Director's Blog
Representative Director Yasutaka Kaneda writes about daily life on the farm and what he is thinking about community building.
Soy sauce brewed in the middle of the city
A handmade soy sauce we have kept making at the Kitakagaya farm since 2016. Every year, 20 to 35 people gather and spend about ten months raising a single barrel of soy sauce.
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Easy medicinal cuisine to care for your body with vegetables from the field
At the Kitakagaya farm, we have held medicinal cuisine classes since the very beginning. It is everyday self-care you can do with ingredients from the supermarket.
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Small items rescued from a demolished building, and firewood from salvaged lumber
When we demolished a long-vacant building in Neyagawa to turn the site into a farm, we rescued what we could keep. The pillars that came out of the demolition also became firewood for our stone oven.
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A time to receive the life of the mountains in the middle of the city
"Butchering an animal" and game-meat cooking classes, held every year at the Kitakagaya farm. Through the lives of deer and wild boar, we thought about the link between city and mountains.
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A Record of Studying the Microbes in Our Farm's Soil Together
Together with the Bio Research team at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), we used metagenomic analysis to study the microbes living in the soil of our Kitakagaya farm.
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Making natto and salt by hand: a workshop on fermentation and preservation
Natto wrapped in lotus leaves, and salt crystals drawn from brine. At the farm, we held a workshop on making basic foods by hand.
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A marché of food, farming and art opens on a former shipyard site
"Minna no Uen Festival," held since 2013 on the former site of the Namura Shipyard in Kitakagaya. A marché where the farmers and restaurants who have supported us come together.
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Meditating in the Field and Creating the Farm's Scent
A morning meditation session on the farm, and the development of aroma oils that capture the farm's scenery. The field became a place to restore body and mind as well.
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A one-of-a-kind wild plant guide made with after-school kids
"We want our children to have more experiences with nature." Responding to a request from a nearby after-school club, we held a workshop at the Kitakagaya farm to make a wild plant guide.
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The farm's table: bring something, cook together, eat together
From a potluck pizza festival by the member-run cooking circle "Kondate-bu" to a potluck BBQ welcoming new members. This is the story of the meals we shared with our friends in the field.
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Products created by members from the field's vegetables
"We want to share delicious food with more people." Here we introduce the efforts of the farm members' voluntary circles, the "Product Development Club" and the "Curry Development Club."
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A first field experience for parents and kids: a three-month-only vegetable course
For people who are curious but find it hard to take the first step, we opened a course where you can try growing vegetables with staff support. Many of the participants were parents with their children.
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Bucket paddies for growing rice from Sumiyoshi Taisha
The "Kome Kome Club," where everyone grows rice on a farm in the middle of a residential area. We started by watching the rice-planting ritual at Sumiyoshi Taisha.
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Talking about community building with the people who come to see the field
University seminar groups, and citizens and government staff from other cities, have visited the Kitakagaya farm. As we showed them around, we ourselves learned a great deal.
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Art Compost Ju-ko: Thinking About the Cycle of Soil Through Art
More than a year of an art program with Yodogawa Technique produced a work that serves as both compost bin and toilet.
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Minna Cargo: the farm's "mobile seat," made with a citizens' workshop
"We'd like squatting work to be easier." From this request by farm members, we made "Minna Cargo" together with an artist and the citizens' workshop FABLAB Kitakagaya.
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Learning from farmers: the wisdom of our seniors in the field
From study sessions with young farmers to visits to organic farmers and harvesting sesame and lotus root. Together with farm members, we went out to learn at professionals' sites.
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The story of building a stone oven together in the middle of the field
We wanted to bake pizza topped with freshly picked vegetables right next to the field. Out of that long-held wish, members built a stone oven with their own hands.
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Minna no Uen Exercise, before the field work
In an art program with the theatre company Kodomo Kyojin, we created the "Minna no Uen Exercise" from the movements and memories of farm members.
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Art that keeps growing crops: Osamu Kokufu's "Parabolic Farm"
At the Kitakagaya farm there is a field shaped like a parabolic antenna. This is about the work of contemporary artist Osamu Kokufu and the 2014 memorial exhibition.
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A Field Grown with Children from an After-School Day Service
To Rise Meet, an after-school day service in Kitakagaya, uses the farm as a group and has been making lunch from the vegetables they harvest once a month.
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A children's cooking class: grow from seed, cook, and eat together
From making the field to sowing, harvesting, cooking and sharing the meal. A look back at the "children's cooking class that starts from seed," which we kept running at the Kitakagaya farm.
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