Hokkaido Expedition: Kushiro Farm Stand

After our train ride adventure, we landed in Kushiro: a small port town on Hokkaido's east side famous for seafood and it's proximity to the magnificent wetlands. We unfolded the bikes and started roaming through town. Along the way we found this little farm complete with work horse.

Little, actually, is not quite the right adjective. Covering roughly two city blocks the farm is a series of greenhouses holding tomatoes, sweetcorn, eggplant, and cucumbers. Outdoor beds held more sweetcorn and zucchini, and some sported freshly tilled soil waiting for the next round of planting.

The mother and son team we chatted with that day were selling lovely bunches of asters, deep green bundles of spinach, cucumbers, still-dirty carrots, and a nice variety of tomatoes. We picked up some of all except for the flowers (not practical on a bike tour), and bit into a Momotaro Gold Tomato - a new medium-sized orange-gold variety - on the spot. While we ate, we learned the farm had been going for nearly seventy years, a relatively young age for Japan, but not unusual for this somewhat late land acquisition. Loaded up with vegetables for the rest of the day, we pedaled off!

Comments

5330 said…

That looks like a mobile stand with the US flag on it. Is it, and if so, how do they move it around do you think?

September 1, 2011 at 4:22 PM

Joan Lambert Bailey said…

I think it is a somewhat mobile stand, Daniel. We went by later and the stand was still there, but they'd closed up shop for the day. It's small enough that if they needed to move it for any reason they could simply lever it up onto a dolly (carefully), and move it to storage or whatever new location they have in mind. About the American flag - we never asked, which we regret. We were too distracted by the tomatoes.

September 8, 2011 at 3:12 PM

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