From vegetable mail order to the sixth processing

Enjoying farming

Even when I didn't have any specific tasks, I visited Echiesan's farm and experienced something profound.

That is, at [Echie Farm], every single person enjoys farming.

For example, the representative, Akikimi-san, said he's recently gotten into colorful vegetables and showed me a variety of carrots in red, yellow, cream, and purple. In the greenhouse, he's also growing colorful vegetables like Swiss chard and mustard greens, continuously expanding the types of crops he cultivates by taking on new challenges.

Satoimo that looked like it had been washed

It's not just the Echiesan family; the employees also enjoy farming. Next to me, struggling to remove soil from satoimo by hand, separating parent, child, and grandchild tubers, a mother cheerfully told me, effortlessly completing the task:

"People often ask if I washed them." Her expression was very proud, and the satoimo she had handled were truly beautiful.

The deliciousness of vegetables

I also had some satoimo, steamed with the skin on, as a snack. Just a little salt enhanced their umami and sweetness, and their chewy texture was delightful.

Of course, I also sampled various other vegetables.

A red turnip called "Momonosuke," eaten in salads, was so juicy it felt like fruit juice was overflowing, tasting just like a peach. Every bite filled me with a gentle, sweet comfort.

Even an okra that had grown too large and was left unharvested, standing alone in the field, was still soft and deliciously crunchy raw. Moreover, the vegetables grown by Echie-san are a feast, right down to the leaves of root vegetables like carrots and daikon.

Delicious! is fun

Vegetables grown using a lot of pesticides and chemical fertilizers often show effects on their leaves, so visitors who know the taste of organic vegetables are said to first eat the leaves and be amazed. Both familiar and unfamiliar vegetables had a distinctly different taste. While experiencing the joy of farming by helping with tasks, the next thing I experienced at [Echie Farm] was the deliciousness of the vegetables.

To be continued in the next part