Since I have been in Japan I have noticed a trend that I have not seen very often in the United States. In the towns I have been to there are many houses with plots of land next to them with vegetables and fruit being grown. It was strange seeing a small garden of food or a plot of different vegetables and fruits next to almost every house I passed. I asked one of my Japanese friends if it was popular and he said that there are many small family owned farms that grow food and sell it to local stores and markets. He also said that the food you buy in the store is normally the food that was picked from a local crop and sold to the store that same day. This means that the food is not only being grown by small, local, family owned farms, but that the food that is bought at the stores is very fresh compared to American food that is picked weeks early in order to stay fresh for packaging, shipping, and shelf life at the store.
Since most of the food comes from small family owned farms, each individual fruit and vegetable is better taken care of than those grown on a large farm. This is not because farmers who have large crops don’t care about their food, it simply the fact that it is easier to take care of each plant when there are a smaller amount total.
Below are some pictures of family owned farms along with some of the fresh food that is produced. I can tell you that most of the vegetables and fruits I have eaten in Japan have looked and tasted better than the food I normally have in the states. For example, tomatoes in the states are a light red/orange color, bland in taste, and this is why I usually do not eat them. Japanese tomatoes (as seen below), are a bright red color and I can tell you that they taste much better than the ones sold in most stores in the states.
Delicious Japanese Tomatoes
