What the potatoes said

Before I started farming, June in Japan meant “rainy season” and “hydrangeas.” Depending on which school I was teaching at, it also meant the annual Sports Day. In America, on the other hand, June means graduations and weddings. We say, “June bride” for many reasons but one is because the weather in June is actually nice in America. Just as what we associate with something changes depending on the country we are in, I realized that our image of a certain month also changes depending on our job. For me, June now means potato harvest. (It also means wheat harvest, but we didn’t start in time this year, so next year). We planted our potatoes in March, shortly after we started our farm, and it seemed like a long time before we could harvest them in June. Yet, before I knew it, June had arrived. It was hard to wait for a day without rain in the middle of rainy season, but finally, we were blessed with a sunny day and my husband and I completed our potato harvest under the blue sky. The rays of sun are essential for drying the potatoes, but they also burned my face and arms to a crisp!

We planted about 13 kg of potatoes in Match and harvested about 110 kg fit to eat. To be honest, we were surprised that we were able to harvest the expected amount (eight times the amount sewn) on our first try! Especially this time, all we did was put down paper mulch with very little tending afterward, so we were thankful for the good harvest given our lack of effort. Of course, with vegetables, it’s not just the amount but the quality that matters. Unfortunately, many of the potatoes had already gone rotten inside the soil. Some were spitting white foam, some squished in our hands when we tried to pick them up, and at any rate the smelled terrible. We also had some that absorbed sunlight and turned green, making them poisonous and inedible. My husband and I need time to sit down and reflect about how to solve those problems for the future. But, even more than our failures, what sticks in my mind as interesting is the size and shape of the potatoes we were able to harvest.

You rarely see small potatoes for sale at the supermarket; medium sized ones are sold in a bag and bigger ones are sold individually. In America, by the way, big sized potatoes are sold in a bag, and you can’t find small or even medium sized potatoes for sale at all. I’m pretty sure the idea of selling a single potato doesn’t even exist. Yet, our potatoes range in size from a cherry tomato to a mango. By weight, the small ones weigh only 4 grams while the big ones weigh around 280 grams. That’s the diversity of nature for you! Some are shaped like a “model potato” while others are heart or butt shaped, and some look like they have noses. Discovering these are quite fun. How boring it would be if all of the potatoes were the same size and shape when we spread them out on our floor.

If there is this much variety in nature, isn’t it a given that humans would be varied, too. Why do we forcefully try to make everyone the same and adjust to be like everyone else? If you asked me what the ideal size is for a potato, I would say it depends on what you want to do with it. If I’m going to cook a dish where I want the potatoes crisp and bite-sized than I would prefer a lot of small ones, whereas if I were making American style baked potatoes, I would want one big one per person. The best size depends on what I’m cooking, but all of the sizes are good and all can be eaten. People also come in all shapes and sizes, but as long as they aren’t rotten or poisonous on the inside, they’re alright. People’s abilities and areas of expertise are different depending on their attributes, but that is what makes different types of work possible. That’s as it should be.

When we started farming, some people encouraged us, and I’m sure some people felt envious, but I think that more people felt a little worried, like, “Are you really going to be okay?” “Isn’t that a lot of work?” We feel it is a privilege to be able to farm, but it seems that for many people being a farmer falls under the category of “job I definitely don’t want to do.” Are we really that strange? At first that’s what I thought, but then I realized, we’re not strange, we’re just different. It is because people do different jobs that society can exist. Not everyone needs to become a farmer, but some people need to become farmers. Personally, it is a great joy to me to be able to have a part in making food. That is because food is one of our most basic needs as humans. But as I gaze at the potatoes spread out before me, I feel the need for teachers and doctors and drivers and hair stylists and musicians, too. I’m thankful to God for making people into different shapes and sizes with different uses. After all, variety keeps things interesting.