B.C.'S SPICY NEW CASH CROP: WASABI

It's known as the world's most fickle crop. With a preference for high-altitude riverbeds, wasabi plants have farmers scaling mountains and re-engineering streams, all in the name of producing the peppery sushi pairing. But they're often thwarted when, with the slightest dip in temperature, the plants sprout tiny, unsalable stems. Now a BC company believes it can improve on that temperamental process by bringing the crop indoors. Sliding open the gate of his Nanoose Bay, BC, greenhouse, Blake Anderson reveals a sprawling carpet of emerald-green wasabi plants. When his 15,000 plants mature next spring, fresh wasabi roots -- worth around $120 per kilogram -- will be loaded daily onto trucks bound for restaurants and grocery stores across southern BC.