Thoughts on cultivation

Vegetables are not something you "make," but something that "happens to grow."

Vegetables have the power to grow on their own.

We farmers want vegetables to be able to fully express their potential.

I believe my job is to create such an environment.

Rather than being organic, it means it's free from pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Our farm practices organic farming (certified organic under the Japanese Agricultural Standards). However, we don't particularly cling to the "organic" label. Rather, we place great importance on cultivating without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. This is because we believe it's crucial for vegetables to unleash their inherent "growth potential." To put it simply, excessive nutrients and overuse of pesticides can diminish a vegetable's ability to obtain nutrients it lacks or to repel pests (※Vegetables may appear to be just sitting still, but they release chemicals to protect themselves from pests, attracting natural enemies like insects and microorganisms that supply them with necessary nutrients). In other words, actions taken with good intentions can actually hinder vegetable growth. However, this doesn't mean doing absolutely nothing, and there are many times when intervention is necessary. So, how do we decide? "Simply observe carefully." That's all there is to it. Observe carefully, think, imagine, understand in your own way, and make a judgment. That's all we can do. In a way, it has similarities to raising children, and it makes you realize how well-phrased the idea of "watching over" really is.

Towards a diverse field

Damage from diseases and pests is a major headache for any farmer. As a way to mitigate the effects of diseases and pests, we aim to increase the biodiversity of our fields. Increasing biodiversity doesn't mean eliminating diseases and pests that harm vegetables with pesticides, but rather creating an environment where diverse living things (plants, insects, invisible microorganisms, small animals, etc.) can thrive, including pests. This naturally leads to natural enemy relationships between diseases and pests, and the establishment of multi-layered relationships between living things that humans may not yet understand. In this diverse environment, we hope that vegetables, like other living things, will grow on their own. In order to achieve this biodiversity, various plants known as "weeds" are very important. Although generally disliked, they are very important companions to us, and they exist as a valuable habitat for many living things. Since 2020, we have started "reduced tillage cultivation" to make this habitat more secure and richer. Reduced tillage cultivation is a method of farming where areas of the field that are not planted, such as between the rows, are not tilled (in conventional cultivation methods, the entire field is tilled with a tractor after each crop). Since the introduction of this cultivation method, we have seen a noticeable increase in natural enemy organisms such as ground beetles, spiders, ladybugs, and tree frogs, as well as changes in crop growth. Furthermore, by reducing the tilled area, we have achieved a reduction in tillage labor, the use of smaller machinery, and an increase in carbon sequestration in the soil. This cultivation method has been selected as a target for the Yamanashi Prefectural Agricultural Technology Center's technology demonstration project starting in 2024 (project name: demonstration of environmentally regenerative organic agriculture through reduced tillage cultivation), and as an advanced cultivation method, we will be working with Yamanashi Prefecture and Yamanashi University to demonstrate its usefulness over a period of four years. We expect that various things will become clear during this demonstration project, such as the actual conditions and activities within the field, especially in the soil and among weeds, and we look forward to witnessing these results firsthand. Furthermore, starting in 2025, research will also be conducted by the Department of Applied Plant Science, Faculty of Life Sciences, Hosei University (Professor Hiroshi Oida), in the Laboratory of Applied Animal and Entomology, providing opportunities to learn about the realities of farmland from even more diverse perspectives. We would like to continue collaborating with people from various fields to examine the activities of farmland plants, including vegetables, as well as insects and small animals, their multifaceted relationships, and their impact on agriculture. Researchers and others who are interested are welcome to contact us.

Value crop rotation

Crop rotation is essential for organic farming. Crop rotation means not growing the same crop repeatedly, or more precisely, not growing crops from the same "family" repeatedly. The term "family" may not be very familiar, but for example, komatsuna, mizuna, daikon radish, cabbage, and broccoli, which you all eat often, are all vegetables from the Brassicaceae family, lettuce is from the Asteraceae family, and tomatoes, bell peppers, and potatoes are from the Solanaceae family. Crop rotation means leaving a gap of at least one year between planting Brassicaceae crops, and 3 to 5 years between planting Solanaceae crops. However, since popular vegetables tend to be from the Brassicaceae family, this crop rotation is quite difficult. If you only cultivate popular vegetables, your field will quickly be filled with Brassicaceae, like a chess endgame, so it's important to cultivate other vegetables as well. But cultivating means selling, and in order to properly implement crop rotation, you need to be able to "sell" the vegetables you cultivate; otherwise, you cannot achieve the crop rotation you aim for. In addition to the "family" element, another thing to consider when doing crop rotation is the condition of the field. Drainage, sunlight, the amount of stones, and, as has been a long-standing problem, damage from monkeys, deer, and wild boars. In fields where monkeys frequently appear, fruiting vegetables such as eggplants, tomatoes, and cucumbers are strictly forbidden. If you plant those, they'll roam around like a hotel buffet. Of course, deciding on the field layout like a jigsaw puzzle while considering all these factors is difficult, but I always see it as one of the interesting aspects of being an organic farmer.

Selecting the only delicious variety

There are countless varieties of vegetables. It is said that there are over 200 varieties of komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach) alone. Variety selection varies depending on what farmers prioritize, such as regional characteristics, ease of cultivation, high yield, and ease of harvesting. However, our selection criterion is simply "deliciousness." That's why we're weak to phrases like "excellent taste" and "outstanding deliciousness" in seed brochures. In particular, we prefer to use varieties provided by the International Research and Development Center for Natural Farming , a public interest incorporated foundation located in Matsumoto. This is because varieties bred using natural farming methods have a strength inherent in vegetables, as well as a "deliciousness" that evokes a nostalgic feeling, like something we ate in the past. They offer many varieties that are rare these days, where the emphasis is often solely on sweetness. In addition to variety selection, we also believe it is important to cultivate those varieties to suit the climate of our farm. We have only been farming for a little over a decade, but even in this short period, the way temperatures rise and the way rain falls have changed. Unfortunately, humans cannot predict what will happen next. Perhaps brilliant researchers specializing in this field may know, but at least we cannot. After all, we only have dulled senses, worn-out bodies, and brains rigid with fixed ideas. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that it would be wiser to rely on the power of vegetables, and for the past few years, we have been saving our own seeds as much as possible. Seeds that have the information of growing in the land where our farm is located firmly imprinted in their DNA should be able to adapt to climate change. At the very least, we believe they will produce far more reasonable results than cultivation plans that humans have painstakingly created at their desks.

Aiming for integrated livestock farming in the region

We add a small amount of fertilizer to our fields. However, this fertilizer is actually the bedding soil from the chicken coop of Onizuka Egg Farm , a free-range egg farm located in Hakushu, not far from our farm. We dig it up with a shovel and take it from them. The reason we use this soil is because we know exactly what the chickens eat. Instead of corn, they feed their chickens a homemade blend of low-pesticide rice scraps, rice bran, buckwheat hulls, and other calcium-rich feed such as oyster shells. The chickens seem to have good gut health, as the chicken manure, which makes up a large portion of the bedding soil, doesn't smell unpleasant. The chickens run around energetically and constantly peck at it, so it ferments well. Therefore, the soil is generally dry and crumbly. While it might be classified as chicken manure fertilizer, we consider it quite different from the typical concept of chicken manure fertilizer. And since last year, we've been adding our vegetables to the feed for the Onizuka chickens. We're starting to implement a sustainable agricultural system that combines livestock and agricultural products, using scraps and pest-damaged vegetables from the shipping stage, although the quantity is still small.