Harvest

A few months ago, I wrote about how our neighbor, an organic rice farmer here in Tochigi, invited the neighborhood kids to plant rice by hand.

A golden rice field ready for harvest, with a small wooden sign reading ディアス (Dias) in the foreground and houses along the horizon.

This weekend, we went back for the harvest. We spent the morning learning how to harvest rice the traditional way. Cutting the stalks by hand, gathering them into bundles, tying them together, and hanging them up to dry. (I'm good at cutting but terrible at tying)

Bundles of freshly cut rice stalks tied and hung over a metal pole to dry inside a farm shed.

The kids had a blast. Although I'm not sure what they enjoyed more: harvesting the rice or making their own mazes through the rice fields as they cut their way through.

After a morning of hard work, we sat down for lunch and ate onigiri (rice balls). We're not quite finished yet. In a few weeks, once the rice has dried, we'll head back to learn the final steps of separating the grains from the stalks and preparing the rice to eat.

A close-up of ripe rice grains hanging from green stalks.

From planting seedlings in the mud to harvesting the golden stalks, the kids are getting to experience the entire process firsthand. And just like I wrote after our first visit, I'm grateful to live in a community where people take the time to share these traditions with the next generation.