It's the sixth year since Taeko Tsuruoka, owner of "Farm NaZemi," started farming. She grows vegetables in the Awa region, located at the southern tip of Chiba Prefecture. The farm's name, NaZemi, has a mysterious ring to it. It comes from the Czech language, which Tsuruoka spoke when she lived in the Czech Republic. "Na" means "on," and "Zemi" means "ground," "country," or "earth."
Tsuruoka's experience in the Czech Republic was what inspired her to start farming.
"At the time, I was working at a trading company, but I felt a sense of unease, like I was just moving things around. I wanted to work on making things, but I'm more of a minimalist, and I don't like things that leave a material trace. I thought it would be better to make something perishable."
While searching for a way of life, she keenly felt abroad how much Japanese people love to eat.
"Including myself, Japanese people are always talking about how delicious something was back then, or where we should go to eat (laughs). Everyone loves to eat. Also, abroad, people often gather to cook and eat together, deepening their bonds. I thought that 'sharing a pot of rice' connection was wonderful. While thinking about all this, I naturally became interested in farming."
However, her family wasn't farmers, and she had no experience in agriculture. Naturally, the people around her opposed it.
"Everyone told me, 'Are you serious? It's impossible,' but I decided to give it a try. First, I returned to Japan and started helping farmers during harvest season. It was a short-term experience, like a busy season part-time job for students, lasting about half a year. I also registered with an agricultural temp agency. Once I started, I realized, 'I actually have a lot of stamina, I can do this!' (laughs)."
During her agricultural experience, she decided on a policy: "I want to grow the most essential thing for human life – food – so I don't want to use chemical fertilizers or pesticides if possible." After much research and experimentation, she arrived at a sustainable farming method and started farming in Miyoshi Village, close to her mother's birthplace.
"It's a place blessed by the sea and mountains, with a mild climate where organic farming is widespread. Festival rites are also popular in each district; if there's a festival on a weekday, children can even take a day off school. I wonder if there used to be a rice harvest holiday."
A drawback of fields located at the foot of the forest is damage from wild boars. Corn and taro, especially favored by boars, suffer from constant wildlife damage.
In several small, scattered fields across the Awa region, Tsuruoka grows heirloom and traditional vegetable varieties without any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. For fertilizer, she incorporates chicken manure from a friendly free-range poultry farmer (who doesn't use antibiotics) nearby, as well as mowed weeds and vegetable residues into the soil. Marigolds and basil are dotted throughout the fields as companion plants to deter insects. The grass-like plants thriving on the edges are sorghum for green manure.
The stress she once felt in the Czech Republic is now completely gone.
"Hyakusho-Yashiki Jiroemon," a friendly local poultry farm. Chicken manure from their free-range coops is used for compost.
"Of course, it's a job dependent on the weather, so my life is always full of worries. Taxes are increasing, I'm concerned about the declining birthrate, and I wonder if this country will be okay. But I don't have to deal with people's whims. I'm at the mercy of the weather, but there's no point getting angry about that."
In the fields we visited on the day of the interview, crops like David's Star okra, black eggplant, Malabar spinach, water spinach, shishito peppers, Manganji peppers, green eggplant, and Mexico Midget tomatoes were growing. Roselle and taro should be ready around autumn. The cucumber vines were withering, and the cucumbers, grown to the size of a human arm, were for seed saving.
"While I do grow F1 varieties for plants where seed saving is difficult, my basic philosophy is, if there are seeds, why not save them and grow them again? When I'm interested in a vegetable, I try cultivating it first to see if it suits this land. However, the heat of recent summers really makes you feel the limits of plants... Also, there's wildlife damage from the mountains around here, so I split the same vegetables across different fields to mitigate risk."
When asked what makes a good producer, Tsuruoka replied, "A producer who can bring out the potential of vegetables and think about the future of the region."
The hardest part of summer farm work is weeding. A lack of rain causes anxiety, but when it rains, there's a sudden large harvest, making it very busy. Everything depends on the weather.
"To achieve that, soil preparation is essential, isn't it? Abandoned farmland tends to deteriorate. I think it's important to do good things without overdoing it, and just wait patiently. I believe soil preparation takes about four years. All the vegetables I grow are proudly delicious. There are differences in taste during their early, peak, and late seasons, so I want people to experience the entire life cycle of these vegetables."
She plans to expand her fields and start rice farming in the near future.
"I think it's the same throughout Japan, but abandoned farmland is increasing, so I want to try rice cultivation. Doing rice cultivation means managing waterways and such, which entails becoming more involved with the local community."
In other words, it connects to the landscape of the region and even the environment of the nearby sea.
The "Na Zemi" website states:
"Plant seeds remember.
Seeds bred far away, across the world,
are sown in this land of Awa, take root, bloom, and bear fruit.
Then, leaving seeds behind, they return to the earth.
Repeating this for generations,
they become the 'Awa region vegetables' suited to this land.
We, too, wish to be like those seeds."
it says.
From Tsuruoka's dedication to her farm work, infused with the belief that "the earth is the country, the planet," a path to harmony and coexistence with nature and the local community emerges.
