What is Traditional Herbal Cultivation?
It starts before the first strawberry is planted.
How We Build the Soil
Every autumn, before planting, we prepare the soil with a blend of traditional medicinal herbs. The approach draws on the principles of kanpo (漢方), the Japanese tradition of herbal medicine. We call it kanpo shoyaku saibai (漢方生薬栽培): herbal cultivation. We work the herbs into the growing medium, where they create a host environment for beneficial microorganisms: lactic acid bacteria, actinomycetes, and yeast that settle into the soil and begin to work.
What the Microbes Do
These organisms don't feed the plant directly. They change the soil itself.
Lactic acid bacteria suppress pathogens. Actinomycetes break down organic residue into stable humus, and humus is part of what gives soil its cation exchange capacity: the ability to hold nutrients and release them where roots can actually reach them. A plant growing in this kind of soil draws on what it needs, steadily, through the season.
We carry the approach into the growing cycle. A diluted herb extract goes into our irrigation water all season long, and we apply a foliar spray to the leaves to support the plant's own defenses from the surface.
No chemical pesticides at any point.
During the Growing Season
"Treat the soil well," says Fukuda, our farm director, "and the soil will handle the rest." He tends the growing conditions from the first soil preparation in autumn to the last picks in May. A strawberry plant under stress puts its energy into survival. A plant in stable, biologically active soil puts that energy into fruit instead. What we taste, season after season, is higher sugar content and a more complex aroma. A flavor worth noticing.
We can't reduce it to a single variable. Growing is not a controlled experiment. But we have farmed this way for years, in the same greenhouses, and the pattern holds.
Come and taste the difference for yourself.
Strawberry picking is open December through May. Reservations required.