Episode notes
This month it's all chillies. With over 400 plants in the ground and some growing tree-sized, we've finally got serious about selling — Shizuka's set up a Mercari shop (Japan's answer to eBay, more or less), and we've built 16 drying racks to turn the overflow into ichimi tōgarashi. Our chillies have also landed in a local shop, Middleman Groceries in Tamba Sasayama, and on the menu at Takaburu Curry.
We also get into the messier side of natural farming: the ongoing hand-to-hand combat with kamemushi on the chillies, a leafhopper invasion in the lower paddies that's brought sooty mould with it, and what we're doing to keep the rice happy despite it.
And then there's makomodake — the edible swollen stem that only exists because of a fungus called Ustilago esculenta. I get a bit carried away explaining why fungi are basically responsible for all life on Earth, but I promise I reined it in.
Plus: yuzukosho, azuki in flower, a first look ahead to the rice harvest, and a full report on which insects we're just quietly rooting for.