Shock of the Year!

Yesterday we finally finished our rice! The only thing left now is cleaning up, and drying a few bags that were not dried enough.

We could have done it earlier, but the TV crew that has been hounding us for the past year wanted to shoot us picking the rice so we saved one half field to harvest for the camera, and then did the dakkoku (taking the kernel off the stem) in the afternoon. Our neighbor, a veteran rice-farmer who lent us the machine, thought it would be about an hour. It took five hours. She was completely surprised to see that we got so much rice despite our insistence on no-chemicals.

We were also surprised. Last year we had 9 bags of momi (rice with the husk) after harvest. This year, although we doubled the amount of land, we planted a variety (akitakomachi) that has less yield than last year's (koshihikari), planted them further apart to make it easier to weed, and still somehow managed take home 25 bags! Now what do we do?!?!!

It's not that I am complaining, mind you. I loved when the neighbor wondered how we got almost as much rice from one small field as we had last year from four. Not that I have an answer, but it feels good and smug.

These photos show our neighbor helping us, along with our friend who has been a big help all ear taking care of the fields when we were busy, the TV crew interviewing Tomoe and taking exciting shots of the rice, and Tomoe tying straw ropes to bundle the rice straw for storage with part of our bounty in the foreground.