R-style is the name of a project through which local university students are encouraged by Mr Kedouin (aka Mr Kedwin) to help rehabilitate rural areas and traditional methods of living/farming. Rice planting is just one fragment of their expanding repertoire. Their motto is ‘Inherit the Earth’.

On the 30th May R-Style (and cohorts) began the cycle of rice cultivation. Working with small, unused and awkward shaped rice terraces we set about hand planting. So the story begins…

An old (translated) Japanese proverbial goes something like this ‘The farmer spends eighty-eight efforts on rice from planting to crop.’

The rice paddies were too small for machinery. The only optimistic course of action involved the use of hands. Lots of hands. That day there were close to 120 hands; however, rice out-numbered hands 10:2 and so as sweat dripped, the hands plucked, parted and placed the tender green sprouts in the mud.

A wooden stick used as a guide for straightness and spacing. Bare footed or wellingtons. Hot mud between your toes. Blue skies, brown skies. The hue and saturation of the rice. Cold noodles. Sweat. A man grows a mud fake moustache. A woman cries mud fake tears. Glastonbury with Oryza Sativa headlining. Joy. A newt. A crab. Laughter.

You must visit the rice and carefully weed it and maintain it 24/7.  Helping to maintain the crop is Nishimori san an experienced, hard-working guardian;  the rice is in safe hands.  Slowly it will grow and you shall be able to eat delicious rice.  But surely this isn’t all that will grow in the future as long as R-Style are around…

Coming soon:
R-Style II: The Return to Rice Mountain.