Based on farming methods passed down through generations, and with continuous improvements, they mainly cultivate herbs and Western vegetables.Yamamatsu Suzuki FarmI went on a farm tour of "[Name of farm]!"
We have been distributing lifestyle-related information, mainly focusing on luxury resort hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants both domestically and internationally. However, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to travel abroad or even outside our prefecture as freely as we would like. Therefore, we have started an initiative to connect producers and chefs across Japan, based in Shizuoka Prefecture where we live, as we do what we can despite the pandemic.
Let's have Shigenori Suzuki, the farm owner who has been growing vegetables for about 30 years, give us a tour of his farm!
Here, while greenhouse cultivation is the main method, they also cultivate in open fields, and you can find seasonal vegetables grown in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, as well as herbs and vegetables that can be grown year-round!
First, we'll have a harvesting experience in a greenhouse where we'll grow "zucchini with flowers," a summer vegetable that can be cultivated from early May to July!
Normally, zucchini with flowers is best harvested before sunrise to maximize its flavor, so this is an exception.
Zucchini is a type of pumpkin belonging to the gourd family, and is also known as "bush pumpkin."
As the name suggests, it doesn't have vines and doesn't grow vertically, but its large leaves spread out profusely horizontally, so it seems that each plant needs ample space for each bulb!
Zucchini with flowers are characterized by the texture of the petals and the subtle sweetness of the young fruit. They are often used in French and Italian restaurants in dishes such as "stuffed zucchini flowers" and "fried zucchini flowers," but they are not commonly found in regular supermarkets, so it's quite a novel experience to see the cultivation process while they are still in bloom!
The fruit swells after pollination, which is performed manually, allows pollen from the stamen to attach to the pistil.
They gave me some cute little zucchini of different sizes, saying that fritters made with tiny baby zucchinis before they grow big are the most delicious, so I'd like to try making them at home!
When harvesting zucchini with flowers, the value of the product is ruined if the petals are damaged, so they are handled with the utmost care and shipped as a precious product.
By plucking the flowers, the zucchini takes on the appearance we usually see!
Next, we head to the greenhouse where they grow striped beans!
Knowing Mr. Suzuki's passion for vegetables, chefs sometimes make requests like, "We want you to grow this kind of vegetable or that kind of vegetable." Initially, he would purchase seeds and grow them by trial and error, having the chefs who frequently visit his farm sample them to select only the best ones. From there, he would save the seeds himself and continue growing them, establishing the current quality over many years. Mr. Suzuki says that the vegetables here have been built up through repeated interactions with these chefs.
Incidentally, Mr. Suzuki referred to the chefs as "cooks."
That somewhat nostalgic sound was gently etched into my memory, and I felt as if I had touched upon Mr. Suzuki's gentle personality.
This farm embodies the ideal model of vegetable cultivation, where farmers who actually grow the vegetables and chefs who prepare them deliciously collaborate to create the perfect vegetable dish.
Apparently, striped green beans, which have black stripes on their pods, are considered the finest variety of green beans in France.
These striped green beans are harvested when they are slender, giving them a delicate feel that you can appreciate when you hold them.
When heated, these stripes disappear, but the beans turn a vibrant green, and because they are harvested while still slender, they are not stringy and you can enjoy the natural sweetness of the beans!
This farming method involves meticulously checking the growth process daily, maintaining the field in good condition, and performing almost all of the work by hand.
The repeated bending and straightening of the waist puts a strain on the body.
No matter how much time, effort, and care you put into growing the vegetables, it's all for nothing if you don't have a place to put the harvested vegetables.
This farm was also hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, facing a difficult situation and suffering a major blow last March. However, they are determined to persevere and are diligently working on their cultivation.
In any available space, they sow and cultivate new seeds as an "experiment," and are also focusing on discovering new vegetables with the desire to grow and share delicious vegetables not only in Japan but all over the world.
This is the adorable "Onion Blanche" with its small, charming spheres.
It has a high water content, and if you bite into it raw, you can enjoy its juicy freshness and sweetness!
Although it has a slightly spicy aftertaste, it can be eaten raw and is delicious.
Cooking it brings out its sweetness and gives it a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture, and its small size makes it a popular vegetable for use as a garnish.
Actually, this farm has a trademarked vegetable called "Onion Nouveau," which is one of their signature vegetables, but since it's only available from December to March, I'll have to look forward to trying it next year!
"Roasted Kinshou chicken thigh with grilled bamboo shoots, onion blanche, and colorful carrots, served with a new onion sauce."
Freshly harvested onion blanches and colorful carrots immediately made their appearance as garnishes for our main dish at home! Kinshou chicken thighs were roasted until crispy and fragrant with bamboo shoots, while the meat remained tender and juicy. The onion blanches and colorful carrots were placed in a stone oven and slowly grilled at 400 degrees. The onion blanches had a sweet flavor and a melt-in-your-mouth texture, making them a star in their own right, while the colorful carrots, grilled with their skins on, had a fluffy texture like potatoes and were incredibly sweet and fragrant! Even if there was a child who disliked vegetables, I'm sure they would eat these... The flavors were so good that I truly felt that including vegetables like these on the table contributes to food education!
The plants covered with netting to protect them from the wind were arugula (also known as rocket salad), a year-round herb.
This arugula, with its slightly spicy kick that adds a nice accent to salads, has a sesame-like flavor. This particular variety has been specially prepared for salads, becoming softer and having its bitterness and spiciness reduced.
Comparing arugula grown inside a net (right) with arugula that unexpectedly grew outside the net (left), you can see a remarkable difference in leaf texture and flavor!
Arugula that grows wild in the wind has tough leaves and a bitter or astringent taste, whereas arugula carefully cultivated in a net has soft, delicate leaves, a pleasant aroma, and a delicious taste with a hint of bitterness amidst its freshness!
The compost, which is fundamental to soil preparation, is piled high in the compost shed, quietly resting and waiting for its time to be used.
Here, they use compost from Kawai Farm in Mikkaichi. The farm feeds its cows high-quality feed necessary for their health, and the manure is mixed with sawdust and carefully turned (stirred) over and over again to ensure that there is no insufficient fermentation. As a result, this compost has absolutely no smell! I was surprised by this! They take particular care to avoid bothering their neighbors with smells and noises.
The farm uses high-quality, fully matured compost that has been left to ferment for several months in this compost shed.
If compost is spread on the field while it's still fermenting, it will continue to ferment in the soil, raising the soil temperature and damaging the roots of vegetables. Also, because it's made from feces and urine, the high ammonia content is not good for vegetables.
To cultivate crops in this area, which utilizes the unique characteristics of immature dune soil, soil improvement is thoroughly carried out by spreading plenty of high-quality, fully matured compost. By adding compost, nitrogen and minerals are supplemented, bringing the immature dune soil, which is unique to this area, up to a good state. As a result, the roots of the vegetables grow better, and delicious vegetables are produced!
When you step on the soil that has been improved, it springs back like a sponge! Apparently, mixing compost into sandy soil creates a sponge-like texture that helps retain the right amount of moisture. In addition, safe and secure well water from the Tenryu River system, which is also used as drinking water in the surrounding area, is used for cultivation, providing the fields with the appropriate nutrients.
Let's also take a look at the fields where crops are grown outdoors!
A field of fennel with lush leaves swaying in the wind!
Fennel, known as Fenouil in English, Fenouil in French, Finocchio in Italian, and Uikyo in Japanese, is a plant belonging to the Apiaceae family and the genus Foeniculum. It has been widely used as food and medicine since ancient Greek and Roman times.
Fennel is widely used as a spice and herb. The leaves can be used in salads, fish marinades, and meat dishes, while the stems and root bulbs, which are delicious eaten raw or pickled, can be used in soups. The flowers are not only for ornamental purposes but can also be eaten, and aromatic oil can be extracted from the seeds. Therefore, every part of the fennel plant—flowers, leaves, stems, root bulbs, and seeds—can be used without waste!
Amidst the delicate, feathery leaves, yellow buds are in bloom. The small, umbrella-shaped flowers make a lovely garnish for dishes, and their sweet, refreshing fragrance, similar to anise, is so intoxicating.
These red ones are called "Beets Chioggia" (spiral beets).
These beets originate from the Chioggia region of Italy. Their white and pink spiral-shaped interior makes for a visually appealing cross-section, making them perfect for salads!
"Caesar salad with seasonal vegetables: Beet Chioggia (spiral beets), frilly lettuce, kale, red and yellow bell peppers, striped beans, and Lovely Sakura (red and yellow cherry tomatoes)"
I also tried making this into a salad at home, and just adding these "beet chioggia" (spiral beets) makes a huge difference!
I thoroughly enjoyed the rich and flavorful taste!
While participating in the harvesting experience, I also got to hear stories about common experiences on farms, and the fulfilling day passed by in a flash.
The "Inca's Awakening" potato variety has beautiful purple flowers.
While Hokkaido is the main source of these potatoes, they also ship potatoes grown here during the off-season. The flesh is a vibrant golden color, and it is characterized by its sticky sweetness and rich flavor, similar to chestnuts, making it highly recommended for mashed potatoes!
This is our original cultivation method, a hybrid of shallots and onions, resulting in a variety of leaf onion called "Hamamatsu no Shizuku" (Dewdrop of Hamamatsu).
While it has a spicy taste when eaten raw, when cooked, it develops a sticky texture and you can enjoy its sweetness and rich flavor!
These are spring onions that can be enjoyed from March to May, around the time when the onion nouveau season ends.
The farm is very quiet before sunset, and for a farm that starts early in the morning, it seems as if the vegetables are peacefully resting underground at this time of day.
The round shape of the onion flower head is adorable, resembling the fluffy seed head of a dandelion.
I've heard they're delicious when deep-fried, but these are left for seed collection and are not for eating.
There are still other fields on the farm, but let's come and visit them in a different season!
The harvesting experience, where we learned about the process of how vegetables are grown, was very educational!
Mr. Suzuki, thank you so much for giving us this valuable harvesting experience!
When I returned to the office shed, Earl Grey, the managing director of Yamamatsu Suzuki Farm and a Weimanara bird, greeted me with a magnificent cry!
The Weimaraner is a hunting dog with drooping ears and a glossy, beautiful gray coat.
With a solid skeletal structure and beautifully sculpted muscles, they maintain a dignified and elegant posture.
Weimaraners are very intelligent and affectionate towards their families, but they are often wary of strangers and tend to keep their distance.
"If he comes two or three more times, he'll get used to it," said Ms. Suzuki. Let's have him come over so he can get used to us!
On a different day, as a thank you for visiting the farm, we invited Mr. Suzuki to our home BBQ, and he came with lots of freshly picked vegetables!
This selection includes long, beautiful, colorful carrots, freshly picked zucchini and baby zucchini, the world's earliest harvested, limited-time onion nouveau, magnificent broad beans, and other seasonal vegetables that represent spring and summer!
This BBQ was held in Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture.Toriichi Meat ShopEnjoy the rare "Aichi Duck," a brand of duck that is the pride of [the company/organization], along with seasonal vegetables from "Yamamatsu Suzuki Farm," which pursues deliciousness and safety that you can't find anywhere else!
"Canapés with Aichi duck prosciutto, kumquat marmalade, and cream cheese"
This prosciutto, hand-salted and cold-smoked with natural beech wood chips before being aged in a maturation cellar, is sliced a little thicker than usual at 2.5mm to allow you to fully enjoy the delicious flavor of Aichi duck. The light fat, with a melting point of 26 degrees Celsius, melts on your tongue, and the more you chew, the more the delicious flavor of the duck spreads! The deliciousness is doubled when paired with homemade kumquat marmalade and cream cheese, which emit a refreshing aroma!
"Slow-cooked Aichi duck with salad"
The Aichi duck, cooked at a low temperature, is already seasoned, so we slice it thickly and serve it with coarsely ground black pepper! Because it's cooked slowly at a low temperature, it has a moist texture that you can enjoy like tataki, and it's so delicious you'll want to savor every bite!
The salad is made colorful with torn lettuce, cucumber, radish, and julienned yellow spiral beets. The earthy aroma and rich, slightly bitter flavor of the spiral beets provide a nice accent!
"Hida beef shin-shin with myoga ginger and shiso leaf"
Shinshin is a rare cut of meat, with only about 2kg obtainable from one cow. Its texture is fine-grained and incredibly tender, requiring no chewing. It has just the right amount of fat for a delicious, flavorful lean meat that will make you groan with pleasure. As you get older, you'll definitely crave lean meat more than kalbi.
Vegetables grilled over binchotan charcoal retain their moisture and are cooked through to a tender perfection, with an extraordinary aroma and sweetness that elevates them from mere palate cleansers between meat dishes to a delicacy in themselves!
"Grilled Aichi Duck Breast"
I made small cuts in the skin, and it was grilled to perfection, with a crispy, fragrant skin and tender, juicy flesh!
Aichi duck, with a fat melting point of 26 degrees Celsius, has healthy, flavorful fat, and boasts an exquisite, mellow, and rich taste!
Try grilling half of the chicken at a time, experimenting with both slightly rare and medium-rare cooking methods, and also try eating it sliced thinly and thickly to experience the different flavors!
This duck meat has great potential, so I tried enjoying it simply seasoned with just salt and pepper, but changing the cooking method and cutting method brought out different depths of flavor, and both were absolutely delicious! If I had to say, my personal preference is to cut it so thickly that it barely fits in my mouth, so I can keep stuffing my face with it forever (lol).
Sharing a meal with farmers who produce delicious food was a truly blissful experience!
Mr. Suzuki, I'm looking forward to seeing you again next time!
Yamamatsu Suzuki Farm
Location: 725 Shinohara-cho, Nishi-ku, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture
TEL: 053-447-5794 (Suzuki)
https://yamamatsu.net/
