Green Green Rice of Home

It is 7.30pm and I'm contemplating dinner. I think I shall create the following:

* Thinly sliced strips of beef sauteed with mushrooms in ginger and olive oil.
* Broccoli and bok choi steamed to an "al dente" texture then drizzled with a yogurt-moustarde-soy sauce.
* A simple salad consisting of lettuce, Japanese cucumber (not slimy as you know), tomato and broccoli sprouts.
* A glass of wine, and a glass of water.

The other day as I was heading up for a ride above, over and around my mountains behind the house I found one lone farmer planting his rice. The rice planting season was mainly done during Golden Week, the May long holiday at the very beginning of this month. That will be the Koshi Hikari variety. There is another variety known as Hana Echizen that is also planted. This crop usually goes in a few weeks later so I think that what I saw was the Hana Echizen going in. Stefnee, this is the field right behind my house, so you will remember it all dry and possibly full of weeds.

 

I recalled as I was passing by that during my Rice Cycle blogs last year Stefnee had mentioned that she wanted to see the workings of the rice transplanter machine. The way these machines operate is quite intriguing. Sod-sized pallets of rice seedlings are placed on a back plate of the machine. As the planter moves through the fields heavy with water and mud, wheels with many teeth on the back rotate, and clip off one seedling at a time, then plan in straight rows in the wet soil. You can see the action in this little animated graphic I have included.

 

I did not take my video camera on this day (unfortunately), but I did have my digital camera. So I took these two photos. I hope you can click on them to see a larger size, then zoom into the mechanism at the back for a better understanding of what I am trying to explain.

Now I know that two simple photos are not going to do it to satisfy the desires of Stefnee to learn more about this machine. Coming from an agriculture culture, and possessing a researcher's mind, I have the sneaky suspicion that she needs more.

So...

Here is a little two minute video (in Japanese) with very loud music typical of Japanese commercials (CM) showing exactly how the Iseki Sanae PPZ (Classic) transplanter operates at the back. Truthfully, this is better than I think I could ever provide with my own webcam and reporter skills.

If you would like to see an example of a LARGE transplanter, watch this video.

And although there is no video to show you, many "hand driven" machines are still in use where the farmer walks behind the transplanter and guides it, almost like guiding oxen or horse in a field.

It took me a year to get this information for Stefnee, and I've been thinking and looking into it all year. Well, Stefnee... there you go! I hope this satisfies your wonderful quest for knowledge concerning the Japanese way of planting rice.

And now it is time to cook.

I love you!

Cam

P.S. It is now 8:18, so it took me 50 minutes to put this little blog together. And now. I. AM.... hungry.