April flowers for the forager behind Sesame Sprinkles blog

As a child, the blogger behind Sesame Sprinkles liked to eat everything from ants to plants. In Germany, she said, her nursery school would often call her mother in a panic, saying "Your daughter just ate such-and-such! Will she be okay?" Her mother, a scientist, reassured the worried staff that her daughter would be perfectly fine.

Today, the blogger lives in Korea, pursuing a Ph.D. at Seoul National University. She still finds free food from nature, but she gathers that food now under the guidance of an experienced teacher in his 70s and with wisdom accrued over years in the mountains.

I first encountered the blog Sesame Sprinkles while in lockdown the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I felt challenged by the botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay on immigrants to “become indigenous to a place.” As a reader abroad, I was struck by the blog’s approachable yet authoritative record of Korean food plants. It isn’t just a food blog; it is a deeply practical, educational and reliable treasure trove of rare plant, food, vegan, seasonal and agricultural knowledge. In other words, it’s a useful reference text.

Sift through its epic list of fruits, and you discover a wild and delicious world that grows alongside Korea’s delicious greenhouse-grown strawberries. The blog introduces readers to plants that are only available to foragers and are not even available at supermarkets, such as the native hardy kiwi and berries like julttalgi. Each post is a masterclass in detail, peppered with playful emojis and scientific accuracy. It provides the Korean name, the Romanization, the common English name and the formal botanical Latin of every plant. It brings the rigorous world of botany into the approachable warmth of a kitchen or a coffee shop.

This blog was an outgrowth of an experiment conducted by her boyfriend, an artist, in 2019. They attempted to raise and butcher a farm rabbit for his own consumption. After 21 meals with the rabbit, he found he couldn’t slaughter Peanut the rabbit into food. Since 2019, the blog has documented their journey through vegan desserts, vegan cafes, convenience store foods, traditional and medicinal markets, and the rugged topography of the Korean peninsula.

Whenever I thought I’d stumbled across a topic or plant or a food that Sesame Sprinkles might not have covered, I found that the blog indeed had. Whether you’re a tourist with specific allergies or a long-term resident seeking an ethical lifestyle, turn to the blog — it shows there are hundreds of plant-rich, seasonal alternatives to eating bibimbap (mixed rice with vegetables) all the time.

Over the course of a winter evening talking with her about wild foraged plants, I noticed that above all, the blogger had an enormous fondness for flowers, especially azaleas or jindallae.

Jindallae is the star of hwajeon, or pan-fried sweet rice cakes adorned with an edible flower. This “flower cake” dates back to the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty and perhaps even to ancient times. Since people made a whole spring holiday of it, known as Samjinnal in the past, picnicking in the mountains and picking flowers to adorn their cakes, it has a whiff of the royal past.

I was told that “Most azaleas are poisonous, but Korean azaleas are edible.” I found out that no flowers within the Rhododendron genus are completely nontoxic to humans. The less toxic, edible Korean azalea is Rhododendron mucronulatum, whose crepe-thin flowers bloom before the leaves appear. There is a limited amount that humans should consume. Don’t go eating flowers everywhere.

To the Korean mind, the mention of azaleas will immediately evoke a famous poem by Kim So-wol on unrequited love or bittersweet parting. The vision of delicate pink flowers lining the hillsides inspires recitations of "tread softly, for you tread on my dreams." Peanut the rabbit passed away this winter. The blog continues as a reminder that we can be closer to the earth, and it provides us with cuteness and nourishment.

Esther Kim is a writer from New York. She is a guest columnist for The Korea Times. The opinions and conclusions presented here, though shared with many seekers, are her own.