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This is the first year we have grown peanuts, with apparent great sucess! Have you ever seen a bigger peanut?
Kou Okuma, our newest assistant joined us in the fields today for a bit of fall harvesting. Kome, the kitten abandoned on our doorstep last week also helped out by catching some crickets.
We found the best drying space for our herbs is in a well lit and aerated space. 5 days drting on our stage our herbs are crisp and green and ready for packaging. Move over Elvis, Mr. Mint is here!
This year's crop of eggplant is our best ever! The marigolds help keep away the moths and nematodes. Tonight we feasted on eggplants marinated in garlic and roasted over a pine fire. Mmmmmmm.
This is how we do our little permaculture....the sheep cut the grass, the mint keeps away the bugs, and the nasturtium protects the eggplants. so simple.
Our eggs were mysteriously disappearing. One Sunday we found the culprit asleep inside the chicken coop. Jake took the large grass snake for a walk into the woods and had a long talk with him. We tried to be kind but forceful, explaining we didnt mind sharing a few eggs, but taking them all for his fat snake self was just not fair. Seems to have worked as the snake hasn't been seen since!
私たちの卵を不思議に消えていた。 1日は、鶏小屋の中に眠って原因を発見した。ジェイクは、森に散歩には大きな蛇草を取り、彼とは長い話をしていた。我々が強制的なことに、私たちの心を数個の卵を共有didn't説明試みたが、すべての脂肪ヘビ自衛のために公正なことだけではありませんでした。蛇として働いているようだから見ていない！
Our three years of planting, weeding and tending our raspberry canes have paid off. This year we ate lots of fresh berries, made jam, shakes, and a couple sweet raspberry cakes. This fall we will be harvesting the leaves and adding them to a mixed tea with our mint. The raspberry leaves have certain medicinal properties for women's cycles especially.
Basil Cake? Probably ours is not the first in the world, but maybe the best. The Solar Cafe farm is full of basil these days. Natsuco has been making an amazing Pesto with peanuts. We have plenty of baby basil in pots for guests to take home too.
共生植物,コンパニオン プラント
One of our basic permaculture and organic techniques is Companion Planting. Certain herbs and vegetables grow well together and reduce the need for fertilizer and pesticides by producing compounds that aid each other in growth, discourage insects, and can improve flavor. Instead of 'mono-culture' fields where only one crop is grown, we plant companions together in rows. For example marigolds prevent certain insects and nematodes (round worms) from attacking plants. Our eggplants are planted between rows of onions. And nasturtium surrounds our peppers, protecting them from aphids while giving us delicious flowers and leaves for our salads. In the foreground of this picture you can also see our hedge or oregano that surrounds the vegetable field, providing us with herbs for our pizza sauce and salad dressing, and also discouraging bugs from attacking our crops.
Cabbage is very hard to grow without chemical because of the "aomushi" cabbage moth. This small white moth loves laying eggs on cabbage leaves and the large green caterpillars that result can eat an entire field in days. We have been trying to convince our neighbors to go organic for years, but they say it is impossible. So we are trying to develop a technique to grow organic cabbages by planting them between rows of mint. The cabbage moth dislikes the menthol oil of mint, and hopefully our mint stalks will sufficiently hide the young cabbage plants from the marauding moths. If we are successful, we will bring by the locals and encourage them to follow a similar practice. The other advantage is that the mint serves as a cover crop, lessening the need for weeding and herbicides, and produces a valuable crop in the unused spaces between the cabbage rows.
We have started baking Emiko's amazing Irish Soda Bread every week and our new little bread shop "Chikyu No Panya" and plant nursery is open for business. Fresh breads available every weekend. Try the Oregano or Cinnamon Raisin and you will never go back to white bread. The shop also has all types of plants in pots for your home garden or balcony; raspberries, mint, basil, oregano, dill and more....
After years of no-till farming, this year we finally decided to try a bit of roto-tilling and find that for certain plantings, a bit of tilling goes a long way. Natsuco our field manager is here trying her hand at turning soil to break up the weeds and fertilize the soil for a new of Raspberries. Next volunteers Diane and Carol dig a trench to mix in our home-made horse manure fertilizer before planting.
After 8 years of little by little, this year our shop is finally full home-made goods from our team. Kanda-sans little organic rice farm has grown and he is now offering packs of 7 grain rice and black rice in the shop. Miho's Ramon tree nuts from her small naitve women's fair-trade cooperative in Guatemala, are now branded in Japan as MayaNuts, and her NGO Tierra Madre is selling the flour for baking all over Japan. The proceeds help buy and protect native forests. Come try MayaNuts cake with local wild honey at the cafe! The wild honey is harvested by Izuru's dad in Kawaguchiko, also in packs with honey combs in our shop. Shoko's home spun neon hats still available. And her latest, Thai Fisherman style pants, made from old kimonos. Some of the silk is actual gold obi material her grandfather wove years ago. Classic.
Earth Embassy's Mint Tea is HERE! 地球大使館のミントティーはこちらです！
At long last, after 3 years of planting, planning, pruning and preparing, we proudly offer our 100%, All-natural, no-chemical mint grown on MT Fuji in Yamanashi. Our mellow mix of white peppermint and spearmint make for a smooth tea, hot or iced, and the special apple mint we add is so sweet you wont need sugar!
ついに、植栽、計画、準備中の3年後の剪定と、誇らしげに、当社の100 ％、すべての自然を提供する化学ミント富士山の山梨県で栽培。ホワイトペパーミントとスペアミントのまろやかなミックス当社の円滑な紅茶、ホットまたはアイスで、私たちを追加して、特別なリンゴミントwont必要があるので、砂糖は甘い！
We would like to tell you it is Organic, but we cant as the word is certified by the government and the inspection and registration will cost us about $3000. SO until then, you'll have to take our wrod for it, its darn good!
Available by mail-order in 10 tea bag packages. Contact us for pricing and ordering info. info@earthembassy.org Tel. (81) 0-90-9346-3774
私たちは有機なのかわかりますしたいと思いますが、その言葉は、政府と私どもの検査とregisrtationによって認定されている価格は約￥30,000をカント。それまでのSO 、あなたはそれを私たちのwrodを取る必要があるでしょう、そのせい良い！
メールで使用可能な- 10ティーバッグのパッケージでご注文ください。お問い合わせ価格や情報発注。電話info@earthembassy.org 。 （ 81 ） 0-90-9346-3774
Local friends often come by on Sunday to help out with our fields. Hitoshi lives nearby in a 200 year old house he has made into a cute little gallery and lounge space, and often comes by the Embassy to help out with events and eco-homes work. He works at the local fruit farms picking cherries in summer and has also become the slow-life handy-man for the little village at Shojiko, and helps the grandmas with any house and yard chores for 800yen an hour (cheap! they love him) plus snacks. Hitoshi is the master of living the good slow life. He left the 9-5 world of Yokohama and now runs his occasional business from 10-3 only. He and Jeannie spent the day helping taking care of some of our baby trees. Are they working or chatting? Hitoshi's shirt looks a little too clean here...
Volunteer Sarah helps Jake with planting some radish starts. We tried a little companion planting experiment, putting the sprouts along the sides of the already planted potato rows.
We are lucky to have such great staff and volunteers. Marty and Michelle came to help this spring and have been key to helping us get the cafe open for the season and the farm planted and growing. Marty is a mechanical engineer and will be going to Germany this fall to get his masters degree in renewable energy. Michelle is a professional educator and aspiring yoga sensei. They are hard workers and enjoy taking care of the hardest job we have, keeping our sheep out of the neighbors cabbage fields!
山梨はめっきり秋の空気が漂い、夜はセーターを手放せなくなってまいりました。
ミントファームは、今収穫まっさかりです。
そんな中、一緒にミント畑のケアをお手伝いいただける人を募集しています。
お仕事は、
雑草抜き、ミントの収穫、ドライにする作業、それをパッケージにする作業 暖炉のための巻き割りなど。
ひとつひとつが人の手が必要な作業のため、お手伝いしてくれる田舎暮らしをしてみたい人募集です。
都会にはないきれいな空気のなかで 畑仕事 してみませんか。
詳細は、メールでお願いします。
edenfarmschool@yahoo.co.jpまで。
Our Mint Master Hiromi is here in her new drying space. She built racks on a shoestring budget and is drying nearly a kilo per week. Come up for tea anytime, or visit the HappyAll refelxology shops in Shibuya and Shinagawa for a fresh organic mint foot bah and massage!
Lost 9 kilos, read 12 books, dug 20 lanes, ate shamefully most of the berries grown on the field while nobody was looking, that’s how we will remember our last long term volunteer, Fernando, on his way now to Argentina for new adventures.
Summer months are not only great to climb Fuji-san, but also the most rewarding when it comes to pickup the fruits from months of hard work around the fields. Around the Solar Café and on the fields, everything is blooming and giving juicy nature sweets that will eventually end up as a toping for one of the Café’s home made cake.
Right now we are growing three types of mint: pepper mint, apple mint and spear mint.
It all starts with growing roots from the existing mint by placing some of them in water. The process takes only a couple of weeks really.
Then we place them in the greenhouse during some weeks for them to grow strong and beautiful.
We dig lanes about 30 cm deep where we place the fertilizer from the local stable manures mixed with soil, and use the straw from tatamis to prevent weeds from growing around.
After a month or two we get happy bushes of mint.
We have built a dryer where the mint will rest for a couple of days until it is ready to be cut and packed.
It surely takes space to grow tomatoes and cucumbers. Any greenhouse would look small really because those vegetables grow as big as they grow fast. The process for the tomatoes starts the same way than for mint, growing roots by placing them into water.
...and of course a little bit of basil won't hurt...
No party is needed really to attract special guests around the farms here. They pretty much invite themselves whenever they feel like. Deers, foxes and snakes can be seen crossing roads and fields, but usually run away the moment someone is coming their way. On the other hand, others feel frankly at home, from the butterflies inspecting the mint fields, to the flies testing the sweetness of the raspberries. Here are some of our daily partners.
Kuku our little black chicken, joined us from the forest 5 years ago, today!!! He was a wild chicken living alone in the forest until the day we saw him wandering around the yard. He became friends with our other chickens that evening and has lived with us ever since. The foxes got all the others, but Kuku sleeps up in the pine and has managed to be the last surviving chicken! Good job Kuku!!! We are always happy to hear your calling at 2am, 3am, 4am, etc. We promise not to eat you even though you are such an early riser. Hope to have you around for your birthday next year too!
As we get ready to say 'goodbye' to Adam and Adam, we are happy to say 'welcome' to Fernando, our new long term volunteer. Fernando is from Spain, but has spent the majority of his life traveling and living in different countries around Europe. In a past life, Fernando operated his own media company but now prefers work that benefits the greater good. We have no doubt that he will be a great help in our fields over the next few months. Welcome, Fernando!
Please welcome Hiromi, our new field manager. Hiromi grew up in Osaka before moving to Tokyo. After years of working in an office, she decided to come work at the Earth Embassy's organic farm to help attain her goal of one day living a completely self-sufficient lifestyle.
Organic farming means growing food without dangerous chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Modern agriculture uses large amounts of very dangerous chemicals that are harmful to our bodies and create cancer, infertility, etc. These chemicals not only harm human bodies, they also poison the environment. They kill not only harmful bugs and weeds, but also beneficial plants and animals. The birds, fish and amphibians living in forests and streams near agricultural land are also killed.
Many people believe we cannot grow food without chemicals. But all the farms in the world were 100% organic until 50 years ago. If we look to the fields of our grandparents, we can combine their wisdom with modern techniques and find a new way to grow enough food to feed the world, without destroying it for future generations.
Natural fertilizers from Local Resources - We use horse and cow manure from nearby farms, green waste from our kitchens, and leaves from our forest.
Safe Pesticides - Our pesticides are not dangerous chemicals, but based on herbs, flowers, hot peppers, garlic, vinegar, milk, etc. This means healthy food and a healthy eco system.
Companion planting - means growing crops together that are beneficial to each other. Instead of planting a large area with only one crop, we mix small areas of different crops。This helps to keep pests from over populating. For example, around our apple trees we plant lettuce. And between the rows of lettuce we plant mint. The leaves that fall from the trees help fertilize the lettuce and mint. Spiders and birds that live in the apple trees eat bugs that would damage the lettuce and mint. The lettuce and mint cover the soil to help retain water for the trees. And the mint helps keep away insects that would eat the lettuce. And from one piece of land, we get three crops!
No Till Farming. The bacteria and worms that live in soil are very important for creating fertile soil for crops. Modern farms use tractors to till (mix) the soil every year, but this kills bacteria and disrupts the natural layers that allow the worms and bacteria to prosper. The soil becomes unhealthy and thus needs more fertilizers. We farm without using heavy machinery and tractors. Our crops are planted in small holes while leaving the surrounding soil layers intact. This preserves the natural soil eco-system and allows us to grow on the same soil indefinitely without using chemicals.
Sheep Tractor. In addition to giving us wool, our 2 sheep, Rueben and Eva,help out in many ways around the farm. They help clear wild grasses and rose bushes for area that we are making new fields. They eat all of our green waste from the kitchen, and their droppings (manure) help fertilize our soil. They live in a series of fenced in plots. We rotate them from plot to plot, so that while they are living in one plot and fertilizing it, the other plots can be planted with vegetables, which grow amazingly well thanks to the sheep fertilizer. The fences that keep the sheep in then act in reverse to keep wild pigs and deer out, protecting the crops.
Rain Water Collection. Did you realize that when you pour yourself a glass of water from the tap, you are using oil? Our public water supply (suido) goes through pumping stations that use electricity to bring the water to your house. This electricity is made from fossil or nuclear fuels. And the chemicals that are added to the water, such as chlorine, also come from petro-chemical plants.
Why should you have to burn oil to grow a carrot? We use rainwater collection barrels and ponds in our fields to gather and store rain for watering crops. Our rain water barrels are recycled wine barrels that we get for free. We also use drip lines to bring water directly to the base of the plants, reducing water use and loss to evaporation.
