Life In Japan: Sweet Potatoes

Having grown up in a major city — beautiful Detroit, Michigan — I never experienced the agricultural cycle, the annual rotation of planting, growing, harvesting. We of course had seasons, rather dramatic seasons since Michigan is so far north and has some very cold winters. But the whole “growing food” thing was a blank slate.

Since living in rural Japan, not only have I discovered the overall cycle but am further educated in the idea of seasonal crops. Everything doesn’t grow at the same time, nor does it become available for human consumption at the same time.

I know what you’re thinking: DUH! Don’t laugh. I helped to rebuild an 8-cylinder Ford engine when I was in high school. I just never never got to around to planting tomatoes or corn, much less soybeans or rice.

Moving on to my big announcement, we just harvested the most recent item to appear on Mother Nature’s Day-Timer — or maybe she has an iCalendar these days, who knows?

Yes . . . [ drumroll ] . . . we just dug out of the ground our crop of SWEET POTATOES!

I say ‘we’ but that’s a stretch of the truth. I’m afraid that inserting a shovel into the soft earth and removing the sometimes huge tubers is above my pay grade. I did other grunt work while my wife Masumi, and her daughter Izumi, did the precision extraction. Here they are at work . . .

Knowledge is power. Fertilizer helps a lot too.

Nothing more to say. I don’t want you readers to get overexcited by my earthshaking news.

Wait! Actually, I’ll add one final comment, something that surprised me. We don’t wash the newly exposed sweet potatoes. Yes, we leave a coating of dirt on them. Apparently, they can last a very long time, not decaying or rotting, if a fine coat of soil remains on their surface. Thinking back on how as a boy, growing up poor, I only took a bath once a week, despite always being covered with a fine layer of dirt. I now see the wisdom of my very lax standard of personal hygiene.