[No. 386] The Season of Harvest is Here Again—The Cycle of the Year Taught by Blueberries 🫐🌿
Summer is now in full swing.
The strong sun shines on the garden, and the sound of cicadas echoes from the morning.
The blueberries that bloomed in spring have borne small fruits, which have gradually turned a bluish-purple.
And this year, too, we have safely reached the day of harvest.
Every time I hold the fruit that has grown over the course of a year, I feel that "this season has come around again."
When you keep a garden, the harvest is not the finish line.
It is also a new beginning that connects to the next year.
📖 Articles themed around the garden are collected in a magazine.
Please take a look at this as well if you like👇
👉 Tilling, Living—Records of Renji Enko's Garden
We have reached the day of harvest again this year 🫐🌿
Blueberries do not all ripen at once.
Fruits that are still green.
Fruits that have started to turn reddish-purple.
And fruits that are blue-purple and ready to eat.
Even on the same branch, the timing of ripening is slightly different.
They are living their own seasons on the same tree.
That is why I check on them every day and harvest only the ripe fruits.
Do not rush.
Nature has its own time.
Accepting that time is one of the joys of a home garden.
Blueberries are lined up in supermarkets as individual pieces of fruit.
However, in the field, I have watched the long time it takes for that single fruit to ripen.
Surviving the winter,
sprouting in the spring,
blooming with flowers,
growing the fruit,
and then harvesting in the summer.
It is because of that accumulation that the joy of harvest feels many times greater.
2025 Blueberries 🫐🌱
I wrote an article like this last year while harvesting blueberries as well.
👉 [No. 59] Harvest Doesn't Happen All at Once—Blueberries and the Choice to Wait 🫐🌿
A year has passed since then.
This year, the same trees have borne fruit again.
Even if the scenery looks the same every year, there is no year that is exactly the same.
The temperature is different.
The amount of rain is different.
The fruit yield is different.
Even so, the seasons turn, and we welcome the season of harvest once more.
There is a mysterious sense of security in the workings of nature.
Cultivating the time of a year 🌿🫐
In the field, you cannot look only at the results.
You do not plant today and harvest tomorrow.
It takes time,
It crosses seasons,
And grows little by little.
[No. 233] Crossing Winter, Connecting to Summer—The "Invisible Growth" Taught by Blueberries 🫐❄️
Winter is a process on the way to the next harvest.
Blueberries are the same.
There are times when it seems like there is no major change for many days.
Even so, the plant continues to grow a little every day.
Perhaps people are the same.
Even on days when you cannot feel any change, the time you have accumulated is never wasted.
The time of a year leads to the harvest.
On to next year again 🌱🫐
When I harvest, I feel relieved somehow.
At the same time, I think, "I want you to bear fruit healthily again next year."
Harvesting is not the end.
The cycle toward next year has already begun.
It will sprout again in the spring,
bear fruit in the summer,
and show us a different landscape than this year.
Looking forward to those changes, I want to continue tending to my garden.
Caution 🛠️
🌱 This article is based solely on personal experience and impressions.
📍 Appropriate methods vary depending on the region and environment.
⚠️ Please ensure safety when performing any tasks.
✅ Please make your own decisions and take responsibility for your actions.
Underlying × Cultivation
Fields, bodies, and investments—a way of life that keeps on tilling.
Renji Enko