This Year’s Freshly Harvested Rice Is Here

The rice grown at Kakurekura has come back after its final moisture adjustment.

Work in the rice fields began back in March.

Preparing the soil, planting the seedlings, cutting the grass, and managing the water day after day.

Rice is something we see in supermarkets all the time, almost without thinking about how it gets there. But growing it ourselves reminds me every year just how much time and care it takes.

And then, at the end of it all, there is the 30-kilogram bag of brown rice.

That weight somehow makes all the hard work feel a little lighter.

“How will this year’s rice taste?”

We cook it in a donabe clay pot and lift the lid.

Sweet, warm steam rises with the aroma of freshly cooked rice.

The first thing we do is take a bite with the children—nothing else, just the rice.

Then, we begin our usual meal.

Autumn will soon bring all kinds of good things to eat.

But before all of that comes this moment—

the first taste of this year’s rice.

That first bite still feels special every year.