TOM Edible Dried flowers for your culinary food and drinks
In a kitchen were aesthetics and presentation are almost just as important as flavor, these beautiful flowers are commonly used to decorated Japanese deserts, drinks, candy and appetizers. And now (hobby)chefs from all over the world start to appreciate this delicate ingredient too.
The flowers are grown in the countryside with fresh water and air, and carefully pressed and inspected one by one to ensure perfect quality. They are cultivated without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and do not impact your dish with a scent or flavor.
TOM Flowers Characteristics
1. Premium quality, making it hard to belive they are real, pressed flowers.
2. Stable, reliable production
3. Removed moisture to ensure a long expiration date, needed for international shipping.
4. Frequent safety checks by third party and several visual quality checks performed one by one before packing.
Okuizumo town in Shimane Prefecture is the birthplace of the Japanese myth of "Yamata no Orochi" and regarded as a place of mythology and romance. Located deep in the Japanese countryside, the town is now suffering from an extreme declining birthrate and aging population. The founder of TOM sought a solution to put Okuizumo back on the map, find stable and meaningful employment for the elderly locals and improve the vitality and local economy.
Okuizumo native Mr. Yasawa started TOM in 2014. With a background in food, he is especially passionate about spreading happiness through delicious and beautiful food - of course using Japanese dried flowers! At the beginning the business was very small and all work was done in-house. However, as demand for the beautiful flowers grew, even internationally, work was outsourced to local elderly and people with disabilities to support the local employment rate and welfare. TOM lends out all the tools and machines necessary for manufacturing free of charge, to locals who wish to work with them.
Safety
Okuizumo Town is located on the border of Tottori and Hiroshima prefecture and is a town surrounded by mountains and rich in nature.
The area has, as only one of 15 municipalities in Japan, passed 35 assessment standards and was certified as an "environmental kingdom":
An environmental area suitable for the production of safe agricultural products, where the balance between an excellent natural environment and agriculture is maintained and built by the local residents.
The flowers are cultivated without pesticides in an area with "clean water" and "clean air".
Regular tests for bacteria and quality are done by a third party to ensure optimal safety.
Farming
The flowers are then carefully collected by hand, spread out one by one and pressed.
By pressing the flowers, the moisture gets removed, while retaining the vivid colors and patterns.
(Without moisture the expiration date is longer than for raw flowers.)
Each pressed flower is carefully visually inspected for scratches, tears, or dirt. Only those that have passed the first inspection will move to a second visual inspection, before finally being packed.
By visually inspecting the flowers one by one in each process, TOM ensures premium quality.
