Let's clean up Lake Inawashiro and bring back the floating hearts!
Award Winners
Fukushima Prefectural Inawashiro High School
Kana Suzuki, Riona Takeda, Minami Endo, Anju Hasegawa
Rediscovering my hometown
Lake Inawashiro is the fourth largest lake in Japan, located almost in the center of Fukushima Prefecture. Yellow flowers called "asaza" bloom all over the lake, and there is a plant that contributes greatly to the lake by purifying the water, protecting the coast, and protecting fish.
Ways to revitalize the local area
When we investigated whether we could make better use of water chestnuts, which are one of the causes of water quality deterioration, we found that they are edible and that they are cultivated and eaten in the Kyushu region. Water chestnut seeds contain a lot of starch, and apparently taste similar to chestnuts when boiled or steamed.
So, to make the most of the water chestnuts, he came up with the idea of cooking them with Aizu rice, like chestnut rice.The water chestnuts used in this dish are limited to those harvested from Lake Inawashiro.
By using water chestnuts in cooking classes and other events, we hope to create more recipes and offer them to customers, which will help revitalize Inawashiro Town and improve the deteriorating water quality of Lake Inawashiro.
If this happens, the number of floating hearts in Lake Inawashiro will increase even more than it is now, and the lake water will return to being the cleanest in Japan.
Comments and points regarding the award
"Let's clean up Lake Inawashiro and bring back the floating heart!!" proposed a method to eradicate the water chestnut plant in order to bring back the floating heart, a plant with yellow flowers that has long taken root in Lake Inawashiro. This was an excellent idea that combined solving the environmental problems of Lake Inawashiro with developing a product that would revitalize the local area.
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