June 09, 2003
Urban Farmer
The plot of land Mr. Ikenishi is preparing for planting with rice is diagonally opposite our house. On a visit to Kyoto my brother commented on what a shocking economic waste it was to be using valuable urban land to grow crops. I hope Mr. Ikenishi keeps wasting his money, because I'd rather have his paddy field near me than a new apartment block.
Urban farming here is quite intensive. The strawberries in the jam I put on my breakfast toast this morning were grown on that exact same plot and were harvested less than a week ago! (Click on the photo for a larger view.)
Long live Mr Ikenishi and his rice paddy!
Congratulations on your blog, it looks fantastic!!
Fusao
Posted by: Fusao at June 9, 2003 02:13 PMLong Live Mr. Ikenishi indeed! I'm going to carry my computer over to him the next time I see him over there and show him this page. It'll also be good to see how far the Airport wireless system works from the house!
Posted by: Joe at June 9, 2003 02:56 PMI am the brother cited. So long as you (and others)are able to afford to pay for those strawberries, Mr Ikenishi will continue to till the land. The problem comes when say Tesco* turns up with super efficient distribution and much lower prices for strawberries, jam, rice and everything else for that matter and you (and others) shift your preferences ...
* Tesco have just bought C Two Network in Japan
Posted by: John Banerjee at June 11, 2003 08:39 PMWe get our strawberries free (at least at the end of the season anyway) because we know a certain farmer. ;+) Point taken, but Tesco will never get anywhere trying to get the price of rice down. The "Everything else" will be a doddle!
Posted by: Joe at June 11, 2003 08:48 PM