Saturday, 5 March 2011

A visit to an "all you can eat" strawberry farm in japan いちご狩 食べ放題

Here in japan, they love having "all you can eat" (tabehodai 食べ放題) trips to different farms. They have it for almost everything: strawberries, grapes, blueberries, tangerines, cherries, melon, peaches, sweet potato and many others. It is really fun to see the trips being organized and promoted all around the year as every fruit or plant reaches their season. This time of the year is the season for strawberries (greenhouse raised of course). I was lucky enough to join in one of these ichigo gari (いちご狩) trips this week to a strawberry farm.

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I take "All you can eat strawberries" as a personal challenge


For the tour they first give a small explanation about the farm and the berries, and then they tell you the rules of the buffet. They are usually set with a 30 minutes limit and like in most places, you can only eat there, not taking any out. After the explanation they lead us to the green house room where the strawberries are so we can start eating.

To get there we walked trough a greenhouse maze, with big rooms of plants connected with smaller tunnels and little hallways all protected with plastic from the outside weather. I was lucky because our room was on the far side of the farm, so I got to see a bit more of what else they had. On that same farm they had blueberries and grapes, which I am sure they will host their own "all you can eat" (tabehodai 食べ放題) when their season reaches.

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It was good learning how the professionals raise strawberries


It was very interesting to see the layout and the arrangement of the greenhouse. As you can see on the photos they plant leeks and similar plants at the borders, probably to protect against aphids and other pests. They also had a beehive on each room, but the bees seem very mild and only mind their own. Other thing is that they water from underneath, so the fruits are very clean, no need to rinse at all before eating.

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They had a lot of plants, and many ripe and ready to pick strawberries


Another interesting thing have I noticed here is that many ichigo gari (いちご狩) farms have their plants growing at chest level to help people pick them easier. The one I went, though, was not of this kind. This is because is the strawberries there are not only intended for the "all you can eat", they are a big farm that sends their fruit all over japan, so they grow them from the ground to allow for bigger crops.

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They were delicious, I hope mines will be as good


It was a lot of fun, I got full to almost exploit of very delicious strawberries and I also got to see how the professionals handle the plants. I hope my little strawberry baskets will give fruit like this one when their time comes. They were delicious!

29 comments:

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  2. Wow!Very interesting and excited to see all those strawberries waiting to be picked and eaten!Wish I was there with you Fer to see personally how they grow them. Here the strawberries are grown on a highland but dont think they have tabehodai. They are commercially grown and a bit pricy.

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  3. Very interesting and very tastey.

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  4. Well, I LOVE the idea of an "all you can eat" farm walk. Here in San Luis Obispo, California we have a "U-Pick" farm at California Polytechnic College. We go out into the orchards with buckets and clippers supplied by them, and we pick tangerines, oranges, lemons, etc. Fresh picked is BEST (as you already know).

    All joys and thanks for sharing this,

    Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island

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  5. Fer, this was a great trip through the strawberry farm. It looked so unique to see these raised dirt beds.

    Eileen

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  6. YUM!! How fun!! I remember having the most delicious strawberries while in Japan. Good luck on your berries!!

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  7. wow, I've never seen anything quite like this. What an amazing set up.

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  8. How exciting to have all you can eat fruit...all though the seasons as the fruit matures.

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  9. We have pick your own farms here which is worked the other way round to your eat all you can farms. Here you pick your own strawberries, have them weighed and pay for the amount you pick to take home. You're not supposed to eat any whilst picking them, though of course you do.

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  10. Hope you didn't end up with tummy ache. Our pick your own places are really just for buying - no guided tour etc although we do have places where you can visit sheds growing rhubarb and have a guided tour. If you are interested I have an article on my website here We live in an area called the rhubarb triangle so visitors come from all over to visit. There was even a rhubarb festival last week.

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  11. This is an interesting concept that I have not heard of before. A good way to help everyone to get their Five-A-Day. Do they have a bucket in each room for the convenience of those people who have eaten too much fruit in a short space of time? :)

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  12. As soon as winter thaws, we'll have strawberries too. Like @Jo, I grew up with pick-your-own strawberry farms...and peaches...and apples.

    The snow is melting here and your pictures are making me hungry for spring. Congrats on all your good work! Looking forward to seeing more!

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  13. I've never seen anything like this...it must have smelled divine!!

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  14. Very good learning experience, enjoyable field trip that also pleases the eyes and stomach.

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  15. This is all new to me. It is certainly an interesting set up they have. It must work well with the pollinators and pest deterring plants all in one room.

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  16. Enjoyed the field trip to the strawberry farm. Interesting...beehives and chest level planting. Thanks for sharing. We are looking forward to eating fresh strawberries from our garden.

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  17. All you can eat strawberries yes, but potatoes? Do people dig them up and cook them there? I am kidding, I think. I'm very jealous of your strawberry festival. They look gorgeous. I am sure that the growers control their plants very carefully, especially the soil fertility.

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  18. I don't think there is anything prettier in early spring than a ripe strawberry. I love the raised beds they have. The berries looked so clean. Now I'm really craving strawberries.

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  19. We have strawberries from Korea in the market right now and the shop owner told me strawberries from Korea are guaranteed to be sweet. Don't know how about from Japan? Your post is short but informative. Interesting and tasty too!

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  20. What a cool idea! I love strawberries and love the idea of eating them straight off the vine, especially since you didn't have to bend over to pick them. :o) Yum!

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  21. what a great post! how interesting, the commercial growing operation you show here!
    I love your balcony garden and how you fill it up! where there's a will there's a way, yes?

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  22. ~Fer - this was a fabulous post! Those strawberries make my mouth water - they so delicious looking! Thanks for taking us on the virtual tour. :)

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  23. Good trip! I wish i can visit the farm too to see and eat strawberry!

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  24. "All you can eat" what an amazing concept

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  25. I have heard of filling a basket of strawberries and packing in as many as you can, but eating as much as you can on the premises, that's novel and sounds like fun.

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  26. You make me want straberris now! Very curious and experiemtal, interesting!

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  27. Super post, as if I had been there myself!

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  28. sounds cool. In holland we have also pick it yourself farms. It works differently.
    You get a bucket or bag which you can fill with apples you pick yourself, and you can take the apples home for a very low price

    Even more often you see a pick your own bouquet garden. You pay a little amout of money, and can pick all the flowers you want, as long as you can carry the bouquet with one hand, or on other flower picking gardens you have a limited amount of stems but can choose your flowers yourself :)

    I really like the pick it yourself concept :)

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