sustainable agriculture

Solar Cafe, Pumpkin and Spring Onion Pizza!!!

sustainable agriculture

Relief Eco Villages

The Earth Embassy teams are working on a set of business plans for relief villages. Combining our eco homes and organic farm developement, we are trying to amp up the schedule and funding asap now to get 2 locations going by late spring/early summer if possible.

1) Shojiko Reformed Village – to prepare 10-15 homes, with 5 small “cottage industry” shops (soap making, paper making, etc), and job training for new residents

1a) Gelato Farm – at Solar Cafe, to offer jobs and farm training for new Shojiko residents, and make a small fruit & herb farm business incubator

2) Mini Farm Home Village – mix of shipping container base / vinyl greenhouse / recycled materials. Plan is to build 30 to start, centered around a farm/education center. Hopefully locate first one in Tsunami afflicted areas, but be able to offer to other rural communities willing to develop a village to take refugee families.

3) Farm/Cottage Industry Education Team – to establish, manage and train new staff for each location. In addition to the small businesses we can set up oursleves to start, we want to send out consultants, community builders, branding experts etc to work with new residents, help identify local talent and specialties, and empower residents to re-establish their lives/careers.

Our most immediate need for funding is to get one demo Mini Farm Home built asap, so we can have one ready to show as we approach other big investors/partners to work together to get a proper village of these going. Costs will come down as we ramp up production and gather companies willing to donate materials, containers etc. For the first prototype we need about 3M jpy to get built quick, and produce some promo materials, catalog, etc.

Anyone willing to help with these projects should contact us at info@earthembassy.org
We are fielding a lot of mail, so please indicate your interest in the subject line.

sustainable agriculture

Earthquake Relief Housing – Mini Farm Homes

The Earth Embassy is putting together a team to quickly build relief shelter for residents of the Sendai area and coastal regions who recently lost their towns to the Tsunami. Mini Eco-homes, built from shipping containers, can be done quickly and inexpensive. They will include rain water collection systems, passive solar heating, and greenhouses to provide residents with secure locations for now and any future scenario.
We will also provide agricultural training and small farm incubation support, to efficiently create a stable food source and small income producing fields. Ideally these temporary locations will become permanent villages and act as a hub for rebuilding more sustainable communities. Immediate need is for funding, and as we build we will also be welcoming volunteer support.

sustainable agriculture

Mt Fuji Mint Tea – for sale online!!!!

Finally our 100% non-certified Organic Mt Fuji Mint Tea is available for easy home delivery!!! The team over at Tengu-Alishan have been providing the best organics and fair trade food in Japan for 20 years now, and have the most extensive catalog you will find anywhere here. Our mint is all hand grown and harvested in our small field at the base of MT Fuji in Narusawa village. We grow using permaculture practices with plum trees and raspberry bushes lining the fields. All natural, all the time! The blend of our three mints, applemint, spearmint and white peppermint is unique in its mildness and smooth flavor. Great as a hot tea on chilly mornings or as an ice tea come summer. Get yours now, cause when its gone, we will be waiting for June before we can harvest more… Click here for ordering Mt Fuji Mint Tea at Alishan

sustainable agriculture

Organic Mint Chocolate Strawberry Tofu Cheesecake!!!

New on the Solar Cafe menu….this cake is made with organic mint and strawberries grown on our own farm, and fair trade organic 100% cocoa powder from Alishan. The “cheese” cake is made with tofu instead of cheese, so it is waaaay healthy too!

sustainable agriculture

Eco-Greenhouse & Earthships Building Workshop

This summer we will build a passive solar Earth Ship greenhouse that can be used as a living space or for growing plants year round.

Earth Ships are built largely with recycled materials, most of which are easily available and free for the asking. Used, steel-belted automobile tires, packed solid with earth, become giant 400- pound bricks that create sound-proof, fire and earthquake resistant, fortress- like walls.

Once built, Earth Ships collect rain water from potable roofing material into water storage tanks that provide an abundant source of water, even in areas with minimal rainfall.

Dates: July 28 to August 1, 2010 (tentative)
Cost: ¥ 48,000 (weekend only: ¥20,000)
Location: The Earth Embassy Solar Café and Farm, on the foot of Mt. Fuji.
Contact: info@earthembassy.org

The Experience Includes:
• Classroom overview of Earth Ship building and its environmental advantages. Discussion in English with Japanese support.
• Hands on experience building an Earth Ship. We will line a 4m x 8m hole with earth-packed tires and build a roof and south-facing wall designed to function as a passive solar greenhouse.
• Farm tour and organic farming activities.
• Hike to nearby Ice caves.
• Three home-cooked meals a day prepared with locally grown organic foods.
• Lodging in the Earth Embassy Guest House.

sustainable agriculture

The Solar Shower is heating up!

The solar shower at the Solar Cafe & Guest House catches rainwater from our roof, which is stored in 3 (200litre) tanks in an insulated box which heats up in the sunlight. The building itself was done with recycled floor boards from the Shojiko High Village house second floor. The boards are over 150 years old, with the original ax marks still showing where they were hand hewn long before advent of power saws, and the natural coating of creosote was layered on over years of smoke from the fireplace, and are thus the wood is naturally water resistant and will last for another 150 years. THAT’S sustainability baby!

sustainable agriculture

Wild Strawberries and Wild Dogs

These strawberries are actually a man-made variety that has grown wild in our home garden. They have been unattended for over 10 years, but are still growing strong, complete natural farming. We simply go in once a year and pull out some of the weeds around them. Even our animals help! Nora-chan, a wild dog from the village who adopted us last year, loves eating grass and was a big help with the weeds. The before and after pictures show the strawberries with a few weeds pulled out to let in the sunlight, and then piled along side for mulch.

sustainable agriculture

Mulch, the Organic Farmer’s best friend.

The biggest challenges farming organically are bugs and weeds, and resisting the temptation to use chemicals. At the Earth Embassy, our basic method for weed control is mulch, mulch, mulch. The beauty of mulch is:
1) it can be harvested locally. We use fallen leaves from the forest and the trimmings from the grass and clover that line our fields.
2) it holds moisture and warmth in the soil by reducing evaporation, and thus limits our need for watering.
3) weeds dont like it! According to Robert’s professor at Cobelskill, you need mulch at least 3-5 inches (7-12cm) deep to keep the weed from sprouting.
4) as the mulch breaks down, it becomes fertilizer for the crops.

In this picture we have cleared and mulched fields ready for planting.

sustainable agriculture

New Mini Eco Home!

David Howenstien and the Jambo International crew have sponsored a new mini-eco house for our farm.   We got an old grain silo from a local farm and set it in the garden next to the cafe.  Koji Watanabe helped prepare the foundation and brought the big truck to drive it in and unload it.  In June, David and the Jambo team will come up for a weekend and help us put in the new floor.  We will be using twice recycled wood that was once floor boards in a barn, then used at the Tokyo International Flower Show for a country-style garden, then came to us!  Contact David if you would like to join the Jambo farming and building weekend on June 25-27.  jambodave@green.email.ne.jp

sustainable agriculture

Shojiko High Village House – Sunroom & Dining

Restoring an old home is a new adventure in design everyday.  When we took out the southern kitchen wall at the Shojiko Lake House  ( currently for sale ), to add a sun room and dining area, we exposed the old beams which held up the thatched roof.  We hadn’t realized they were buried there in the ceiling, so when we saw how beautiful they looked, we redesigned the new ceiling on the spot to leave them visible.  It was an extra half day of consulting with the carpenters to figure it out, but well worth the result.

sustainable agriculture

High Village House, winter tour

sustainable agriculture

Eden Homes – Pre-fab Urban Eco Home

A project that has been slowly simmering for the last few years in finally getting close to reality. We just got funding and are starting construction on our demo “Mini Eco Home” which will be based on a shipping container format for strength, durability, mobility and affordability. The model will be ready in Spring 2010 at the Lake Saiko Lodges location with small farm lots for sale. We are also talking to partners about building a demo site with rentals in Tokyo in the coming year.

sustainable agriculture

Insulating Pipes at High Village House

Masaru, ever dilligent, is here wrapping the pipes in the wall with heated tape to keep us from ice skating in the bathroom all winter. This wall will also be fully insulated and hold our sink vanity and washing machine in the cedar changing room.

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Proud Mama!

Congratulations Na-chan, it’s a ZUCHINNI!!!

sustainable agriculture

Harvest Festival Puppet Show

Ko was the Moon, Natsuco was the Pepper, Jake was the Sun, and Eli played the organ….and they all made the garden grow! Our little fall event was pleasant with Mother and Child Yoga in the morning taught by Tomo-chan from Fuji Yoga. Lunch was pizza the children made from vegetables they picked in the garden. And the puppet show was spectacular! Special thanks to the volunteers and Natsuco for making it all happen and working on those paper-mache puppets all week and still keeping the cafe (mostly) clean.

sustainable agriculture

Our first peanuts are HUGE!!!

This is the first year we have grown peanuts, with apparent great sucess! Have you ever seen a bigger peanut?

sustainable agriculture

Farming with Kitten

Kou Okuma, our newest assistant joined us in the fields today for a bit of fall harvesting. Kome, the kitten abandoned on our doorstep last week also helped out by catching some crickets.

sustainable agriculture

Mint, Basil and Parsley take center stage

We found the best drying space for our herbs is in a well lit and aerated space. 5 days drting on our stage our herbs are crisp and green and ready for packaging. Move over Elvis, Mr. Mint is here!