Harvest and BBQ tour – Visiting an Organic farm in Chiba
Growing and selling of organic vegetables as “safe edible vegetables” has lately become very popular in Japan.
With the help of Ms. Tsukada at Vegelink who does delivery service of organic vegetables from farmers to private parties , we visited the farm of Mr. Koich Saito, who is a contracted organic vegetable producer, and experienced harvesting sweet potatoes and peanuts.
From Tokyo, it takes about 90 minutes by a car to reach Mr. Saito’s farm in Sanmushi, Chiba. We left by minibus in front of the school. We stopped at a local “Michinoeki (Roadside Station)” on the way and purchased some fresh vegetables which were just harvested in the area.
Harvest time
We tasted carrots and okras right off the plants while walking through the farm. Mr. Saito has not used any chemical fertilizer or pesticides for 30 years on his farm, so we were able to enjoy eating the vegetables without rinsing. I am sure that it was the first time for many to eat vegetables with some soil on them, but it was delicious!
We had a barbeque after harvesting the sweet potatoes and peanuts. It was a feast with delicious rice which was cooked in a pot, meat, and fish in addition to the vegetables from Mr. Saito’s farm. We had so much fun conversing with Mr. Saito’s cheerful family, didn’t we?
After the meal, we visited where compost was made. It felt like being in a natural sauna since the compost was very warm because of the gas from microorganisms.
We received the sweet potatoes and peanuts which each of us harvested as souvenirs.
We fully enjoyed the relaxing time with fine weather in the Japanese countryside.
We would like to express our appreciation again to Ms. Tsukada at Vegelink, who coordinated this event, to Mr. Suzuki at Belbe Inc., who volunteered to drive, to Kanbara sensei, who took care of the rental car, and to the Saito Family.
For our next Coto Japanese Academy tour, we are planning a hiking tour on Sunday, November 16.
Please join us!
Comments front the participants
It is a great opportunity to meet people, try to speak some Japanese and go places where we wouldn’t normally go as tourists. It was a great to have an opportunity to re-connect with where our food comes from, meet a framer and see a beautiful part of Chiba without any tourists.
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My kids were so excited to see all kinds of plants, to touch the soil and to play with a kind dog named Sox. It was the first time to harvest veggies but we had a big fun and even it was touching for me.
Furthermore, BBQ, osake and the of humor of the farmer made the day perfect.
My son said “mom, it was the greatest day ever”
My family and I really enjoyed the event. We will never forget 🙂
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It was perfect – beautiful weather, delicious food, great companions. The farmer and his family were delightful and gave us a really warm welcome to their home (including the compost sauna!)
It was fantastic to have a day to relax in beautiful countryside with no pressure, just to breathe fresh air and enjoy ourselves. I’m sure it took a lot of effort to organise, but it went very smoothly and I’m sure everyone who participated thoroughly enjoyed it. This is something we just couldn’t do by ourselves. I can’t wait to go again!