Collection: Akihiro Hirayama (Hirayama Farm)
Producer: Akihiro Hirayama Production area: Oyano-cho, Kamiamakusa City, Kumamoto Prefecture Main product: Mixed leaf Use of pesticides: None Use of fertilizers: None
Hirayama Farm in Oyano-cho, Kami Amakusa City, grows mixed leaf crops in five greenhouses on its land of about one cho (3.8 hectares).
The owner of the farm, Akihiro Hirayama, has been practicing organic farming for about 20 years since he was 24. He has continued to grow onions using natural fertilizers and compost, including chicken manure, but he has been troubled by insects and diseases.
Then, 11 years ago, Teruaki Baba, a natural farmer in Amakusa City, recommended to me, "Try these onions," which became a big turning point for me.
The first thing he noticed was the difference when he cut into the fruit with a knife. Then when he tasted it, he thought, "It's delicious!" This sensation was what opened the door to Hirayama's natural farming.
Looking back now, he says, "It was fertilizer after all," and "If only I hadn't added fertilizer, everything would have been solved," as he talks about the journey he's taken over the past 10 years.
It wasn't possible from the beginning, but insects come for a reason. For about two years, he learned this mechanism through observing the changes in aphids and snails, and through his experience cultivating "mixed leaves," which he started by chance.
At first, they struggled with the cultivation of mixed leaf crucifers, but they gradually improved by increasing the number of lettuces they used. Now, they have established the technology to grow 10 crops a year stably.
We stock 8 to 10 varieties of baby leaf lettuce from Hirayama Farm depending on the season, from 10 varieties: red oak lettuce, red amaranth, beet, green romaine lettuce, green crispy lettuce, green oak lettuce, lollo rossa lettuce, lollo green lettuce, red romaine lettuce, and red mustard mizuna.
