[Notice] New products added!
① Small Vegetable and Bouquet Set 2,500 yen (tax included) - A set containing vegetables grown using Amedoji's natural farming methods worth 1,500 yen and an organic garden bouquet grown from seeds worth 1,000 yen.
Although it is still mid-July, the daytime temperatures are as hot as August, but the Yatsugatake mountains are cool, with morning and evening temperatures in the low 20s, which is a relief for someone who works outdoors. Recently, I have been getting up around 4:30 am to start work as the sun rises, finishing my outdoor work while it is still cool, and during the day I go to a nearby river to cool off or take a nap to recover my exhausted energy.
The rice field is nearing the end of weeding with a rice paddy cart. The rice has grown big and its roots have spread widely, and there are almost no weeds growing.
The rainy season normally lasts until mid-July, but there has been almost no rain, and there are concerns about water shortages. However, this is also the time of year when wheat and potatoes are harvested, so in some ways it is a relief that the weather is dry.
The other day I went harvesting wheat with my friends.
In the middle of summer, among the lush greenery, only the wheat has finished its life and is shining golden. It's a bit melancholic, and it makes you feel strange, but it also makes you feel like you can savor the joy of harvesting in the middle of the season and that the busyness has come to an end.
I'm looking forward to having a pizza party and baking bread with the freshly harvested wheat.
This is the season for fun potato digging. Both adults and children have a blast digging into the soil and seeing the golden balls that come out one after another.
They grow about six varieties of potatoes, and one of the things they enjoy is comparing the taste of the new potatoes. The Amedonin vegetable set also contains three to five varieties of potatoes. There are said to be 1,000 varieties of potatoes in the world, each with its own unique appearance and taste. These are varieties you won't find in supermarkets, so it's sure to be fun!
We also harvested indigo. We are four fellow farmers who are interested in indigo dyeing, and this is the second year since we started cultivating indigo to make indigo. The indigo seeds we planted in April have grown big, and we have now had our first harvest.
Once harvested, the plants are dried in the sun, the leaves are removed from the stems, and they are stored until winter.
This time, after harvesting, I was spreading the leaves out to dry when the weather, which had been scorching hot until the morning, suddenly changed and it suddenly started raining in the afternoon.I hurriedly brought the leaves inside and dried them for another half day the next day before I was finally able to harvest the leaves.
The total amount of fabric dried in the drying area was 13 kg, easily four times the amount from last year. I haven't even gotten as far as making indigo yet, so I don't know how much dye we can get from this amount, but it's clear that cultivation techniques are improving every year.
The daily harvest of summer vegetables has begun, and we are busy mowing the ever-growing grass, which is a real challenge, but this is also the time of year when we are preparing the fields and sowing seeds for autumn vegetables!
I've been using my brain a lot to catch the breaks in the rain and complete each task one by one so as not to miss any opportunities. As a result, my shoulders have been a bit stiff lately... ^^;
The more effort you put in, the more you will reap.
That alone is a great motivation.
The joy of interacting with plants and nature far outweighs the difficulties, which is probably why it has continued from ancient times to the present day.
By the way, thanks to the dry rainy season this year, we were able to harvest the pea seeds without any problems. This was a precious harvest, as the peas usually rot in the rainy season and are difficult to harvest.
