Cooking Vegetables

I returned from work a little distressed after a day that had not been best. I was tempted to walk to an Izakaya (Japanese style pub) near my flat, to have a few glasses of Sho-Chu (Japanese spirit), but remembered the Shizen-nou cultivated vegetables contentedly in my refrigerator from the previous weekend.

With little thought, I chopped the vegetables, washed dirt from the potatoes and threw everything into a big sauce pan.

Oh how pretty!

Today’s participants:

From my garden – potato, fennel, silver beet leaves and basil (which became a tasty home made pesto)
From the manager’s garden – cabbage, zucchini, onion and radish (thank you)
From a colleague’s garden – snake bean (cheers)
From a neighbouring farmer’s garden – tomatoes (I swear I didn’t steal them. There is a nice old lady called Miyo-chan, who helps to pick blueberries when gift orders come.)




Now I am a happy little piglet stuffed with vibrant looking healthy vegetables.

A Brief Consideration of the Japanese People’s Ability to Communicate

Growing vegetables in the field is an isolated task. You work in silence, from the moment the sun rises until it sets. Aside from rice/seedling harvest times, people usually work individually. Your sole concerns are the weather, water, insects, moles and birds, not other human beings.

In countries where hunting had constituted the main source of food supply, being solitary was not the most effective way to achieve results. You would have needed to work in a team to hunt fast moving animals. Lots of signals, shouts and coordination would be required, and as a result, people developed ways in which languages functioned to convey rapid, clear and effective communication tools. This is in contrast to predominantly agricultural countries like Japan, where communication with others has not been a vital factor, and language use has developed around the tendency to introversion.

I used to practise Kendo (Japanese fencing). The movement of sword work shares a kinship with ploughing soil or cutting plants. You do not jump around in different directions spontaneously waving sword in hands. Your body is usually set into one axis and always move directly forwards or backwards. This is significantly different from other martial arts or established sports. The aim is for an undisturbed centre in attack, silence of the mind.

The Japanese language does not display the best efficacy when spoken in an interactive setting. It is well known that most Japanese students are not generally good at conversational skills when learning English or other foreign languages, compared with their apprehension of grammar or reading skills. We should not simply blame the existing English education throughout the Japanese schooling system. We simply have not been made naturally to be best at communications.
My thoughts wander through various topics and ideas arise randomly in my head. I yearn for moments on my own, in the field.

Rice Planting

How long is it since you last played with mud?

The feel of muddy soil in a paddy is completely different from the one found in a vegetable garden. When you place your flat palm on the smooth surface of mud, you can feel the warmth of the sun. Sink both hands in a little deeper. The temperature is surprisingly low underneath. Dirt creeps under fingernails. I sigh to think about the business meeting on Monday. I will need to conceal my black finger nails from clients. But you cannot resist the slinky texture of the mud. Both hands are gently covered by black mud and the touch of it brings me straight back to the vivid memory of childhood, making miso soup and rice balls after rain, not caring about my mud-stained dress.

Step 1 - divide the paddy into a rectangular shape 20cm by 40cm, using jute string.
Step 2 - cut weeds and roots where you are to plant seedlings.
Step 3 - plant one seedling in each space.

In a Shizen-nou paddy, we allow more space for seedlings to grow. You could have crammed more than three times the number of seedlings into the same space, but the yield of rice grains per seedling is far less if you do. Use about 20 seedlings for each line transplanted, then move to the next line. Cut weeds, then plant seedlings. The repetitive work continues, but the procedure becomes more natural to you.

It is difficult to describe how nice beer tastes after toil in the field!