671 32 41 5 3 81 Onomura Farm owner Shohei Kikuchi feeds his free-range hens.2 When Kikuchi is around, the din-ing area at Guesthouse Umbrella is also a place where local kids gather for after-school snacks and fun.3 In addition to the double room shown here, Umbrella offers dor-mitory-style accommodation and a room that is exclusively for female guests or families with children.4 The barrel-shaped wooden steam sauna at Umbrella comfortably seats six. 5 Organic farming practices are behind the Milky Eggs produced at Onomura Farm.6 Tsuyoshi Yoshida’s Suffolk sheep. 7 The flock is housed in a cowshed and raised with the same methods used for Wagyu cattle.8 Though all of their fellow villagers evacuated after the 2011 power- plant accident, Yoshida and his father stayed on in Katsurao to care for their cows.Onomura FarmShohei Kikuchi launched this farm with the hope of leading Soma, his hometown, into the future. He sells free-range Milky Eggs, along with the produce he grows, at a shop on-site. He also operates the nearby Guesthouse Umbrella, which can be booked through travel websites. Melty SheepMelt-in-your-mouth cuts of premi-um lamb and mutton produced by Tsuyoshi Yoshida under the name Melty Sheep can be purchased in Katsurao at the Azalea community center. Village Lifeat the age of 26. He runs Onomura Farm in Soma, where he sells organic eggs and fresh produce from his home. His “Soma Milky Eggs” are the happy result of organic poultry-farming practices and circu-lar agriculture. The hens range freely within a large enclosure. Their feed is a blend of rice bran and the calcium- and collagen- rich parts of fish left after they have been filleted for market, which Kikuchi receives from farmers and fish sellers in exchange for eggs. Meanwhile, the chicken manure fertilizes his fields. Onomura Farm has gained a solid reputation for its sustainable approach to poultry farming, and orders for its eggs come in from afar. The hard shells crack open with a crisp, sharp line and the healthy yolks stand tall and plump. are locally focused, Kikuchi’s eyes are on the world, and this has attracted many young people to his farm who seek to grow crops and become poultry farmers themselves. He welcomes them all, and has taken in French tourists who sometimes ask for temporary lodging in exchange for work in the fields.Heading inland away from the coast, Hamadori becomes farmland. Despite the challenges of the 2011 disasters, some resourceful people have stayed on in these rural areas, undertaking new initiatives in agri-culture and animal husbandry to help them get by.Shohei Kikuchi began farming after the disasters, “You’ll see reports that say Japan is self-sufficient in terms of egg production, but it’s not really true as long as farmers are relying on imported feed,” Kikuchi asserts. “And in Europe, cramped chicken coops are long since a thing of the past.”While his sustainable circular farming methods explains. “It’s a big help to have extra hands on the farm for about six hours each day, starting first thing in the morning. In their free time, visitors might hop on a bike to get some sightseeing done.”far from his farm. The lodgings offer ample accom-modations; there is even a steam sauna in the yard. Guests may arrive as strangers, but become friends in the course of their stay, or through the shared expe-rience of working together on the farm. It makes for a memorable kind of travel.of Katsurao lives Tsuyoshi Yoshida, one of a small number of sheep farmers in Japan. Demand for his premium cuts of lamb and mutton is so high that he is now doubling his yearly flock from 100 to 200 head.what he could do to contribute to the revitalization of the stricken area when he happened to eat some domestic mutton and found it delicious. He already had cattle—he could raise sheep himself, he thought, and while he was at it, he might as well produce the best lamb and mutton possible. And so he set himself to the task, applying improvised techniques. His first taste of his own mutton was like a puzzle piece snap-ping into place, he says. “I provide a room and three meals a day,” he Recently, Kikuchi opened Guesthouse Umbrella not Farther south and still farther inland in the village Following the disasters, Yoshida was searching for “Instead of pasturing the sheep, I raise them just like Wagyu cattle. This means they’re fed five to ten times more than usual, which results in nicely mar-bled meat.” Hence the brand name, “Melty Sheep.” Yoshida’s melt-in-your mouth cuts are well worth picking up, perhaps for a barbecue on the coast.Keeping Chickens, Raising Sheep—All in a Day’s Work29Living Off the Land
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