Nature Plays Cat and Mouse With Korea's Weather Forecasters?

I used to trust the annual schedules that indicated the best times to visit different parts of Korea to see the cherry blossoms - didn't have problems in 2007 using the schedule posted on the KNTO website to plan my itinerary.  But these days, it looks as if nature is making difficult the job of predicting when the cherry blossoms will appear. The discrepancy of more than a week is quite glaring and most inconvenient for those outside Korea who want to fly in specially to see these springtime flowers and to take part in the spring festivals. Now I wonder how much credence the autumn foliage schedule will have.

"What took you so long?" Cherry blossoms finally bloom at Yeouido around the 16th and 17th of  March.

According to this 2010 schedule taken from the KNTO website, the cherry trees were expected to bloom around the 6th of April in Seoul.

sources:

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/19/2010041900396.html

http://asiaenglish.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?nCategoryID=&searchType=&keyword=&gotoPage=5&cid=970238&cCode=&nCategoryID=&searchType=&searchKeyword=

Spring Gold and Fall Rubies

I didn't know what I was missing till I saw the latest Touring Korea videoclip produced by KBS World Radio - the footage of ajummas posing among low trees decked out in yellow, removing their socks to soak in spring waters laced with dogwood berries, enjoying tteok embellished with the dried fruits of Cornus officinalis, otherwise known as Sansuyu in Korea,  Japanese Cornelian Cherry or Shanzhuyu (Sour Mountain Date translated from the Chinese) was enough to make me regret giving this place a miss when I visited Korea in the spring of 2007.

I'd dismissed the flowers of this tree as dull in comparison to the magnolia, plum and cherry blossom but I   didn't realise until yesterday that the dried red berries that mum uses in her herbal soups and  steamed chicken dishes came from this specie. The photos of the Sansuyu Festival usually feature trees sprouting pale gold  blooms and after covering forsythia in one posting, I wasn't going to bother with another yellow flower. The red berries are only evident in fall or autumn, hence my failure to make the connection till yesterday.

Those of you in Korea who happen to be in Gurye county may want to go hunting for a tombstone in Sandong village. It's called ‘sansuyu simok’ and aside from the 28,000 sansuyu trees here, it is the sole evidence of the young Chinese girl from Shandong province who brought with her seeds of her hometown trees when she married a Korean here. Now the village produces about  60 percent of all the sansuyu fruit in Korea.

The fruit's not only useful as traditional herbal medicine but also has been mixed with other fruits and herbs for a local health drink and has even found its way into facial masks.

Emperor Qian Long of the Manchu Dynasty thought the sansuyu could increase longevity while many modern-day Koreans and Chinese still consume the dried fruit in various forms. If I get the chance to visit Korea in autumn again, I'll make it a point to visit Sandong Village and offer my services in helping to harvest these ruby-like berries in the hope of taking some freshly-picked sansuyu fruits for mum.


Sources:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/cornus_officinalis.html
http://www.mdidea.com/products/proper/proper01304.html
http://www.freebase.com/view/en/cornus_officinalis
http://rki.kbs.co.kr/english/culturenlife/culturenlife_touringkorea_detail.htm?no=467
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/10/203_20685.html
http://world.kbs.co.kr/archive/tour/archive/archive_e/e_t030326.htm
http://csjfood.com/english/page2_2_06.html
http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/fruit_face_mask.html
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/tomah/the_garden/blooming_calendar/Cornus_officinalis

Suggested Itinerary for Chasing the Cherry Blossoms

Here's the schedule from the KNTO webpage. If you plan on chasing the cherry blossoms, start south obviously and work your way north. Some places I'd recommend for cherry blossoms:

1. around 25th or 26th March, Jinhae

2. around 27th or 28th, Hadong though the festival is from the 2nd - 4th of April. ( don't take my word for it; call the organisers!)

3. around 2nd April, Maisan

4. around 6th April, Yeouido in Seoul