Becoming a consumer, I can now eat beautiful vegetables and fruits

Introduction

I look back on the ten-plus years I spent farming. I compare it in various ways to now, having quit. What was I eating back when I was able to cultivate crops quite reliably and could roughly estimate my sales volume?

That is what I will talk about today.

(Title photo: The neighbor's field. Taro grown by my 93-year-old (at the time) 'farming mentor (a woman)')

Simple and yet

For the first few years after I started cultivating, I grew a truly wide variety of crops. Among them, potatoes and taro were bulky and produced in large quantities. After harvesting, the sorting, bagging, and pricing were almost the same as for other crops. Most of the vegetables were on the shelves at the farm stand just a few hours after harvest.

In that process, some items would be rejected. For potatoes, it was the small ones or those with poor shapes. For taro, it was the parent corms that were too large and hard, or the grandchild corms that were too small. I would eat the rejected ones. In other words, the more beautiful ones would pass by my family and go to market.

Taro would be kept at home specifically as seed taro for the following year. Once I got used to it, I would plant the parent corms, which weighed over a kilogram each, just as they were. Planting them required digging deep holes, which was hard work, but this allowed them to grow faster and be placed on store shelves during the 'early' season as field-grown produce, which meant I could expect a higher yield.

I hardly buy vegetables

When my sales volume was high, I almost stopped buying vegetables. Before I knew it, I was producing the herbs I used often in cooking, and I became the person with the most variety and quantity of herbs in the city across four different farm stands. I provided some kind of herb without interruption all year round. I was approached by people from local restaurants and eateries asking, 'Won't you supply us?' I politely declined all of them because I wanted to remain carefree and mentally free.

I could usually get everything from the field, only buying ginger, which I could never manage to grow no matter how many times I tried. My life consisted of stopping by the store to buy only small amounts of things I didn't have at home, like eggs, meat, fish, or tofu, when I drove to deliver my produce. I cooked with the rejected vegetables that weren't suitable for sale. At the stage of eating, I didn't care about how they looked.

After deducting expenses

After deducting various expenses such as transportation costs and bag fees, and averaging based on daily sales trends, it was about as good as working a part-time job that required physical labor. I was suited to farm work where I managed everything myself. I didn't want to produce anything under the restrictions of someone else's instructions. Eventually, my income from farming exceeded that of my main job, which was teaching.

Then, after several consecutive years of repeated strong winds and animal damage, combined with the recent pandemic (which prevented me from going to the farm stands), I gave up. My decision to quit was surprisingly quick; I couldn't recover from the damage caused by the relentless animal attacks, and I didn't have the motivation to plant all the seedlings I had grown that year, so I left them in their pots. This was in my sixth year.

It was fortunate that, when everything was accounted for, I was in the black from the very first year. I was able to eat properly. It was fortunate that I didn't suffer that much wind or animal damage from the first year. As a result, I was able to do things on my own terms and take responsibility without being told what to do by others, and I was able to do it without any debt, allowing me to start my next job immediately.

Even so

My position has changed, and now I pick up vegetables as products lined up in stores. Seeing the name stickers on the bags of produce I see so often, I am deeply moved, thinking about how wonderful they are and how much hard work must have gone into getting them on the shelves.

Sometimes I run into the producers who are stocking the bags of freshly harvested vegetables. I try to tell them how delicious they were or ask about how to use them. They are all very enthusiastic people, and they respond so warmly that our conversations flow easily.

Conclusion

Although my position has changed, I am glad that I have come to understand, at least a little, the feelings of the producers who sell their goods. They are probably eating the rejected ones alongside the vegetables they put on display, just as I did.

That was never a burden, and I have always consumed everything I grew in the field without letting any of it go to waste. I am endlessly grateful for the vegetables.

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