(English version below)
“網地島の未来を育てましょう！（前編）”
４月より石巻日日新聞さんの「潮音」（ちょうおん）というコラム欄を、半年間、月１で担当させて頂くことになりました。リックの担当は、毎月第３土曜日です。今回は第２回目でした。農事組合法人エーベ理事となり頑張っている農民リック。温かく見守って下さい！
天使リックもええけど、夢に向かって邁進する農民リックも、ええべ〜♪♪
４月より石巻日日新聞さんの「潮音」（ちょうおん）というコラム欄を、半年間、月１で担当させて頂くことになりました。リックの担当は、毎月第３土曜日です。今回は第２回目でした。農事組合法人エーベ理事となり頑張っている農民リック。温かく見守って下さい！
天使リックもええけど、夢に向かって邁進する農民リックも、ええべ〜♪♪
Let's Cultivate the Future of Ajishima! (pt.1) -- May 21, 2016
When I was a young child I had a recurring dream: I would wake up on a sunny day and walk outside into a lush green garden full of vegetables and fruit trees, and then I would walk through a clearing and come upon a rice paddy. The sunshine was shimmering on the surface of the water, which rippled in a light breeze, while the rice stalks, heavy with seed, swayed rhythmically. Every time when I would wake up in the morning in the real world, I would have such a feeling of peace and contentment.
I forgot all about this recurring dream until only a few years ago. One striking thing about this dream is that I was born and raised in Michigan, a state known for growing lots of corn. There were no rice paddies near my home and probably none in the whole state. I don’t ever remember seeing an image of a rice paddy, so I am not sure how I even knew what one looked like.
Somehow that dream planted a seed in my mind, but it would take many years to germinate. After my wife and I married we talked about having a guesthouse and lots of gardens to grow delicious vegetables to serve to our guests. It wasn’t until just after the Great Tohoku Disaster that inspiration struck my wife: we should call our personal endeavors “Dream Seed Farms” or「夢の種」= yume no tane.
I had helped my wife’s family plant and harvest rice a few times in Iwate Prefecture, but I really didn’t know much about growing rice. However, one part of my childhood dream started to come true about three years ago. I made friends with two older guys on Ajishima, and we decided to try to grow rice for ourselves. Even though they are Japanese, of the three of us I had the most experience growing rice!
There are rice paddies on Ajishima, but they have not been used for about 45 years. When we started taking care of our first paddy, there were massive trees and thick weed growth all around. We spent many months just cutting trees and clearing weeds, and by the time it was ready to plant our first rice sprouts, which we started ourselves, we had a paddy a little smaller than 100 square meters (approx. 30ftx30ft). We have grown two small crops of rice so far and will plant this year’s later this month. We haven’t harvested much, but what we have harvested we offered to the shrine at the Spring festival. I am very thankful to my friends and our supporters for being able to make this part of my childhood dream come true.
The other part of my dream, the fields of colorful vegetables and magnificent fruit trees, started to come true just this past month. Michie and I became members of a farming enterprise called Ajishima ABE (pronounced /ay-bay/)「農事組合法人網地島エーベ」. Up until now, we have dabbled in growing a few vegetables in our own garden, but now we are doing it on a much larger scale. We are in the process of planting and growing ten kinds of vegetables, and also yuzu (citron, a type of Japanese citrus fruit), on about 1.5 acres of land! Ajishima ABE was created three years ago by a native of Ajishima, however he stepped down and a mutual acquaintance of ours became the new president. Michie and I joined up after that, and we have been working the fields since April. Just in the short time we have been farming, I can already see my dream coming true!
We have a great vision for Ajishima ABE. There is a need for nutritious and delicious food on Ajishima, due to the aging population, including the patients at the island’s hospital, not being able to grow their own food. We can meet those needs and at the same time grow and make many delicious value-added products as island specialties. We envision the "ABE" part of our name to stand for A.gricultural B.ased E.conomy. As farmers we need a place to sell our vegetables, so we are also planning on building a farm stand. It will be open to any islander to sell the vegetables they grow in the own fields along side the ones we grow, in a community market setting. This is one way we can move towards food self sufficiency on Ajishima. We may never reach 100% self-sufficiency, but that is perfectly ok with us, because doing everything by yourself is lonely! Ajishima ABE is not the most interesting brand name, so we considered a brand name that had a more important meaning: 網地島王国 or "Ajishima Kingdom." Our slogan is 「海の幸・山の幸・島の幸」or "Blessings from the sea, mountains and island" and we will showcase all kinds of products (not only food) grown and made on Ajishima.
Ajishima Kingdom comes from a saying the older islanders have about how everything is a little different on Ajishima compared to the rest of the country. Because we are isolated on an island we are like our own little kingdom. But, as I discovered, “no man is an island,” and we actually want to cultivate relationships with other people on and off the island. On that point, we are very interested in collaborating with volunteers with farming knowledge or just an interest to come and help us with the farm work. Additionally, as a start-up company with little or no money, we would like to consider receiving material donations to build our farm stand and our value-added kitchen. I can imagine utilizing two container houses, one for each building, so we can get started right away. We would need other building materials and food production machines/kitchen machines too. If you would like to consider supporting us, please contact us at www.ajishima-oukoku.weebly.com
I mentioned in my previous column, that I became quite depressed after the disaster. There is no one solution to getting better that would work for everyone, but what helped me, in addition to the many supportive people along the way, is getting outside and doing some healthy physical work. When cutting down the trees around our rice paddy, one of my friends said to me "Rick's strength is Ajishima's treasure." To that I would say, "Ajishima's support and sense of community are both my strength and my treasure." Because of this we can also envision inviting depressed people and hikikomori (Japanese shut-ins) to join us on the island and to spend some time in nature healing their hearts, minds and bodies. They can tend the fields with us, grow and eat healthy food, feel a sense of community and heal themselves. (to be continued...)
I forgot all about this recurring dream until only a few years ago. One striking thing about this dream is that I was born and raised in Michigan, a state known for growing lots of corn. There were no rice paddies near my home and probably none in the whole state. I don’t ever remember seeing an image of a rice paddy, so I am not sure how I even knew what one looked like.
Somehow that dream planted a seed in my mind, but it would take many years to germinate. After my wife and I married we talked about having a guesthouse and lots of gardens to grow delicious vegetables to serve to our guests. It wasn’t until just after the Great Tohoku Disaster that inspiration struck my wife: we should call our personal endeavors “Dream Seed Farms” or「夢の種」= yume no tane.
I had helped my wife’s family plant and harvest rice a few times in Iwate Prefecture, but I really didn’t know much about growing rice. However, one part of my childhood dream started to come true about three years ago. I made friends with two older guys on Ajishima, and we decided to try to grow rice for ourselves. Even though they are Japanese, of the three of us I had the most experience growing rice!
There are rice paddies on Ajishima, but they have not been used for about 45 years. When we started taking care of our first paddy, there were massive trees and thick weed growth all around. We spent many months just cutting trees and clearing weeds, and by the time it was ready to plant our first rice sprouts, which we started ourselves, we had a paddy a little smaller than 100 square meters (approx. 30ftx30ft). We have grown two small crops of rice so far and will plant this year’s later this month. We haven’t harvested much, but what we have harvested we offered to the shrine at the Spring festival. I am very thankful to my friends and our supporters for being able to make this part of my childhood dream come true.
The other part of my dream, the fields of colorful vegetables and magnificent fruit trees, started to come true just this past month. Michie and I became members of a farming enterprise called Ajishima ABE (pronounced /ay-bay/)「農事組合法人網地島エーベ」. Up until now, we have dabbled in growing a few vegetables in our own garden, but now we are doing it on a much larger scale. We are in the process of planting and growing ten kinds of vegetables, and also yuzu (citron, a type of Japanese citrus fruit), on about 1.5 acres of land! Ajishima ABE was created three years ago by a native of Ajishima, however he stepped down and a mutual acquaintance of ours became the new president. Michie and I joined up after that, and we have been working the fields since April. Just in the short time we have been farming, I can already see my dream coming true!
We have a great vision for Ajishima ABE. There is a need for nutritious and delicious food on Ajishima, due to the aging population, including the patients at the island’s hospital, not being able to grow their own food. We can meet those needs and at the same time grow and make many delicious value-added products as island specialties. We envision the "ABE" part of our name to stand for A.gricultural B.ased E.conomy. As farmers we need a place to sell our vegetables, so we are also planning on building a farm stand. It will be open to any islander to sell the vegetables they grow in the own fields along side the ones we grow, in a community market setting. This is one way we can move towards food self sufficiency on Ajishima. We may never reach 100% self-sufficiency, but that is perfectly ok with us, because doing everything by yourself is lonely! Ajishima ABE is not the most interesting brand name, so we considered a brand name that had a more important meaning: 網地島王国 or "Ajishima Kingdom." Our slogan is 「海の幸・山の幸・島の幸」or "Blessings from the sea, mountains and island" and we will showcase all kinds of products (not only food) grown and made on Ajishima.
Ajishima Kingdom comes from a saying the older islanders have about how everything is a little different on Ajishima compared to the rest of the country. Because we are isolated on an island we are like our own little kingdom. But, as I discovered, “no man is an island,” and we actually want to cultivate relationships with other people on and off the island. On that point, we are very interested in collaborating with volunteers with farming knowledge or just an interest to come and help us with the farm work. Additionally, as a start-up company with little or no money, we would like to consider receiving material donations to build our farm stand and our value-added kitchen. I can imagine utilizing two container houses, one for each building, so we can get started right away. We would need other building materials and food production machines/kitchen machines too. If you would like to consider supporting us, please contact us at www.ajishima-oukoku.weebly.com
I mentioned in my previous column, that I became quite depressed after the disaster. There is no one solution to getting better that would work for everyone, but what helped me, in addition to the many supportive people along the way, is getting outside and doing some healthy physical work. When cutting down the trees around our rice paddy, one of my friends said to me "Rick's strength is Ajishima's treasure." To that I would say, "Ajishima's support and sense of community are both my strength and my treasure." Because of this we can also envision inviting depressed people and hikikomori (Japanese shut-ins) to join us on the island and to spend some time in nature healing their hearts, minds and bodies. They can tend the fields with us, grow and eat healthy food, feel a sense of community and heal themselves. (to be continued...)
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