Organic Rice and Sweet Potato Harvesting Experience

At Nabari Organic Village Experience, you can enjoy a variety of seasonal activities. In this article, we introduce a program where participants harvest rice and sweet potatoes during the fruitful autumn season at an organic farm. These crops are lovingly grown by local farmers.

What is Nabari Organic Village Experience?

Rice Harvesting

At 11 a.m., we started our day at a charming traditional farmhouse with a panoramic view of the satoyama countryside. Here, we listened to Kami-chan, an organic farmer from Nabari, share her story.

This region, blessed with fertile soil and fresh spring water, is known as a major rice-producing area, cultivating Iga Rice, which has earned the prestigious Special A Rank. In this beautiful setting, Kami-chan operates her farm, Kami no Itazura, where she grows organic rice and vegetables.

Kami-chan shared insights about Nabari’s geography, terrain, and its famous tourist spot, Akame 48 Waterfalls. She also discussed how her rice differs from others and the challenges of organic farming. Worried this might sound too technical? Not at all! Kami-chan’s cheerful personality and expressive Kansai (western Japan) dialect made her explanations engaging and easy to follow.

After about 30 minutes of fun and informative storytelling, we moved on to lunch. Before heading to the rice fields, we enjoyed a meal at the farmhouse.

That day’s lunch was a vegan-friendly spiced curry! Made with locally grown organic vegetables, it was perfectly seasoned to highlight the natural flavors of the ingredients. As we enjoyed the meal, Kami-chan shared stories about the organic vegetables used in the curry, adding depth to the flavors and making the experience even more special.

Finally, it was time to head to the rice fields. Standing in front of the ready-to-harvest lush and golden rice, we gathered to learn how to harvest it by hand. Since most of us had never used a sickle before, Kami-chan gave us a quick lesson on how to handle one properly.

Next, we learned how to cut the rice stalks and worked together, harvesting row by row. It wasn’t as easy as it looked—sometimes a few stalks would stubbornly remain uncut!

Once the rice was harvested, we moved on to hazagake, a traditional drying method where harvested rice is hung on wooden racks to dry in the sun. We carefully placed the cut rice stalks on the ground, organizing and bundling them together to hang them on the rack. Seeing the completed row of rice drying on the rack gave us a strong sense of accomplishment.

At the end of the program, we received organic rice from Kami no Itazura as a souvenir. This experience deepened our gratitude toward the farmers who produce our food, and inspired us to keep their efforts in mind while we savor every grain of rice.

Sweet Potato Harvesting

After harvesting the rice, we moved on to the sweet potato harvesting experience. At the farm, we were greeted by the delightful aroma of yaki-imo or roasted sweet potatoes waiting for us under a tent. These sweet and warm treats were just what we needed to recharge!

While enjoying the yaki-imo, we learned about the varieties we’d be harvesting that day and their unique characteristics. The potato farmer also explained how the sweet potatoes are grown without chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers, as well as how to properly dig them up.

Then it was time to start harvesting! We even had a little game to see who could dig up the largest sweet potato. The winner was decided by weighing everyone’s harvest!

Motivated by the challenge, we eagerly headed to the sweet potato field. The vines and leaves had been neatly cleared, making it easy to access the rows. Different varieties, such as Silk Sweet and Beni Haruka, were planted in separate rows, so we could choose the type we wanted to harvest—or even pick a row that looked like it might yield larger potatoes.

To our surprise, the sweet potatoes were enormous! Each vine yielded multiple large potatoes, some of which were hanging from a single vine, while others were connected underground by long stems. As we dug them up, we discovered so much about their growth that we had never known before.

After filling our baskets with sweet potatoes, we returned to the tent for the weighing competition. Even if we found a huge potato which we thought we would definitely win the game, somehow there was always the chance for a larger and heavier potato to have been found, which added to the excitement and laughter.

The sweet potato harvest was a huge success, with plenty of delicious organic produce to take home. It was a truly satisfying day filled with the joys of autumn’s bounty.