Hokkaido’s Harvest Scenery: Autumn Edition
Hokkaido is known as Japan's food base, and is a treasure trove of a wide variety of foods, such as agricultural and livestock products, seafood, wine, sake and beer.
Autumn – from September to November – is the harvest season for fruits, potatoes and other root vegetables, rice, buckwheat and the like. It is also when marine products such as salmon and Pacific saury are landed.
We have gathered together some ‘taste of autumn’ harvest scenery, much anticipated by the people of Hokkaido.
Special feature
Peak of potato harvest in Obihiro, Tokachi
This year’s potato harvest is reaching its peak in Hokkaido’s potato-producing region in the city of Obihiro. Due to the hot temperatures and lack of rain in July, the potatoes are smaller than usual and the harvest is expected to be less prolific than usual. Harvesting will continue until early October.
May Queen potatoes are grown on approximately 1,200 hectares of land at 200 farms in the Obihiro Taisho Agricultural Cooperative, and shipped as the ‘Taisho May Queen’ brand throughout Hokkaido and beyond, particularly in the Kansai region. Nishida, a farmer in the city of Obihiro cultivates Taisho May Queen on 10 hectares of land. On the 2nd, a specialist ‘potato harvester’ machine was operated along the ridges of the fields, sorting the potatoes by shape and size as they were dug from the earth. “The amount harvested will be less than usual but the potatoes are sufficiently sweet,” says Nishida. “They go well with any cuisine, so I hope that lots of people eat them.”
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 120,100 tons were harvested in Obihiro in 2019, the highest of any municipality on Hokkaido. The harvest in the Tokachi region accounts for 34% of the entire potato harvest in Japan.
Location
Obihiro Taisho Agricultural Cooperative
Special feature
Autumn Hokkai shrimp fishing began on October 25 in Notsuke Bay in the town of Betsukai in the Nemuro region, with 23 ‘Utasebune’ boats belonging to the Notsuke Fisheries Cooperative leaving the po...
Autumn mantis-shrimp fishing season begins in Otaru
The seasonal ban on autumn mantis-shrimp fishing was lifted along the coast of the city of Otaru in central Hokkaido, and the first auction was held at the Otaru City Fisheries Cooperative Regional...
Harvesting of rice-paddy art
‘Rice-paddy art’ is a huge picture created using six types of colored rice plants, with the rice paddy as a canvas. Members of the executive committee, made up of individuals from the Young Farmer...
Harvest autumn mosaic
A blue and orange mosaic appeared in a field in the Kitami region, which boasts the largest onion production quantity in Japan. The color layout of that mosaic in the shape of a perfect square look...
On September 28, the harvest of ‘La La Shine’ Shine Muscat grapes – a luxury table variety that has become a new specialty-product brand of the town of Niki in the Shiribeshi region of central Hokk...
Harvesting of rice begins in earnest as ears turn golden
The harvesting of rice has begun in earnest in the town of Tobetsu in the Ishikari region of central Hokkaido, where rice production thrives. Due to the continuous intense heat of the summer this y...
The work of thinning-down the ‘Yamasachi’ vines – developed especially for wine-making – is reaching its peak in the vineyards of Chiyoda in the town of Ikeda in the Tokachi region of eastern Hokka...
First production of orange wine begins at Kitami winery
The first attempt at producing orange wine has begun at the Infeeld Winery in the Tanno-cho district of the city of Kitami in the Okhotsk region of eastern Hokkaido.
The harvesting of the cone-shaped flowers of hops, which are used to make beer, is reaching its peak in the town of Kamifurano in northern Hokkaido. The hops grow on vines that extend to a height o...
First catch landed in Taiki as autumn salmon fishing begins on the Pacific coast in eastern Hokkaido
The autumn salmon fishing season has begun on the Pacific coast in eastern Hokkaido and, on September 1, the first catch of 3.6 tons was landed at the Taiki fishing port in the town of Taiki on the...
Matsumae Kagura in buckwheat fields
The Matsumae Kagura (sacred Shinto dance), which is a designated important intangible folk-cultural property of Japan, was held in a buckwheat field in Sengen in the town of Fukushima in the Oshima...
Fifty large boats leave three ports to fish for Pacific saury off the coast of eastern Hokkaido
The ban on large-scale fishing vessels (at least 100 tons), which are the mainstay of Pacific-saury net fishing in eastern Hokkaido, was lifted on August 20. Despite the forecast of low numbers of ...
The harvesting of carrots has begun in earnest in the town of Otofuke in the Tokachi region of eastern Hokkaido, which boasts the most prolific production in Hokkaido.