Autumn Beans

Azuki Beans- the main ingredient in sweet bean paste, the essence of so many Japanese desserts and snacks. Azuki beans are used for sekihan as well, a kind of sticky steamed rice and beans prepared for celebrations flavored lightly with salt, sake and a dash of sugar. The are easy enough to grow but harvesting is tricky. The little pods are ready at different times, so we hand pick them over the course of about 2 weeks, only harvesting the ones that are ready. We lay the pods out on a blue plastic sheet, walk over them or hit them with whatever is handy and let them dry in the sun until we store them in jars. Obachan favors old sake bottles because they measure 1-sho (1.8 liters).

Azuki aren't the only beans ready to pop out of their pods. The picture on

the right shows the field of daizu or soybeans. No more edamame here, the leaves are turning golden and brown, withering on the stem leaving the drying pods of soybeans. This isn't our field - we only planted a few plants in the garden - but we would cut these with the

weed cutter, set them stems up in clusters to dry a bit, then feed the clusters of plants into a machine to remove the beans. The co-op has a bigger machine that is like a combine just for soybeans. The stems are very woody and tough so our regular harvester can't handle it. These soybeans are used for local natto (fermented soybeans) and local dishes and they get a good price because they are locally grown. More than 80% of the soybeans used in Japan are imported.

Rice Harvest

We had a pleasant day for harvesting the rice. I learned how to drive the new (used) combine. While y husband bought the combine with my son's tuition money, it does do a better job than our old one. The old combine allowed frogs and straw and bugs and seeds to be mixed in with the rice - adding a little more protein than I wanted. Also, the old machine dumped the grains (and frogs) into 35 kg bags that had to be individually carried from the field to the truck. The new machine has a tank that holds about 200 kg that we dump directly into the truck.

I will not suffer from communication shame anymore. It is true that my Japanese ability is my disability BUT three people who are Japanese and speak Japanese screwed up the harvest plans so we ended up without enough rice to take to the JA mill after all. Who knows what they will do to us - either a fine or banishment from the farmer's union! We are taking all the rice to a private mill.

Harvesting for Dummies (this is my guide!):

1. Cut the rice around the corners by hand with a trusty kama (most useful handtool). The combine cannot turn the corners and we utilize every bit of space for rice.

2. Prepare machine (oil it, fuel it up) and prepare big blue bag in truck.

3. Park the truck near the field. Drive combine to field. (Repeat for each field.)

4. Harvest. Call Yanmar guy every 5 minutes with a question. Repair as needed! Feed the cut stalks (from the corners) into the moving blades of the combine trying not to severe fingers or limbs.


5. Load the rice grains into the big blue bag on the truck. (Keeping in mind that the bag holds 750 kg but the truck has a 300 kg weight limit so we carry 500 kg and drive very slowly!)

6. Drive to mill.

7. Unload rice into drying machine. Return to the field.

8. Bundle long straw that is left in field and/or burn the chopped up straw (when we cut the rice, we have the option of setting the combine to cut the stalks or leave them long)

9. Clean combine, oil it up; clean and store big blue bag.

10. Return to mill next day where the dried rice grains are run through a mill to remove the chaff (the hard outer shell on the grain) and nuka (bran). Catch the rice as it streams out of the mill in 35 kg bags, tie them and stack them up! Pay the miller.

11. Load the truck with the bags. Carry them to storage house or sell or in our case, just give them away to freeloading relatives.

12. Have a beer.


When we want rice, we go to the storage house, take out the quantity we want and mill it- run it through the rice polisher to remove the remaining bran to make the rice as white as we want it (I usually go for semi-brown rice).

It's a simple life!

Results: Since the Occupation, our fields became standardized. One standard field (10 meters x 100 meters) is called one-tan, and this year, one-tan produced about 10 hyo of rice, which is a really good harvest. We expected less. A hyo is a traditional measure which equals about 60 kg, the size that the old-style farm bags held. Those bags were thick heavy sacks, called tawara, woven from rice straw - we have a few in the barn even now. In recent years, the size of the bags has become smaller and now one bag holds 30 kg (66 lbs.) white rice (31.8kg with some bran). (I can just manage to carry around a modern sack- I don't know how people carried those tawara!) When we buy and sell our grains, traditional and modern measures are used, which makes it really confusing! Sometimes they count the bags but they always write down the number of hyo (so we know how many bags we would have if we used them), and the actual number of kg (which varies if the bags are not filled consistently). My mother-in-law asked me how much our total harvest was....I said, "It was alot," and left it at that.

Beautiful day - planning for harvest

Great day just to walk around the village and see all the hustle bustle as folks prepare for the harvest. A few farmers are already getting started. We are slated for Oct. 14th.

We are all required to belong to the JA in this area. I guess some people are independent of the government agency but it's more risky: JA guarantees that you will get some money and they provide crop loss insurance (but they also require us to purchase and apply certain pesticides and herbicides). Some JA groups are more helpful than others. A lot of farmers complain about our group just collecting dues and not doing anything to educate farmers or improve yields.

We each draw up a contract before the season as to how much we will sell to the government, then officials come around and estimate the yield. They put a bamboo stick in front of the field with a little paper note attached which you need to read before it rains or gets blown away. The officials make sure we give the proper amount - if we fall short, we must pay a penalty. My husband agreed to sell 1/3 of our crop this year; the rest we give away or eat. What a business - so glad he isn't running a company. We give away most of the rice to various extended family members who are consistently too busy to help, too poor to pay but never too busy to pick up their share. The problem this year was that the local rep used last year's contract (which was for half the crop) so JA is expecting more rice from us.

The rice that we keep needs to be milled privately and that has to be arranged in advance. My husband also forgot to order the bags from the private mill (you can't use old bags) and didn't inform them of the change of harvest date until yesterday and they aren't sure they can handle our load on that day. Sigh. It will all get sorted out. I'm no help - I just wish dear husband would write down the dates of things so we don't need to scramble at the last minute or pay penalties.

The kaki or persimmon are turning orange and some have already been harvested. They taste like autumn. Mikan (tangerines) are just coming into season as well and they are a welcome addition to the fruit bowl. Our mikan are grown locally on the hillsides overlooking the sea. They don't do well down here in the inland valley but thrive on the steep terrain of terraced hills where they have ample drainage and cool breezes. The rainfall gave a quick jolt to the veggie garden and everything is growing rapidly, enjoying the warm sunny days and cool evenings.