(wasabi grating) (whimsical music) (bell chiming) (people indistinctly speaking) - (laughs) Whoo.

- I think my eyes are watering.

It's up in my brain.

(laughs) (wasabi grating) - Being able to get the highest quality wasabi is, it's game changing for us.

The full plant of wasabi is edible.

It's incredibly versatile.

- Wasabi likes Oregon coast weather, the best location, the best climate for wasabi in North America.

- [Crystal] Sushi is bigger than ever in the US, 30 billion a year by some estimates.

And it's almost always served with a lump of pungent green paste.

But what most people don't know is that the wasabi they're eating is probably fake.

- Not wasabi at all.

It's horseradish and green food dye.

(whimsical music) - [Crystal] But if you live in Oregon, you don't have to go far to get the real thing.

- This is a very young wasabi plant.

In another 12 months, it will be almost three feet tall.

- [Crystal] Along the Oregon coast, grower Markus Meade thinks real wasabi could be the next iconic Oregon ingredient.

- And one of our goals in this business is to introduce more people to the wonders of fresh wasabi.

We have inquiries almost every day for someone else who finds us and says, "Holy cow, I did not know that wasabi was grown in the US., could be that good.

How can I get it?"

What most people don't know is that wasabi is actually a plant.

- [Crystal] A very valuable plant retailing for around $130 a pound.

That's about 10 times the cost of the fake stuff.

Still, it's a price many customers are willing to pay, but in order to make it to market, the growing conditions have to be just right.

- It's native to Japan and it grows in alpine streams.

So in the mountains, usually at elevation, underneath an evergreen canopy.

- [Crystal] And its need for a cool, wet, shady environment makes it perfectly suited to the Oregon coast.

- 55 degrees and cloudy is perfect wasabi weather.

And that's what we get 75% of the time here, (chuckles) except for today on this beautiful bluebird day.

Most days can be foggy and cool all summer, which is one of the reasons that we're here.

The plants are happier.

Our plants grow faster than they do in Japan.

There we go.

There's the central stock.

It's above the ground and that is the part that gets graded into the paste.

We started unknowingly with my wife, Jennifer, when someone gave to her several plants before there was any North American wasabi production.

So we went out and we got funding and we built a couple of greenhouses and started.

And it was one of the happiest days of my life when I did a test harvest and I graded it up and it was hot and flavorful and I though, "Yes, it worked."

(chuckles) And then we will we go.

And now we have the largest wasabi farm in the country.

- [Crystal] Although relatively new in the US, wasabi cultivation in Japan stretches back centuries.

At some farms, it's become a major tourist attraction.

Traditionally, farmers try to mimic wasabi's natural habitat by planting in natural flowing streams.

With the growing options available on the Oregon coast, Markus and Jennifer had to innovate.

- We grow effectively in gravel like a stream bed, not soil.

It likes a really low light level.

The greenhouse does two things.

It's a structure for the shade cloth, the plants never get direct sunlight.

And then in the wintertime, it's something that we can seal up and heat just over freezing.

So we have this wonderful, great clean water and it comes right down from the coast range.

We make it rain once an hour on the Oregon coast.

(chuckles) Wasabi work is always wet.

We keep them just above freezing and below that 70, 75 degree mark, and they seem to be really happy.

And we have a harvestable crop in 12 to 15 months, which is very fast for wasabi.

- [Crystal] Wasabi is a member of the Brassica family, which includes plants like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage.

- [Markus] It found a niche and it protects itself by being hot.

- [Crystal] And it's that heat that's made wasabi most famous in the culinary world.

- [Markus] I started to get to know more and more chefs between Portland and Seattle, and I would bring some wasabi and go knock on doors.

(whimsical music) - They came to my front door pedaling wasabi, right?

Like they had this Ziploc bag with a couple of rhizomes in it and they asked me, "Have you ever thought about using fresh wasabi?"

And it was kind of at that point like a dream.

I had gotten, you know, rhizome here, rhizome there from Japan.

And I was like, I mean, yeah, that would be, that would be amazing.

Wait a second, you grow this on the Oregon coast?

That's fantastic.

And so, they gave me a rhizome to try out and that was it.

I was absolutely blown away by the product that they had.

Sushi is a never-ending quest.

You can always improve on something.

You can always get better.

You can always get faster.

You can always be more precise and we will never end up reaching that ultimate pinnacle of perfection.

The flavor of real wasabi, the flavor of fresh wasabi is so different than what most people are used to.

(wasabi grating) Wasabi is punchy, it's vegetal, it has kind of an earthy quality to it.

- [Crystal] Wasabi has been used in Japan since at least the seventh century, first as a traditional medicine and later added to raw fish, most likely for its antimicrobial properties and eventually for its flavor and that famous wasabi kick.

- Traditionally and historically, wasabi is used with raw fish.

So it's used with sashimi, it's used with sushi, but I've found that for myself as a chef, I've been able to utilize it in a lot of different ways as well.

We can also use it in sauces.

I've pickled the stems.

We've made oil out of the leaves and stems.

I've used the leaves raw in rolls before, which is kind of fun.

We make a wasabi gimlet.

You get a lot of the great wasabi flavor, so it kind of turns this like beautiful pale green color.

Wasabi's flavor is very unique and it's a great compliment for a lot of the things that we make.

- [Crystal] In order for wasabi to develop its signature heat, a bit of work is required.

- We call it a sharkskin grater, but it's kind of a sharkskin grinder and it has the perfect texture for getting the chemicals to mix in the wasabi that it needs in order to become hot.

- [Crystal] Inside wasabi cells, sulfur-containing compounds and enzymes are stored separately, but when the cells are ruptured and the two mix, a volatile compound is created.

- Which is why grating fresh wasabi or making a wasabi paste, it takes a couple minutes for all the flavors to develop and then it stays hot for maybe five to 15 minutes and then it starts to degrade after that.

This is a sharper grader.

- [Crystal] When we eat wasabi, those sulfur-containing compounds vaporize and travel through our nasal cavity where they bind with a specific pain receptor called TRPA1 that researchers have appropriately dubbed the wasabi receptor.

The result?

Humans are so sensitive to those chemical compounds that it's led to research into everything from pain medications to wasabi scented smoke alarms that can wake up people with hearing impairments.

Wasabi heat hits us mostly in the nose and forehead, unlike hot peppers.

Pepper heat comes from a different chemical, capsaicin, and it's a different pain receptor that's responsible for that heat sensation.

Plus... - If you get too much wasabi, you can drink water and it will help dissipate that heat, whereas the spice that comes from a chili or a pepper, water may make your situation worse.

(chuckles) - [Crystal] In addition to the heat, wasabi is known for its vibrant green color, but that's not always the case.

- I've seen Mazuma wasabi when graded, be everything from kind of a brownish maroon color to bubblegum pink.

But people are always like, it blows their mind when they get wasabi brought to their table and it's pink (chuckles) because it's not something you see a lot.

What I've seen recently in sushi is that more and more chefs are opting for fresh rhizome, and I think that's fantastic because we're kind of getting the word out about wasabi.

- [Crystal] The word about wasabi is getting out and at WasabiFest PDX, wasabi's versatility is on full display.

- Our mango wasabi ice cream, the mango kind of settles out the wasabi a little bit so it's not too spicy.

- So I'm making a ginger wasabi cold brew.

- Bagels made with wasabi and wasabi macroons made with Oregon wasabi.

There's salt, there's sweet, and there's spice altogether.

It's kind of like a little explosion in your mouth.

- Well, that's how dynamite lumpia.

- We would love people to look at wasabi with new eyes, how many different applications there are for wasabi across so many different types of food.

- Wasabi infused sake.

- Seared albacore tuna that's caught off the Oregon coast and then doing grated wasabi that's grown on the Oregon coast on top of it.

- Wasabi eating contestants, please head up to the stage right now.

- [Crystal] Of course, a celebration of wasabi wouldn't be complete without seeing who can take the heat.

- Three, two, one.

Let's go.

Give it some noise.

Oh, this is intense.

I don't see any, oh, I see a little flinchy.

I see a little flinching.

Let's go.

Let's go.

We can't, oh, I'm getting, I'm getting the aromas.

We've got a winner.

(audience applauding) - [Crystal] Those chemicals in wasabi not only add heat and flavor... - It's an isothiocyanate.

- [Crystal] Emerging research into their health benefits is opening up a whole new market for all parts of the wasabi plant.

- So for the stems and leaves, this is what we make into a powder for the memory care.

- [Crystal] Wasabi is rich in a unique isothiocyanate called 6-MSITC, which is now being studied for its unique benefits against a host of medical conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

- Hopefully the next market for us is not even culinary of any sort.

It's helping people get healthier.

Mm.

(chuckles) (whimsical music) Yeah.

Yeah, holding it like a child, it has that import to us.

This is a family farm and this is our income and our livelihood and our retirement and everything.

It's all done by hand.

It can't be mechanized.

There is no season for it.

We constantly plant and we continuously harvest.

For us, it means that we are working outside in the winter with our hands and we don't have much time off.

- [Crystal] All that work means real wasabi carries a premium price.

- It is absolutely worth it because so much of what we do is in the details and it's incredible to be able to provide this traditional part of what we do for our guests.

It is this really important detail of quality for us.

- We are still finding new ways to improve our growing methods and new products.

It keeps the wasabi farming exciting and keeps us really engaged because so many of our customers are new, they find us for the first time.

Their excitement is contagious.

I can't help but be excited about it.

- If you like this story about wasabi, you are going to love the new series we've got going on.

It's about the future and we've got a guide.

- Thanks, Crystal.

Hey all, my name is Kaylee.

I'm a video producer at OPB, and I'm out here to find the movers, the shakers, and the risk takers and all the people who are making the future of the region.

You can find it wherever you find OPB and I'll see you later.

You know, while I'm here, I figured I might as well just eat some mochi ice cream.

(whimsical music) (whimsical music continues) - It stimulates hair growth, and I don't know if it grows hair in a targeted area or if it's all body, I don't know.

(laughs)