Starting with a harvest of 1000 corn cobs
The No.1 crop from ”Tommy Farm” is ”Mille-feuille”. You might think it’s a cake, but it’s not. It’s actually the name of a brand of corn. Named after a cake, it is surely an indication of how sweet the kernels are.
At ”Tommy Farm”, they mainly grow corn. The farm was started in 2008. The founder of the farm, Yuji Tomizawa, was growing corn while working for a company at the time. So harvesting 1000 cobs was the best he could do.
Encouraged by feedback from his first customers that the corn was delicious and sweet, Tomizawa became enthusiastic about farming. After his grandfather passed away, he decided to rent abandoned farm land and proceeded to grow corn. Later, he asked his friend, Shinohara, to help him. This is how a new farm was started. The young farmers’ average age was 29.
Maintaining the freshness and taste by shipping directly
Escorted by the two gentlemen, we went to the fields which had many small corn. These are the ”Mille-feuille” corn waiting to be harvested in two weeks. It was unfortunate for Nakata, who loves corn, to not be able to taste them as they were not ready for harvesting.
Shinohara told Nakata, ”I wish you could have tasted it because it’s really sweet. I actually didn’t like corn until I tasted his corn. When I tried it, the sweetness was outstanding.”
The ”Mille-feuille” corn has received several awards for its sweet and tender taste. It is sold mainly in the direct sale depots in Gunma prefecture. They can also be purchased on the farm’s website which allows them to ship the products directly to their customers.
Now, potatoes and tomatoes have been added to their list of produce, and orders are pouring for these as well.
