Vol. 1 Chapter 1.9 – 1565, Late August

In late August, Shizuko and the others harvested all their crops except for the sweet corn and sweet potatoes.

There was a reason why they had left the sweet corn standing even after its harvesting season had passed.

By leaving the corn unharvested until the plants withered, the kernels would mature and could be collected as seeds.

In other words, Shizuko intended to produce seeds for the following year.

‘Thank goodness they aren’t F1 hybrids.’

There were two types of corn seeds.

The first consisted of the corn’s original seeds, commonly known as traditional or open-pollinated varieties.

The second consisted of first-generation hybrids, commonly referred to as F1 seeds, produced by crossing two different purebred lines.

F1 hybrids produced large ears of corn with strong disease resistance but their drawback was that the same kind of corn could not be reproduced from their seeds the following year.

They were continuously cultivated and consumed as first-generation plants, with no expectation of producing subsequent generations.

Even if a second generation were successfully produced, the resulting plants would possess appearances and characteristics entirely different from those of their parents.

This was the inescapable fate of F1 hybrids.

Fortunately, the corn seeds Shizuko possessed came from a traditional variety that her grandfather had independently improved over the years.

Therefore, even if she planted the harvested seeds the following year, they would produce exactly the same variety.

It was a high-yielding variety with strong disease resistance, exceptionally tender kernel skins, and a refreshing sweetness.

Its one drawback was that it required more water than ordinary corn.

However, since Shizuko had no need to worry about water bills or anything of the sort, this hardly constituted a disadvantage for her.

‘Hmm, I suppose I’ll divide two hectares into eight plots for continuous cropping and crop rotation. One hectare for sugarcane, one hectare for sweet potatoes, and since the rice paddies are the main priority, I’ll allocate two hectares to them.’

Continuous cropping referred to the practice of repeatedly cultivating the same crop in the same field.

Crop rotation, on the other hand, was a method of cultivating different types of crops with varying characteristics on the same land according to a cycle spanning several years.

By periodically changing the crops being cultivated, the soil’s nutritional balance could be maintained, improving both harvest yields and crop quality.

It also helped prevent the decline in yield and quality caused by pathogens, pests, and other problems associated with continuous cropping.

Shizuko decided on a four-year rotation cycle, arranging the farmland into pairs of plots, each measuring 0.5 hectares, which would be rotated together.

‘Continuous cropping in spring and autumn, changing the cultivated plots each year, and improving soil fertility with compost. Those measures alone should dramatically increase agricultural productivity.’

She drew up a plan to completely reorganise the existing farmland and convert it into fields suitable for crop rotation and continuous cropping.

Fortunately, if all the existing farmland were cleared and levelled, it would cover an area equivalent to the planned two hectares.

However, that alone would not provide enough farmland.

She still needed one hectare for sugarcane, another hectare for sweet potatoes, and two hectares for rice paddies.

That left her short of four hectares in total. The fifty farmers Nobunaga had ordered Mori Yoshinari to gather would not arrive until the following year.

Until then, she needed to complete at least the basic land surveying and plot organisation.

‘Hmm, I suppose there’s no helping it. I’ll just have to ask Mori-sama to lend me some temporary labourers.’

With such a severe shortage of manpower, she had little choice but to ask Mori Yoshinari to provide additional labour.

Since Shizuko’s agricultural reforms could already be considered a matter of national policy, Mori Yoshinari would likely be happy to oblige.

However, that did not mean she could expect him to provide an unlimited number of workers. Naturally, she had to be careful not to get her hopes up too much.

‘Well, I’ve still got another six months…As long as I can get the land cleared and levelled by then, I suppose that’ll do.’

Ultimately, Shizuko decided that thinking too deeply about the matter would not lead her to any conclusions, so she stopped dwelling on the difficulties.

‘Now then, time to get some work done today, too.’

To tackle the tasks awaiting her, Shizuko shouldered her farming tools and left the house.

One week later.

“Today, everyone will be taking part in our first sweet potato harvest!”

“OOOH!”

Approximately four months after the sweet potatoes had been planted in early May, their first harvesting season finally arrived in early September.

The villagers had been in high spirits since that morning, and they responded with a thunderous cheer.

And understandably so, for the sweet potatoes had received the most favourable response during the trial harvest.

Unlike the other crops, their ability to keep one’s stomach full for a long time and provide a satisfying sense of fullness had proven particularly popular.

“When we conducted the trial harvest last week, the sweet potatoes had already grown to a decent size, so today we’ll dig up everything as far as that sign over there.”

Since the seedlings had been planted at weekly intervals, the sweet potatoes spread across the vast farmland were at different stages of growth.

To make these differences easier to distinguish, Shizuko had erected signs indicating when each section had been planted.

By using those signs as boundaries, they could avoid unnecessarily digging up potatoes that were not yet ready.

“First, we’ll cut away the stems of the sweet potatoes we’re going to harvest. Once that’s done, we’ll start digging them up.”

“Village Chief! What should we do with the ones we’ve harvested?”

“Brush off the soil, put them into buckets, and carry them back to the village. We’ll be drying the harvested sweet potatoes in the sun for one day, followed by about a week of drying in the shade.”

The instant she said that, the villagers erupted.

Naturally, they had assumed they would be able to eat the sweet potatoes right there and then.

“Quiet, all of you! Sweet potatoes don’t taste particularly good immediately after harvesting. Drying them increases their sweetness. Sweet, fluffy sweet potatoes or ordinary sweet potatoes… Which would you rather eat?”

Shizuko made her declaration while pointing the wooden shovel in her hand towards the villagers.

Apparently, the prospect of eating ordinary sweet potatoes was not particularly appealing, as the villagers fell silent with sheepish expressions.

“Well then, let’s get started!”

Pleased that the villagers had accepted her explanation, Shizuko announced the start of the harvest with a broad grin.

The harvested sweet potatoes were carried straight back to the village, where the soil was lightly brushed off before they were laid out to dry in the sun.

The unwanted portions were gathered together and used entirely as materials for compost and leaf mould. The excavated soil was then returned to its original place.

Such harvesting was carried out only once a week. During the intervals, they devoted their time to developing and organising the farmland.

The task involved dividing a plot measuring 200 metres in length and 200 metres in width into eight sections.

By her calculations, each section would provide a cultivated area of 0.5 hectares for a single crop.

She planned to treat two plots as one set and rotate them through a four-year cycle.

One of the key features of this crop rotation system was that it incorporated something that did not exist in this era: a poultry farm.

The method of spreading rice husks across the area where chickens were raised was known as floor rearing.

Since the chickens would deposit their droppings directly onto the husks, all that needed to be done when converting the area back into farmland was to mix the accumulated material into the soil.

As for their feed, vegetable scraps, powdered animal and fish bones, and powdered seashells would suffice—materials that humans would not ordinarily eat.

On the other hand, because the chickens would not be fed corn or similar foods, their egg yolks would not turn yellow, instead taking on a whitish colour.

Fundamentally, the colour of an egg yolk varied depending on the feed consumed by the laying hen.

If a hen were continuously fed blue-coloured feed, for instance, its egg yolks would develop a bluish tint.

Likewise, if it were continuously fed bone meal and similar materials, the yolks would naturally take on a whitish colour.

‘Well, I doubt anyone besides me even has the notion that egg yolks are supposed to be a vivid yellow…So it shouldn’t be a problem.’

Since there was no established poultry industry, eggs were considered rare and expensive delicacies.

Therefore, even if the yolks were a colour other than yellow, nobody would likely find it strange.

“But I wonder if it’ll be easy to get my hands on some chickens…?”

Shizuko felt a slight twinge of anxiety at the possibility that she might have to start by raising chicks from fertilised eggs.

Sure enough, when Shizuko mentioned chickens, Mori Yoshinari gave her a puzzled look.

Chickens were regarded as sacred birds that heralded the passage of time and were primarily kept as ornamental pets. Although people ate the meat of wild birds, neither chickens nor even their eggs were considered food.

Shizuko was reminded once again that the poultry and egg industry had not begun until the Edo period.

In the end, she managed to obtain only one rooster and five hens.

Her initial concerns proved well-founded, as she would have to raise chicks from fertilised eggs.

Since incubators did not exist in this era, she needed to construct one using whatever materials were available. Surprisingly, however, she found a solution in an unexpected resource.

Hot springs.

The hot spring water was originally discharged into the river as wastewater but Shizuko came up with the idea of using its heat to create something resembling an incubator.

First, she built a small hut over the channel through which the hot spring water flowed and coated the floor with lacquer to waterproof it. This created a rudimentary form of underfloor heating.

Next, she spread soil and rice husks across the floor, then gathered feathers from ducks and other wild birds to create an environment where each egg could be individually wrapped.

It sounded simple when put into words, but construction took nearly two weeks. Including the temporary poultry enclosure she built nearby, the entire process required three weeks.

Once everything was ready, she asked Mori Yoshinari to arrange transportation for the chickens, only to receive the disheartening reply that delivering them would take another two weeks.

Meanwhile, the sweet potato harvest continued throughout the construction of the poultry enclosure and the makeshift incubator hut.

The sweet potatoes, which had been dried for a week, possessed a pleasant sweetness and were extremely popular among the villagers.

However, there was a way to make sweet potatoes taste even better: allowing them to mature in storage for an extended period after sun-drying.

Regardless of the variety, storing sweet potatoes for approximately one to two months allowed their starch to convert into sugars, bringing out their sweetness.

For household storage, each sweet potato could be wrapped individually in newspaper and placed in a cardboard box. Farmers with traditional Japanese houses could instead place them in rice sacks and allow them to mature in earthen-walled storehouses. The ideal storage temperature was between 13 and 16 degrees Celsius.

One important precaution was to avoid storing them in environments where the temperature exceeded 20 degrees Celsius. This was because sweet potatoes would begin sprouting when exposed to temperatures above 20 degrees.

There was another point to keep in mind. Sweet potatoes continued to respire, so proper ventilation had to be considered. Any container with good airflow would suffice, but the rice sacks mentioned earlier were particularly suitable for storing sweet potatoes because of their excellent breathability.

However, the quantity they had cultivated was so large that the earthen-walled storehouse could not accommodate everything. Partway through, they found it necessary to construct storage pits known as『imo-ana』specifically for preserving sweet potatoes.

They dug deep holes (approximately 60 centimetres), lined them with straw, and placed the sweet potatoes inside.

Finally, they added rice husks to provide thorough insulation before covering the pits with soil.

To make the storage pits easy to identify, they erected signboards and assigned numbers to each one, establishing the order in which the stored potatoes would be consumed.

But that was not all. Shizuko also decided to produce dried sweet potatoes at the same time.

Of the three sweet potato varieties she cultivated, Tamayutaka was particularly suited for making dried sweet potatoes. Its soft texture, pronounced sweetness, and clean, uncomplicated flavour made it irresistibly delicious—the sort of treat that made it difficult to stop after just one bite.

Although the process of making dried sweet potatoes was somewhat complicated, they had the advantage of remaining edible even if a little mold had developed.

The preparation method required a fair amount of effort, but once one became accustomed to it, it was quite simple.

After harvesting, the sweet potatoes were exposed to cold air to encourage their starch to convert into sugars, among other measures, before being steamed for one to two hours.

The steamed sweet potatoes were then peeled, arranged on bamboo drying mats, and left to dry in the sun for approximately one week.

Afterward, they simply needed to be placed in earthenware jars and stored in a cool, dark place.

With this, they would have no trouble securing enough food to last until the following spring, and considerable improvements in their nutritional intake could also be expected.

Since the pumpkins were also being stored properly, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they had food to spare.

“Well, the harvest is pretty much finished…So let’s celebrate with a roasted sweet potato festival!”

To celebrate the bountiful harvest, Shizuko decided to hold a roasted sweet potato festival using their freshly harvested sweet potatoes.

Naturally, not a single villager voiced any objection.

[いも穴 (imo-ana) literally means “potato pit” or “sweet potato storage pit.”]