Akinori Kimura, a farmer and apple grower from Aemori, the northernmost province of Honshu, developed a method of naturally organic apple growing after his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness attributed to pesticides.
Hajime Shimodozono and Akinori Kimura
Apples without pesticides
Overnight, he decided to completely stop using pesticides and fertilizers in his farming. Aomori province is famous for its great apples, but until the development of the Kimura method, commercial apple growers considered it impossible to grow good apples without the use of pesticides. Since 1978, Akinori Kimura has spent a long and difficult ten years trying to grow apples without the use of any preservatives or inputs. These were difficult years full of setbacks and failures. However, Mr Kimura persevered and over time the first successes came. In time he became famous, began writing articles about his method in professional journals, lecturing and his story even became the basis for a stage play and a film.
Natural power of roots
The principle behind the Kimura method is the idea that agricultural crops tend to be overfed with the nutrients they need and become weak and dependent as a result. Fields, gardens and orchards are full of just such crops. These are not the crops we want to consume. After all, plants have everything they need to thrive in a healthy and natural environment. The farmer’s role is to provide them with such an environment.
The Kimura method goes one step further than conventional organic farming. It relies on the natural strength of the roots and makes the soil itself an environment in which existing micro-organisms live in symbiosis.
Shimodozono and Organic Sencha Kimura
At the Shimodozono Biofarm in Kagoshima, where our Sencha Kimura comes from, this method of cultivation was first applied to a different plant species, tea plants, in 2004.
Our sencha comes from April harvest from Zairai bushes grown from seed in Kagoshima, South Japan. The oxidation of the tea leaves was completed in the case of this tea by hot steam, a medium-long steaming method called Chumushi, where the leaves are exposed to 100 degrees for 45-60 seconds. The matte green leaves are made up of traditional oblong needles with a delicate slightly nutty aroma. The light green infusion has a pleasantly balanced flavour with fruity sweetness, a slight citrus astringency, a trace of basil and ginseng.
