Thursday Snapshot: Making Kuntan

Making kuntan after the rice harvest.

Farming is my great joy and pleasure, so last year when we were able to help harvest rice in Nagano I jumped at the chance. Before and after our days work I spent plenty of time roaming the village to see how other people did it and what other things were happening. One of the most common sights was this: the making of kuntan. The momigara (rice hulls) are piled up around a fire, which slowly charcoalizes them. The black hulls are then spread on the fields in spring to help melt the snow and arm the soil while also giving it a nice energy boost. Brilliant.

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Finding Heirloom Seeds in Japan

Drying pods of heirloom Hutterite Soup Beans. Since moving to Japan eight years ago, one of my greatest challenges as a farmer-gardener has been to find heirloom or open-pollinated seeds. The majority of seeds available are not GMO (genetically modified organisms) as Japan, at this point, doesn't accept this material. Most seeds, though, are nearly all F1 varieties. Heirloom and F1 Varieties In plant breeding, F1 is the name given to the first generation of a cross between two true breeding parents. For example, if I decide to cross an Amish Paste Tomato with another heirloom variety tomato such as Emmy, in hopes of getting a gold paste tomato, the resulting generation of fruit is F1. In order to get that tomato of my culinary dreams, I'll need to choose members of that first generation that are headed in a direction I like - early ripening, medium-sized fruit, good taste - and save their seeds. I'll plant them and repeat the process again and again over time unti

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Satoimo: One of Japan's Favorite Slimy Things

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Japan Farmers Markets

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