Pursuing food safety, and the moist texture of ”Milky Queen”
The kind of rice Dentaro Muto makes is mainly ”Milky Queen”.
”Ah, I like that kind. I like the moist texture,” said Nakata. Muto smiled and said, ”I’m pleased to hear that.”
”I wanted to compete with the cheap foreign rice, and since around 1989, I started to try out many things in order to make delicious, safe and typically Japanese rice.”
According to Muto, Fujiyoshida was said to be unsuitable for rice making, due to the high altitude. ”The soil in Yamanashi Prefecture is volcanic ash, and it was believed making delicious rice was impossible.” However, he believed it was possible to produce good things if you farm correctly. Muto made studied fertilizers and other things for many years, and finally came up with his own farming method. Now his rice has become famous nationwide, and has received many awards including the Diamond Award of National Meito-kai.
It’s a lot of hard work, but fun. — Good rice is made by positive efforts.
Muto’s rice is fully organic. ”To make things in a rice field, it is best to use things that come from the rice field. As long as we keep eating the way as was in olden days, we can have eat deliciously and remain healthy.”
To prove his words, Muto’s rice field had average yield, even when there was a serious damage from cold weather.
”It must be really hard to work from early morning in the rice field, especially at busy times,” said Nakata. To this, Muto answered smiling, ”of course it’s a hard work, but it’s fun.”
