Fifth graders at Shinryu Elementary School experience rice farming and the harvest festival, making rice balls and miso soup and realizing the importance of food!

November 22, 2024
Feature Articles
Viewed 241 times

Friday, November 22, 2024

On Wednesday, November 20th, nine fifth graders at Hokuryu Town Shinryu Elementary School participated in a home economics class as part of their comprehensive studies, where they practiced making rice balls and miso soup.

table of contents

Harvest Festival: Making rice balls and miso soup

"Making rice balls and miso soup" in home economics class

Principal Kamata and Vice Principal Kitagawa looked on...

We invited Akimitsu and Kiyoka Takada, who provided guidance and cooperation.

The rice used for the rice balls is newly harvested rice that has been cultivated since May under the guidance of Mr. Akimitsu Takada, and has undergone practical training in rice planting, harvesting, threshing, etc.

The students cooked the new year's rice and made three types of rice balls (salt, salmon, and plum). The miso soup contained daikon radish, fried tofu, and green onions.

Making rice balls

Wash the rice, add water (1.5 times the weight of the rice), and soak for 30 minutes. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium heat, and once the water has evaporated, reduce to low heat. Steam for about 10 minutes.

Put half of the freshly cooked, piping hot, shiny rice into a bowl, put the toppings (salmon and plum) in the middle, put the other half of the rice on top, and shake the bowl around... Is it round?

Children who don't use bowls can place the rice firmly in their little hands and squeak it into a triangle!!!

The result is unique rice balls with different shapes and sizes!

Three types of rice balls (salt, salmon, and plum) made with new rice are ready!

Making miso soup

Make a stock using dried sardines (heads and guts removed), cut up daikon radish (cut into chrysanthemum shapes), deep-fried tofu (cut into strips), and green onions (finely chopped), and simmer in the stock. Finally, add miso and it's done!

Miso soup with daikon radish, fried tofu, and green onions

Let's enjoy some delicious rice balls and miso soup!!!

A delicious smile spreads across her face...

Agricultural newspaper production

The students carefully researched rice from various perspectives and created agricultural newspapers. Each student gave a unique and wonderful research presentation on topics such as the secret of rice's deliciousness, the difficulties and ingenuity of rice cultivation, agricultural machinery, rice storage warehouses, etc.

Agricultural newspapers created by 11 students

Three students gave presentations on their research, and expressed their gratitude and impressions to Mr. Takada for his guidance.

Presentation 1

I researched the secret behind the deliciousness of Hokuryu Town's rice.

Nutritional Information about Hokuryu Town Rice

As you can see in the photo on the right, rice is packed with nutrients.
Rice is rich in nutrients such as starch, which is the source of power, protein, fat, vitamin I, vitamin E, etc.

I went to J.A.

The machine on the left separates the rice from the other rice, removing any discolored or insect-eaten rice. This is the bad rice. Bad rice is brown or yellow-green in color.
This is a rice storage warehouse. It was cold inside and very spacious.
Rice is loaded using a machine like the one on the left.
The machine above is a machine that separates rice stalks.

Why is the rice in Hokkaido so delicious even though it's so cold?

Hokkaido is much colder than Kyushu and other areas. It's difficult to grow rice in the cold. However, Hokkaido rice is so delicious that it is ranked in the top three most delicious rice in Japan.
Why do you think that is? It's because they have developed rice that can withstand the cold. Many researchers have made Hokkaido rice resistant to the cold, and it has become delicious.

Conditions for making delicious rice

The fruit must be beautiful and free from high and low temperatures, diseases, and pests.
Abundant water
Wide, flat land
Large temperature difference between day and night

If these four conditions are met, the rice will be very delicious.
Hokkaido rice is so delicious because it meets all of these conditions.

Baby rice and grown rice

The photo on the left (July 8th) is of the rice baby.
When it grows, it will look like this on September 4th
It takes two months for it to grow to this size.

Summary and Impressions

It turns out that Hokkaido rice has become more delicious thanks to the efforts of researchers.
The bad rice was removed by a machine and the rice was separated into good and bad.
There was a warehouse where rice was stored. The warehouse was so large that it was impossible to count the amount of rice that could be stored. I learned a lot about rice through the rice planting experience.

Presentation 2

The rice from Hokuryu Town is very delicious.
There must be a lot of hard work involved in producing such delicious rice, so we decided to look into the challenges involved in rice farming.

The hard part about growing rice

Part 1: Adjusting the water
Water regulation: Rice cultivation is affected by the weather. If it's hot, you have to give the rice cold water to cool it down. Conversely, if it's cold, you have to give it lots of water to keep it warm, which is a difficult task.
Part 2: Harvesting is hard work
Autumn harvest time: Autumn harvest is not good if it is too early or too late, there is a perfect time, but if it rains, we cannot harvest the rice, which is a problem. Autumn comes early in Hokkaido, so it seems that the harvest time is difficult.
Number 3: The enemy of weeding
Mowing: Mowing on a hot day is hard work. Mowing keeps insects away and reduces disease. That's why they weed diligently. Good luck, farmers! Don't give in to the heat!
Part 4: Farmers' ingenuity
Raising seedlings: Raising seedlings is hard work. It would be much easier if we didn't have to make seedlings. So, apparently there is a method of scattering rice seeds directly into the rice fields so that seedlings don't have to be raised. I admired the farmers who work so ingeniously.
Summary: Impressions
I learned that rice farmers have a lot of hardships. Even with the invention of machines, there are still hardships.

Tools used in the past to grow rice

The photo on the right is called the Furukawa rotary soil crusher. This tool was used from the early to mid-Showa period to dig up the soil in rice fields.
They used horses and oxen to pull the paddy fields, breaking up the soil into small pieces and preparing it for planting.
Now I use a tractor. A tractor is a machine that can do various tasks such as applying fertilizer and pesticides, and weeding.

Editor's Note

I experienced rice farming in the old days at school. The first thing I did was plant rice.
It was still a little cold in May, so it was cold when I got in the water.
It was hard to walk and it was cold because I was barefoot. Next, we harvested. It was difficult at first, but once I got used to it, it was easy and fun. Next, we went to the JA to thresh the rice. I was looking forward to what we would do at the JA.
When I went to the JA, the first thing I did was thresh rice with a thresher. What surprised me the most was the amount of rice stored there. It was piled up so high it looked like it might fall over. I realized that rice farming is as hard work today as it was in the past.

Thanks and thoughts to Takada-san

"I had the opportunity to experience rice farming.
Before this experience, I wasn't particularly interested in how rice is grown or the secrets behind its deliciousness. I didn't know anything about rice, so thanks to Takada-san and his team's help, I was able to learn about the deliciousness of rice and everything I wanted to know about it.
Planting the seedlings was a bit muddy and uncomfortable, and there were some woody things in them that hurt, but it was a lot of fun.
And when it was time to harvest the rice, I enjoyed the feeling of it.
Thank you for letting me experience so many things."

All the students said "Thank you very much!"

The story of Akimitsu Takada

"Thank you for the meal today.
This summer, they had the opportunity to experience growing rice for a year.

Japan is now said to be experiencing global warming.
It is said that the accumulated temperature in Hokkaido has risen by 4 to 5 degrees compared to 40 to 50 years ago.
In the past, even in Hokkaido, it was not possible to harvest such delicious rice, but as the temperature rises, the rice has become more delicious.
Until then, people in Hokkaido had been told they had to take measures against the cold, but now they have to take measures against the high temperatures.
Just as we have to be careful not to get heatstroke in the summer, we also have to be careful about the heat when it comes to crops.

Don't forget the importance of food.

Remember what you have learned this year.
thank you very much!".

Finally, we took a commemorative photo with all the students!

We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Takada for his guidance and to the rice that grew so deliciously, and we would like to express our boundless love, gratitude, and prayers to the students of Shinryu Elementary School for their "rice farming experience," which taught them through a practical experience how difficult and challenging rice cultivation is and allowed them to realize the importance of food.

With gratitude for this precious rice ball that is filled with the power of life!

Shinryu Elementary School website (photograph and article by Principal Sadao Kamata)