First, a study session on the basics
When we started Minna no Uen Kitakagaya, most participants were beginners at growing vegetables. In August 2012, we invited a farmer from the young farmers' association "4H Club" to lead a study session. We divided a crop's life into four stages, germination, vegetative growth, reproductive growth and storage, and learned what each needs. Much of it was new to the project members, and questions came from all around.
To the professionals' fields
We went not only within the farm but also to farmers' own sites. In September 2014, team course members traveled to Obama City in Fukui Prefecture. We were allowed to experience harvesting at the field of a farmer who grows sesame with no pesticides at all and without relying on machines. You have to cut carefully because the sesame spills if the pods tilt downward, then bundle it with straw and let it dry. There were so many age-old tricks.
In January 2015, as a farm trying pesticide-free organic cultivation, we visited three organic farmers in Osaka. Some protect their fields in residential areas only about a ten-minute walk from the station, and we heard stories of how there used to be many farms in the area. In December, we experienced lotus root harvesting at Bonsai Farm in Tsurumi Ward, Osaka City. Digging with special tools was far harder than we imagined, and we came to appreciate the value of lotus root deeply.
Linking the city's fields with the places where farming happens
Standing in a professional's field, you realize how small your own is. At the same time, you also see the role that only an urban field can play: shortening the distance between those who eat and those who grow, and taking home the hardships and joys of farming as an experience.
A community garden can be a gateway connecting nearby farmers with people in town. Our small trips to visit farmers were time spent adding those connections one by one.