The Hana Echizen harvest is well under way. We can see many fields that have been cleaned of their crop, leaving just an inch-high stubble to remind us of the bounties that it produced. Koshi Hikari is still maturing and won't be ready for another two weeks, but this early Hana Echizen is being cut, dried, taken to the elevators or cleaned and consumed. This new rice is called "shin mai" and is a real delicacy when it becomes available. The cooked rice is so soft, white, fluffy and full of flavor that one can imagine the nutrients that are being transferred from plant to human with every mouthful.

I have seen some places where they burn the stubble but that seems to be a thing of the past. In most cases it is left like you can see in this rice paddy for some time and then tilled under to allow aeration and nutrients to flow into the soil and help produce a better crop next year. Even the rice-husks are saved and spread over the fields for added fertilizer.

Everything about the rice field is wonderful: it starts as a field of beautiful flowering weeds that get tilled under and soaked so we can see a field of smooth, black mud. Then the seedlings are planted and we are surrounded by lakes of blue and green, reflecting the summer sun. The rice grows and the seas turn to solid green, growing in height and mutating in hues as the rice matures. After that we get a sea of golden brown just before harvest and finally a khaki-brown striped field as the rice is cut.

There are generally two ways of cutting the rice in Japan: one is by hand (this is rarely done anymore except for the corners of the plots and other places that are hard to reach for the machines) and the other is by combine. We can usually see two different types of combines at work in the fields. One is the smaller, more manual version which you were able to see Mr. Saito using last month to cut his crops. This combine costs about $20,000. That is the most common one owned by the majority of people. For the richer folk (those with bigger holdings), they go for the "gold" and get the "expensive machine", as it is lovingly called by the people who can't afford it. It is much larger and instead of having to bag each individual pile of rice by hand, there is a large holding tank inside the back of the machine. This beast drives along and scoops up the rice much like the smaller combine, but instead of sending it to bags, it holds it in the tank. When the tank is full, the driver heads on over to the truck parked by the side of the field, and transfers the cut rice through a pipe that is attached to the tank. This way seems more efficient and less back-breaking than using the smaller ones, however the cost can be prohibitive as this combine runs at about $100,000! There is also a smaller version of the same monster, which is about the same size as the cheaper one, but sports the handy spout for transferring larger amounts of rice to bigger bags that are in the back of the lorries.

September 6th

Once the rice is cut and chopped up, the bags are then taken to dryers. Usually the Hana Echizen is dried at home in smaller, community dryers that the neighbors all use together, helping one another out, but when the Koshi Hikari variety is harvested it is taken to grain elevators. This is big-time business, not some "home-grown" venture. Here we can see a cute storage building in Asahi-cho, Fukui. Notice the pleasant European decor...

September 8th

Not all of the rice stalk is chopped up and spread back on the field as you saw a little earlier this month. Some of it is tied into mini bales and either left standing in the field to dry, or hung on hand-built bamboo racks or nearby guard rails along the roads. I imagine this "hay" is then used for various home purposes such as bedding for fruit-bearing plants such as watermelon, pumpkin etc. during the following year's vegetable season, although I must admit I am not exactly sure what it is used for.

September 10th

Now that the Hana Echizen is nearly ready to be harvested, it's full head of kernels are almost too heavy for the tall, thin stalk and the rice tends to fall over, breaking at the stem. This makes it a little more difficult to cut as a worker has to walk in front of the machine and, with a long pole, lift the rice so the cones at the front can get under it and cut. This kind of pattern is reminiscent of the patterns one finds created by "alien beings" in many of the grain fields around the world. However, wind and rain and Mother Nature are more likely candidates. And in case you are wondering, that IS a Rover yes, dealer that you see in the background.

There are still a fair number of fields left to harvest in September. Some of the Koshi Hikari has been completed, some is left to do. The last batch to be taken off will be used for making "mochi", or a kind of sticky rice cake that tastes absolutely delicious baked for a few minutes in the toaster oven, then smothered in shoyu, or soy sauce. One time when we were living in Canada we made a mistake and bought mochi rice, thinking it was regular rice. When we cooked it and tried to take it out of the rice cooker we were shocked at how sticky and gooey it really is! It is great for snacks and extra carbohydrates.

The festival is to thank the gods of nature for the plentiful harvest and for not bringing any plagues or other disasters to the rice crop.	Around this time, there tend to be little "matsuries" or festivals in the local villages. Our area of Sanno is no exception. Today there is a matsuri being held at the local Shinto shrine. Last weekend the decorations were put up and today, in spite of the rain and the humidity, people are out drinking, singing on a hand-made stage, drinking Japanese sake, eating dried strips of squid and dancing around the streets carrying a miniature "omikoshi" or portable shrine. When night rolls in, the lights will be turned on and everyone will be pleasantly pickled and trying to sing their very on rendition of "My Way" on the stage as the Karaoke Party begins. I am afraid that I may be hornswaggled into singing as well if I am around (I am the worst singer in this part of Japan). You can see the "omikoshi" or portable shrine in the middle of the picture. It is almost ready to be carried from house to house so each family can experience the favor of the local god.
Here I am pointing out a closer shot of the Japanese characters on the paper "lanterns" that hang in the entryway to the shrine. In case you wonder, it says, "Ooyama Kami Jinja", the name of the shrine.
	The kids are all wearing their "happi" coats which used to be traditional workman's livery coats (the kind you see the shopkeepers wearing in the old Japanese movies) and there are smiles on their faces. These little villages are pretty quiet throughout the year so aside from school activities there really is not much for the kids to do; hence the happiness in their "happi" coats. The goofy kid holding the bat is our next door neighbor, Shohei Arakawa who is also a student of Mayu's. Do you recognize the "running boy" in the background? He made a cameo appearance in the Sanno Flood.

September 19th (my birthday)

Two days ago I was asking my student Hitomi about her family's rice and what they are doing now. Last Thursday she was absent from the class because she had to help her husband harvest their rice. This seems to be the process that takes place after harvesting:

The freshly cut rice gets dried in a machine at home (you already knew that). It takes about 4 to 5 hours to dry one full batch of rice. The temperature is fairly high but not too high to burn it. If there has been a lot of rain then it takes longer and if the sun has been out, it takes less time. Families keep the best rice for themselves. Also, machine drying reduces the taste of the rice so most families that keep a portion of rice for their personal use dry it in the sun in order to preserve the best flavor.

After drying, the rice gets separated from the chaff by a machine that brushes the rice and pulls off the outside shell. The rice goes into 30kg paper bags while the chaff goes back to the fields.

The bags of brown rice stay at home for two to three days, when they are then taken to the agricultural cooperative for quality control checks.

At the coop station, the rice is randomly sampled and then tested for water quantity, disease, size, and eventually categorized into three classes, the first being the best and therefore the most expensive. (As Hitomi was telling me this, her husband was having his rice checked at the very same moment).

This year, the quantity of rice in Fukui is low while the rice in the other two main rice-producing areas (Toyama, Niigata) suffered terrible floods and rainfall, causing the grain to be very low quality. But because there was a heavy amount of rain in Fukui as well, the quality, therefore the price is lower as well. The farmers will not be taking any luxury ocean liner cruises this winter.

Once the coop determines the value and quality of the rice, they will determine how much to pay and within one month or so, deposit the money into the farmer's bank accounts. After this, the commercial rice will be polished to make white rice, bagged and then distributed to various centers around the country.

Hitomi told me that they have a small rice operation and this year it yielded 6000kg of rice which they figure will gross them about 1 million Yen. Their total costs are roughly 30 - 50% of this cost annually.

The family rice will be kept as "brown rice" in order to preserve the rich taste of the rice for as long as possible. When they are ready to eat a bag, they will take it to a corner "rice cleaner", pay a few hundred yen and have the brown rice cleaned and turned into white rice (removing the bran from brown rice produces white pearl rice).