黄金色の玉ねぎ

おっきいにんにく！

昨年から大事に育てたお野菜が立派に実りました。



にんにくは、拳位の大きさのビッグサイズ！

これから加工をして、黒にんにくとして、産まれ変わる予定です。


網地島王国お野菜の新しい味！

​お楽しみに☆




​

網地島サツマイモのファンの皆さま。お待たせしました、オンライン八百屋オープンです！

２０１６年春に小さな小さな無人販売を始め、やっと網地島名物サツマイモの時期となりました。収穫後から、毎日、朝晩の温度・湿度チェックを行い、キュアリングを終えてうま味を増しています。
長渡（ふたわたし）港近くに予定している小さな八百屋の準備もさることながら、少しでも多くの方に網地島の風と旬の味覚をお届け出来ますよう、おかげ様でネットSHOPも開設に至りました。
よろしければ、お時間のある時にでもご覧下さい。

現在は、安心・無農薬のサツマイモ数種類のみですが、これから干し芋など少しずつ網地島アイテムを増やして行きますので、小さな八百屋開店と併せて、どうぞお楽しみに！
今後とも『網地島王国』をどうぞよろしくお願い致します。

２０１６年１１月１５日　感謝祭では、主に農地をお貸し下さっている方々と、いつもご助言下さっている農地のご近所さん皆さまを中心に、サツマイモ料理のお振る舞いをさせて頂きました。

　・お馴染みの紅あずま
　・絹のような甘みのシルクスイート
　・中まで紫色のむらさき芋

３種を使い、味比べ用の基本ふかし芋、スイートポテト、サツマイモフライ、マダリアン（炒めたもの）、サツマイモいも餅などをご堪能頂きました。

お世話になっている皆さま方、購入して下さる島民の皆さま方に深く感謝致します。
いつも誠にありがとうございます。

１２月に干し芋が完成しましたら、感謝祭第２弾を予定しております。
干し芋ファン皆さま、どなたでもお越し下さい。お待ち致しております。
詳細はまたご案内させて頂きます。

感謝の氣持ちを込めて。

【おがったごだ～！大御礼】

サツマイモ３０００本の大収穫が、これまで２０名近い島内外の皆さんのお力をお借りして、予定の１０月末をオーバーしたものの、立冬前日になんとか手作業全て終了したのでした。

お手伝いして下さった皆さま、誠にありがとうございまし！！本当に助かりました。

島のばっぱ達や、じっち達から、「おがったごだ～、がんばっごだー！やうぇごだ～、たまげだどぉ！」と声を掛けてもらい、嬉しかったことと言ったら♡
(石巻弁→よく育ったね～、頑張るね！、柔らかいね～、驚いたぁ、デス(笑))

農リンピックでは、元氣ばっぱ達の入場行進に大爆笑♪
みーんなで、お芋ちゃん各種をナデナデ愛され芋～

天と地と皆さんのおかげさま。
沢山の赤トンボも応援してくれました。
天地人の恵みで、よーくおがった、育った、そして、よーく可愛がられて収穫されたサツマイモ。

ただ今、キュアリング処理を終えて追熟中。そのままでも美味しいですが、これから『干し芋』になると、さらにさらにうまみが凝縮されるのです。乞うご期待！

今日も感謝と共に在ります。

【サツマイモ収穫隊♪大募集！】シェアも歓迎～

本日から、キタル
２２～２３日(土日)
２９～３０日(土日)

Would you like to volunteer and gain experience harvesting sweet potatoes on Ajishima? If so, please connect with us and we will fill you in on the details. Dates needed are Sat. & Sun. 10.22-23, and Sat. & Sun. 10.29-30.  If you would prefer to come during the week, please let us know in the contact form. Thank you.

サツマイモ収穫隊♪だいダイ大募集中です！！

今年から、農事組合法人網地島エーベ(えぇべぇ♡イイでしょ、良いの～、の意)を引き継ぎ、試行錯誤を繰り返していますが、ただ今、秋の大収穫期☆

お手伝い・助っ人・芋掘り体験、サツマイモ収穫隊♪求む～
当日、買い取りもOK！
買い取り予約も近々、承ります！！

朝から夕まで、サツマイモ掘りと選別してますので、連絡の上、長渡港へ午前中に来て頂ければ、お迎えに上がります！

『特典』
特典①お土産に、無農薬・無化学肥料のサツマイモ、少々ですが差し上げますので、どふぞ♡
特典②秋の爽やかな網地島に訪れて、体を動かすチャンス！
特典③あとで干し芋販売時に増量、してもらえるかも♪

『持ち物』
手袋、長靴、汚れても良い服装、
ランチ・飲み物をご持参ください
コンビニはありませんので～
(島ご飯ご希望の方は、事前に要相談！)

皆さま、この機会に奮ってお越しください！
どうぞよろしくお願い致します(*´∇｀*)ノ
網地島で、芋ちゃん達とお待ちしておりまーす

ミッケルソン美智枝こと、みっちィ★より
ラブリーコール♡♡♡

○○●○○●○○●○○●○○●○○●○○●○○●○○
農事組合法人網地島エーベ
ABEは、Agriculture Based Economy の略でもあり、農で、島の経済活性化を目指しています。生活の基本の食を支えたい、安心・安全の食で心も身体も健康に。

エーベには、行こう！という意味もあります。
(行くベが、いんべ、あんべ、えんべ等に変化し、ついにはえーべ、えべになるという面白方言！(笑))　

網地島、行くべ！！網地島、えーべぇ！！！
良いの～ん(o^∀^o)⤴

Apparently, it will only get you this far...in a sweet potato field on Ajishima! Our little roto tiller did the best it could and I was right behind it the whole way. This was actually a regular potato field under the previous users, and they took awful care of it. The ground was so hard and compacted it took four passes over the same swath just to get it to a workable condition. So, I could have gone four times as far on that tank of gas, if not for having to double back and then double back and then double back again!
​

By the end of the day, however, I was able to make some beautiful looking sweet potato beds, if I do say so myself. The tiller makes mounds of dirt, but I have to go through and work that into nice even shapes with a hoe and then a rake. It is a lot of work, but worth it because Ajishima sweet potatoes are seriously the best in the world!

We are collaborating with a recent acquaintance we met in Ishinomaki. Mr. M has a no-chemical-added fertilizer business; he actually adds all kinds of beneficial microbes to his fertilizer and  lets it compost and ferment for a long time, so it is ripe and ready for the plants to access all the vital nutrients they need. I added just over 30kg of fertilizer to this field per his recommendation, and that should ensure a good harvest this year. However, I am thinking 10-20 years down the road and would like to build up the soil health naturally, without investing an inordinate amount of time and money. The good thing is that sweet potatoes can be grown year after year in the same field, without employing crop rotation. The working plan we came up with is to use cover crops during the 8 months per year that there are no potatoes growing in the field. Rye, oats, clover, hairy vetch (not a curse word!) and a few other types of plants can be sown and let to grow most of the year, then cut down, chopped up and mixed in a little bit. This will add some much needed organic matter to the heavy clay soils and break it up some.

After taking a night of rest for both man and machine, we headed off to the other side of the island to prepare another sweet potato field. A fresh tank of gas and two wheels wouldn't take me nearly half way to the other side, so I built a ramp to load the tiller into our truck.

All of the materials I collected from the garbage dump two years ago. I have used them for various purposes thus far (including a drum stage at the summer festival we held two years ago!) but this is by far the most resourceful application of trash and upcycling I have come up with yet! It is collapsible and take-apart-able, although kind of heavy. Members of my family have a tendency to overdue things a little (read: a lot!) and this ramp is definitely overbuilt, but if it can hold the tiller and ME, then it should last a long time to come.

If we had the money we could have ordered a sleek set of ramps on the internet, and if we lived on the mainland we could have taken our time and shopped around and found a good deal on some quality used ramps somewhere, but living on the island and choosing not to take the ferry to the mainland every time we have the urge/need to buy something offers us more an opportunity than a limitation as I see it. If we had everything necessary available in an instant then our choices would be limited, in my opinion, to these things, as they are easiest to get. Not having direct access to the things we need and want means we have to get creative and utilize the available resources around us, natural, man-made and man-made junk all alike, to fashion the items we need. In this way, our options seem endless, to me anyway.

All that time saved driving the tiller to the other side of the island, instead of walking it there alone, meant that I could be joined by the garden muse herself, Michie. We only have a few chances per week to work in the fields together, so even if we squabble over how to orientate the beds, how high to build them or how many breaks a certain someone takes, I cherish every opportunity we get to spend time together.

Working alone is boring and, well...lonely, and that is one of the main reasons I didn't start seriously farming in the five years since we moved to the island. Our situation thankfully changed and now I am happy to work all week long by myself, just for the chance to work with Michie on the weekends. As our farm grows so too will our chances to work together even more. That is the essence of the dream we had together. I have come to realize, that at least for us, dreams come true are not simply granted, dreams are made true by a lot of hard work, sacrifice and compromise. For this, and so much more, I am thankful.