Grape Farming

From June 24 up until about now, I worked on a grape farm in Enzan City, Yamanashi, Japan. Enzan is about 1.5 hours by train from Tokyo, situated in a beautiful valley with Fuji's peak visible in the distance. The city is famous throughout Japan for its fruit production with the main crops being grapes, peaches, plums, cherries and strawberries. It was a beautiful town bathed in greenery, and fruit could be seen ripening everywhere.

On my first night there, Ogihara-san, the WWOOF host, took me to an onsen. This must be some sort of protocol for getting to know people- it works, and I like it a lot. It was definitely a nice end to a long day (about 8 hours) of train travel with all my crap (too much crap) and no food. I was hungry enough to eat a horse, a whale even. I did, in fact. After the hot bath, Ogihara-san shuffled me into a small dining room where a bunch of his friends were sitting on the floor around a feast of oysters, clams, sashimi (raw fish), dumplings, fried whale, hush-puppies and raw horse, among other things (like beer!). It was endlessly satisfying. I had never eaten (or thought to eat) whale or horse, but both were delicious. The whale was fried, so it essentially tasted like friedness plus a unique texture, which was of course delicious. I was not surprised that horse was offered only because I'd been told by other people that horse is a delicacy in Japan. What I didn't know was that it is eaten raw. The only other meat I've eaten raw aside from fish is pork, so this was my first raw red meat meal. It was very tasty- similar to deer, if you've ever eaten that.

Ogihara-san, the host, is awesome. I will leave Japan with him at the top of my list of favorite Japanese people if I ever make one (I won't). Ogi started out working for and driving in Motocross. To put it bluntly, that's fucking awesome. I'm not sure if this was just a hobby along with his job or a professional interest. After (or during, I don't know) his time in Motocross he sold insurance, a career he would hold for about 20 years. During this time he took up an interest in snowboarding, which he has continued to do for the past 20 years. His favorite courses are powdery double-black diamonds through the woods. I will not do that any time soon. After he quit his job at the insurance company, he decided to get involved in the family business of farming grapes. He is happier than ever.

See the grin?

So basically, Ogihara-san rules.

His grape farm is divided into a number of plots, as are most farmers'. One section is a vineyard, dedicated to producing grapes for wine, which Ogihara has recently taken a greater interest in expanding. But most of the grapes grown are special varieties of table grapes- mainly Peony and Rosario Bianco. Ogihara grows many other varieties which you can see by visiting his blog, in mutilated English. The grapes are valued for their asthetic beauty and their taste, and are often given by wealthy businessmen as gifts. One bosomy bunch of Peony grapes, which is typically a count of 30, sells in Tokyo specialty shops for around 5,000￥, roughly $47. Damn! If they are not sold in specialty shops, their value changes dramatically. In a local grocery store they typically go for around 600-700￥ per bunch. This high cost is a result of tender-loving-care. Every bunch of grapes must be manicured by hand to eliminate rotten, wind-burnt, sun-burnt and small grapes. They are also pruned so that when the grapes grow to their gigantic size they do not exert such a pressure on their neighboring grapes that would explode them.

A Peony bunch, before pruning

The same bunch, post-pruning

Yours truly, pruning. Apparently I am a champion Peony pruner

In the photo you can see the strange trellis system that Japanese grape-farmers use. The main reasons are to resist the dew and humidity that are more extreme near the ground. It was always a long day of this work. We started around 8:30 and ended around 18:00. There were breaks and lunch in there, but that's a lot of pruning for one day. It was not hard work, but it was often very hot (35c at 70% humidity isn't much fun!). After work I would fall into daydream trances of grape-pruning. But every meal was delicious and every evening provided beer and great satisfaction at a job well done- all in the very good and charming company of Ogihara and his wife.

Aside from the job of trimming Peony bunches we did some work in the greenhouse if it was raining. In the greenhouse we did pruning in addition to covering the bunches with small hoods. Grapes that ripen to red or purple got clearish-white wax-paper hoods, and grapes to ripen green got brown paper ones. Red grapes need light to change color, and green grapes need a lessening of light to remain green, thus the different hoods. The hoods also prevent birds from eating the grapes.

Hoods

More photos:

Rosario Bianco

Another variety that looks pretty neat. The name escapes me.

A decent view of the trellis system.

A sweeeeping panoraaaaaamaaaaa