After a lot of hard work we are starting to see some of the fruits of our labours. As a trial we started a vegetable stand in Hirafu, Niseko. It was an interesting study in human nature sitting inside the cafe watching customers and their reaction to the vegetables and honesty box system. On one wet and windy day the prices blew away and customers were unsure of how much to pay, there was some initial hesitation while they thought about the work and effort of both man and nature to create food for their table and then the money went into the money box. We were pleasantly surprised to find that takings for that day were three times the usual daily average. 

September is the month of harvest in Hokkaido and we were able to share the bounty of Takadai with 140 visitors to the Ridgerunner International Charity Cricket Competition. Dennis and Jenn selected some of the finest vegetables and one of first pigs for the table, and spent three days cooking and preparing for the dinner. It was very satisfying to hear comments about the quality of food and especially the taste of our little piggy that went to market. 

During the cricket weekend we had visitors from Hong Kong and Tokyo. It was a very gratifying experience having them visit the farm and try  eating freshly picked vegetables, wander the farm, experience a new concept called silence. One commented that this was what life used to be like before we all turned into money traders. 

August is a month of high temperatures, good rain fall and nature working at its’ best. When not weeding the fields we spent the time preparing new fields for next year. 

The little piggies are not so little now and are growing every day. They love hiding in the long grass and rooting around for tasty little morsels to add to their diet. They are living up to their reputation as living compost machines. We have cut one field in half to do a controlled study next year - half will be the area that has been worked by the pigs and the other half will be the area using other natural fertilizer. 

We bought seven little Kenborough piglets from Membetsu. They are only one month old here, but already uprooting the soil. The plan is for them to free range on the grasslands, root up the weeds and naturally fertilize the soil before ending up on a spit in December. Dennis has named them all and is often seen talking to them, so we will have to wait and see how the December plan pans out. 

Our 6 July Revitalising Rural Japan forum was an opportunity to introduce locals to Takadai meadows. Attended by approximately 80 people, who were mostly local farmers, curious citizens, former residents and also several non-Japanese who came up specially to see us in action. RidgeRunner Executive Director Sasaki Tadashi was first to speak, to welcome, connect with and reassure the farmers as to the farm’s intent. After introductions were made, some of the farmers took the opportunity to tour the vineyards by bus and get a run down on the current and future wine fields with Bruce Gutlove. Farmers talking to farmers in any language soon find a common bond.

A BBQ lunch with delicious local mountain vegetables, wine tasting of Coco farms 2006 Noumin Dry (Kerner & Muller Thurgau) and 2006 Kaze no Rouge (Zweigelt) washed down with natural local spring water and for some  a few cleansing ales. The Noumin Dry and Kaze no Rouge were selected as they are made from Hokkaido grapes and being late budders and early ripening grapes have been selected for Takadai plantings.  For some the wine was very drinkable and some guzzling instead of tasting took place. One particularly sad and lost red-headed soul was last reported face down behind the tractor.

Our first speaker was Yasunori Homma who talked macro trends, showed Japan’s future food self-sufficiency statistics, and his efforts as director of Homma Farms (see English and Japanese powerpoint here.

The most telling point from Homma’s speech was the low self sufficiency rate of Japanese food production and lack of successors for family farms. One visitor angrily suggested that Homma had no right to drop in from Tokyo to tell locals what to do and then stormed out.  The visitor woke a few of the audience from their post lunch drowsiness and sparked some good discussions. To put the record straight  Homma-san comes from a farming family, graduated with a degree in agriculture from Hokkaido University and hasn’t exactly parachuted in from Tokyo. In an interview with Oregon TV Homma-san said that feels he has a responsibility to Japan to do his best in even a small way to help Japanese farming.

Then Bruce Gutlove gave full details on how his winery, Coco Farms in Tochigi, Honshu, 90 minutes from Tokyo, started and stays in business. He presented his farm as a business model for revitalizing his local community, to avid attention from fellow farmers. See here for more information on Cocofarm.

Finally, well known author and Japanophile  Alex Kerr talked about the importance and efficacy of revitalizing Japan’s ruralities, and the wasted resources and potential–historically, culturally, and economically–that letting the farming areas depopulate, and indicated that Hokkaido in particular has unique potential. See here for more information on Alex and his activities.

This resonated, and the subsequent panel discussion was wall-to-wall questions, highly unusual for a Japanese audience. One question was on how to prevent depopulation of the countryside. Another tomato farmer asked us all what he could do to make his farm better known and his products more marketable. Inter alia, emcee Arudou’s advice was on giving press conferences to publicize the event, and Gutlove compared his marketing of grapes and alcohol to the regular crops industry.

The final comment was from another “newcomer” farmer like Homma, who felt that “native” farmers weren’t communicating well with “newcomers” who came in later to make a life of it after retirement. Emcee Arudou said that one of the duties of “native” farmers was to make “newcomer” farmers feel welcome (as opposed to heckling them), and recognise their contributions both in terms of population, taxes, and products. This includes the recent boom in non-Japanese investment in Niseko, and the mostly-foreign farmers working at Takadai Meadows–who were not merely investing money, but also their time, energies, and lives to work the land and make this area more productive. Arudou concluded with hope that this audience would cope and open up–after all, this event featured one native Japanese and three non-native Japanese speakers, unthinkable elsewhere in Japan, yet attendees were very accepting.

RidgeRunner’s Sasaki had the last word, giving an animated five minutes on how we have to ignore nationality and origin, and let people come in and contribute, or else the community is doomed. The event closed with rousing applause, with people apparently feeling reassured about Takadai’s intentions, and realizing that Tadadai is here to stay and contribute.

Visits to and from the Sapporo to the farm have increased in time due to the roads being filled with police vehicles with flashing lights driving at just below the speed limit.

We are planning our first event to try to help promote the Niseko area’s  agri-tourism potential. We have gathered a group of like minded people who believe in the opportunities for Agri tourism and organic farming. Alex Kerr (author of Dogs and Demons and Lost Japan) will be main speaker along with our winemaker Bruce Gutlove and advisor Yasunori Homma.

Recently there has been a lot of press about Hokkaido being closed and Alex even asked if the event could still be held. Perhaps he had heard staff member Akiko’s Jinglish slip - she told everyone in the office that “the police will stop all drivers and look in their behinds” - we think she meant car trunks, but you can never tell how far the security will go…

June has been spent with Dennis, Jenn and Nick (unwilling worker on organic farm) feverishly preparing fields, putting up the greenhouse, seeding plants and sewing crops. This year there is a lot of work required in adjusting the soil quality. We have planted clover, mustard and sun flowers as cover crops  to protect and improve the soil by adding nitrogen and organic material. 

Dennis decided to test his invincibility by falling off his mountain bike and breaking his collar bone. Great work by Dr. Kutsumi at Kutchan Kosei Hospital meant that he was out of hospital and back in the greenhouse in a couple of days.

We have planted the berry fruit on the fields below the drive next to the lily ponds so in future years visitors will be able to see blackberries, raspberries, cranberries gooseberries etc. as they arrive. On the upper fields we have put in an orchard of apples, cherries, plums and pears to give great blossom in spring and provide autumn fruit for selling by ex merchant bankers whose borrow short invest long strategies have caused their companies to crash and burn along with their investor’s life savings. 

Nikki the goat arrived to help last week. We are not sure where she came from but she mentioned something about being a Queensland property developer who wanted to do some honest work for a change and did we mind if she popped in and scattered manure around the countryside. 

May sees the Niseko snow melted and the days warm enough for planting outside. Even though Takadai has a lot of wild mountain grapes (Yama Budou) we are not sure if we can successfully grow wine grapes here or not. This year we have chosen to trial 800 vines on a south facing slope up from the lakes, as being in a perfect north south orientation the vines will get sun all day. The varieties are Kerner and Sauvignon Blanc. Kerner is a white that was bred by crossing Reisling and Trollinger, a red grape. It is known to be a hardy and Coco farms produce a very drinkable wine from Hokkaido stock.

Some friends came up to help with the planting and layout of the vineyard. It is indeed an interesting experience and I now have a use for the Pythagorean Theorem. The vines need to be slapped around and treated mean to stimulate growth. We cut the roots right back and trim the stems so that only 2 or 3 woody buds remain. The vines are planted on a 45 degree angle to the slope of the ground so that they don’t break off under the heavy layer of snow. To a novice like me snow would seem to be a baddy for grapes, but experts assure me that it is good as it gives nature a break, kills fungus and pests and is an insulating layer from the extreme cold.

Everyone else got ready for Golden Week holidays - bike trips, beach trips, shopping trips but we got stuck on the farm getting ready for planting. One of the biggest jobs is keeping the sasa bamboo down. Even with an excavator and powerful slasher it is a time consuming job. The first few hours of driving the excavator (big toys for a big boy) is fun but it gets a bit tiring after the first few days.

The winter set in and the Annupuri side of the mountain received its normal quota of 15 metres (45 ft) of snow, the Konbu side doesn’t get so much snow but still enough to make visiting the site a snow shoe or skidoo expedition. Winter when not working was spent researching crops and planning (dreaming and scheming) the new years activities. March saw some unseasonably warm weather with beautiful clear days. Snow shoeing around the site we could get a better idea of the terrain. Fields that were inaccessible in the green season were suddenly revealed.

A windy conversation with a wild eyed Tokyo based banker about the coming financial meltdown ended with him screaming the depression era cry “we’ll all be selling apples on the street next year”. Getting back to Sapporo I made sure to order a bunch of apple, cherries, pear and plum trees to supply to ex merchant banker money men turned apple sellers.

During October and November we had Jenn out attacking the head high grass and bamboo while prospective farm manager Dennis and I walked and drove over the land trying to get a feeling for what lay beneath the scrub. There were 2 choices - carefully cut the fallen trees and overgrowth off the tracks or just plow on through. I took the easiest option and now have the most beat up 4WD in the Niseko area.

Jenn is a hard worker who gets up at daybreak and works until dusk without ever any complaints. We got busy in town preparing for the busy winter ski season and largely forgot about the farm. A large dump of snow fell early and I got an animated call from Jenn “Mr. Simon Sir, it has been snowing for a week now and it is getting hard to wipe the snow off the bamboo before I cut it - do you think I can come down of the mountain now?”