Harvest Season!

This post comes to Sustainable Table from my dear friend, Karissa Seltz, who is teaching for a year in Japan as part of the government’s Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program. During her time there, she has had the opportunity to plant and harvest food at several of the schools she teaches at in the tiny town of Kazamaura on the Skimokita Peninsula. Apparently, this is quite common in Japan and many children have at least some opportunity to get out and see how their food is raised.

It comes as no surprise that agriculture plays a role in the lives of Japanese school children. Food is a central part of the culture and many traditional practices, such as the tea ceremony, are passed on through generations. Each region has its specialties, and there is always a clear link to the surrounding seas. Children are not sent to school with Lunchables, but a healthy mix of rice and other tasty morsels contained in a Bento Box.

As obesity rates balloon and pizza and hamburgers remain staples of American children’s lunches, we should take a lesson from the Japanese. Peak kids’ interest in food, show them where it comes from, and incorporate a science lesson in the process. Perhaps then they will understand the importance of farmers and the value of good food. Not to mention playing in the dirt is fun!

As the title of this post suggests, harvest season has come to Shimokita. Not only have I been the recipient of more cabbage and daikon radish than I could possibly know what to do with, but I have also gotten to experience harvesting some of these grains and veggies with my students in the past couple weeks.  Each of my schools, both Elementary and JH, have their own gardens varying in diversity.  The students have all actively participated in prepping the land, sowing the seeds, and now reaping the harvest.  One sunny day last week, the entire school (all thirty-six students!) harvested daikon during 4th period.  Not being incredibly familiar with daikon radish, I was surprised at how large some of these daikon were once unearthed.  It amazes me that something that starts out as teeny-tiny as a seed can grow as big as my leg within the course of a a couple months!

At another school this past week, I got to harvest sweet potatoes with my 1st and 2nd grade students.  First we tore away all the vines growing on top of the mounds, then I got to watch and help as a bunch of six and seven year olds dug around in the dirt to see who could find the biggest sweet potato!  In the end, we dug up around

30 sweet potatoes and each student got to take home a couple.  They are delicious, and so easy to make!  Just wrap in tin foil, stick in the toaster oven a couple times and a perfect warm snack!

Probably my favorite and most interesting garden experience this week, however, was the rice harvest on Friday with another of my elementary schools.  They planted the rice in spring and let it mature all through the summer.  About a month ago, all the rice in Japan started changing color – from that fresh, vibrant green to varying shades of beige and yellow.  Not only do the leaves change color in Fall, here, but so too does the rice, and it makes for a pretty beautiful landscape.  As for harvest day, we arrived after lunch and each student selected a small scythe.  Then, everyone descended into the rice paddy after being shown the correct way of slicing: you grab the clump of rice with one hand, bend forward in a lunge with the opposite foot in front, and slice towards you with the corresponding hand to the foot.  The aim is to slice the stalks as close to the ground as possible.  Then, the decapitated stalks are left to the wayside and finally bunched together with twine, and hung out to dry in various methods.  The method preferred at this harvest is common, where the rice bunches are draped over a large-scale towel-rack looking thing, but I have also seen little fairy tee-pees propped around the perimeter of the paddy, or another method where the rice is splayed out in layers on a central pole, resembling stunted Dr. Seuss trees more than anything.

The work was not overly challenging, but it was rather uncomfortable being bent over at an awkward angle for so long, and without a team of youngsters helping, it would not only be uncomfortable but incredibly time consuming.  Makes sense that a life-time of such work, in conjunction with a serious lack of calcium, would bend the spines of so many of these old Japanese obaasans.  The work succeeded, though, in giving me a sense of appreciation for where my rice comes from, and the lesson was not lost on my students, either.  In Japan this is an incredibly valuable lesson to teach, as rice is typically part of every single meal, of every single day.  I would also argue that teaching children early on that the food they consume can be easily grown at home is a really important piece of information.  Especially when a child can experience and understand the efforts and rewards that go into the growing and eating of food.  In terms of immediate rewards for the Friday harvest…we get to eat the rice at the Omochi Making Party in November!  Now that’s some upcoming gratification!