On September 27 and 28 in 2020, ECOPLUS organized a workshop on harvesting organic rice as a part of “ABC in a rice paddy” in Tochitsubo village, Minamiuonuma , Nigata. Due to the situation of COVID-19, we conducted it as a voluntary participating event without overnight stay unlike the usual workshops. Through 2 days, 24 people participated in this event on the non-chemical rice paddy.
雨の中、刈った稲の束ね方を教わる。Learn how to tie the harvested sheaf of rice in the rain.
Under the very wet weather condition, participants needed to wear rain gears and boots. From Mr. FUEKI Akira who has been taking care of the rice paddies, we learned how to use sickles to harvest rice and the way to tie harvested rice with rice straw. His tying skill was eye-opening and it was just like magic.
We started harvesting….however, it did not go so easily! It was actually difficult to cut all the stems of rice with sickles clearly. Tying the harvested one with rice straw was another problem because it easily becomes loose if you don’t tie it correctly. In addition to this hard situation, the paddy field, which became bottomless swamp due to the rain, caught our legs even up to our knees and didn’t let it go. What you will see if you fall on the ground is your entire body covered with dirt. I assume this was the biggest point that made us suffer the most this time.
However, in less than 2 hours, we gradually started to get the hang of it. Some people were just concentrating on their work. Some people were working while having conversations with others.
1時間に10分ぐらい、雨が途切れ薄日が差すことも。Sometimes the rain stopped temporarily for10 minutes per hour, and we could see slight sunlight coming through the cloud.
As the time went, a sense of solidarity was created among the participants somehow; automatically we set the bluesheets near each of us as a halfway point to collect the harvest sheaf of rice so that we could minimize the walking distance on the muddy ground. Being in the line and doing a relay the sheaf of rice was also helpful in putting them on the rack to dry them easily. The sheaves of rice that were tied tightly didn’t get loosened even if it was treated roughly a little bit.
The creatures living in the paddy were an oasis for us having hard time due to working in a muddy and wet condition. “Schlegel’s Green Tree Frog” was an especially popular star among us. Even the girls who do not touch the insects usually were rubbing the frog who have such an adorable look of typical frog.
稲の間から登場してきたシュレーゲルアオガエル。目の上下が金色に輝き、体は鮮やかな黄緑。“Schlegel’s Green Tree Frog” who popped up from the middle of the sheaf of rice. The upper and down part of her eyes were shining gold and the body had a vivid yellow green colour.
無農薬の田んぼで、そして機械ではなく手で稲を刈るからこそ会える生き物たちなのです。
We could only see these creatures because it was on the paddy field without any pesticide and working with our own hands but not by the machine.
2日目も雨。かなり降ってきた。Rain again on the second day. It was raining strongly.
By the lunch time of the second day, the paddy field which has the size of 1,400㎡ was cleared completely and the rice were all hanged on the drying rack. That scenery was just so lovely to see and I could not help to have an image of newly harvested rice in my mind. Some of the participants made their minds saying “I want to experience planting rice next year but not only harvesting” I wonder what the liquid going down on the face was. Was it the rain water, sweat, or the tears? A sense of accomplishment was filling our mind at the end. Of course, muscle pain didn’t forget to suffer us the next morning though….! (reported by FUKUI Tomoyuki, translated by HASUMI Chigira)