Weed Patrol
Just some shots of Tomoe and Mayu trying to tackle the hie problem I mentioned last post. We try to burn it, but it is too wet. Instead we parked on top of the big bridge and dumped it off the edge. It was quite exciting - despite the fact that there is nothing wrong with what we did, we felt like we were disposing of a dead body or something.
The photo above shows two of our four rice paddies - the ones on Tomoe's right and left. We have weeded almost three of them so far with one left. The one that is left is the worst, so bad that we are considering just cutting down all the rice with the millets and although it is not yet ready for harvest, our birds love it anyway, so we can give the rice to the birds.
Looking at these photos I can't believe that we did this all by hand.
Comments
Congratulations on the rice fields. That is a very complicated project! I was just joking the other day - no matter what - I will not be growing my own rice : ) and now to see a fellow blogger growing their own rice - its exciting. I am assuming its sticky rice? I didn't know farmers had to weed the rice fields...wow! All the best to you. Beautiful photos!!
Posted by: weekendfarmer | August 25, 2008 12:40 PM
Wow, I'm amazed you did that by hand. Do you have any guess as to the amount of rice you'll be able to harvest?
I like that first photo too, the one with the fill-in flash, very nice.
Posted by: Chris (i-cjw.com) | August 25, 2008 01:06 PM
@weekend farmer:
This is "koshi-hikari" rice, actually a more expensive variety. For the area we are farming we really should have used sticky rice (mochi rice) because it grows more quickly and we can be sure to harvest it before the September typhoons which may cause the river to rise and wipe out our field.
Most rice fields here don't need much weeding because they use a lot of weed killer chemicals. Ours requires weeding because we use nothing. Even people who use chemicals have problems with the millets. Some of them just let the millet grow and say "Oh well, I'll just use more weeb killer next year to handle the seeds that fall this year"
@cjw:
With the amount of field we have, another farmer here might make enough for their family for a year, as well as plenty left over to sell. We did not put in any chemical fertilizers, and our weeds used alot of the nutrients in the soil already, as well as blocked some sun and wind which helps the rice grow. We expect that we will have enough to eat for the year, but no garantee. Luckily, we still have some rice left from last year that was given to us from an organic farm in Iiyama.
Posted by: kevin | August 25, 2008 01:17 PM
Wow nice job. So do you think your going to be growing more next year? Or are you planning to wait and see how much you get for all your effort and THEN make a decision? ha ha
I would love to come out there next year and help with planting and weeding the rice.
Posted by: Curtis | August 26, 2008 05:05 AM
A lot of hard work, but it looks like a lot of rice! Could your birds eat a whole quadrant portion of rice in even a year? But then again, I have to ask the question - about how much rice would those fields in the picture reap?
Posted by: Kirt Cathey | August 29, 2008 09:08 AM