Oregon Coast Wasabi gave her fresh wasabi. She was very happy.

Fresh wasabi tastes soft and fresh. It is not too spicy. People use a special tool to grate it. It is made from shark skin. This makes the wasabi hot.

Chef Koo says wasabi is good with many foods, not just sushi. She even eats it at Christmas with her family.

This year, Portland had the first WasabiFest. Many people came to taste foods made with wasabi. Some foods were:

• wasabi eggs

• wasabi chocolate

• mango wasabi ice cream

• wasabi sake (rice wine)

There was also music, cooking shows, and a fun wasabi-eating contest. People tried to eat 20 small bites of wasabi on crackers.

Paul Englert helped make the festival. He works with sake. He wanted people to learn that wasabi and sake are also made in Oregon—not just in Japan.

“It’s local,” he said. “We grow it here.”