Arlington Resident Visits Utsumi Farm in Setagaya

by Michiko Okuma

One day in early June, 2023, Ms. Mika Tamaki and I visited the Utsumi farm in Setagaya city which is in the middle of houses, apartments, and busy streets. When I looked at the map, the farm looked very tiny but when I arrived there, I was wrong. The farm was not small, rather it looked pretty big!

And I have to tell you that I have never seen such a neat and clean farm before!!  That's because all the ground area was covered by the black sheet to protect from weeds and insects. I immediately asked Mr. Utsumi if it was the hardest job to cover the ground with sheets but his answer was No. Weeding during the day is much harder and time consuming. He also insisted how hard it is to tackle insects, weed and the weather every day.

There were cucumbers, Edamame, a variety of eggplants, zucchini (Mr. Utsumi's favorite), corn and tomatoes, and all of them looked so delicious!  Half of the farmland is apple tree orchard! Mr. Utsumi was carefully wrapping each apple to cover it with thin paper for the coming season.

I delivered a FOUA (Arlington Friends Of Urban Agriculture) T-shirt and a bag from VA Cooperative Extension, the organizations which Mr. Utsumi made a presentation at the SJA-SETCOM/FOUA joint hybrid event (Setagaya & Arlington) last summer.  It was so interesting to learn about farming directly from him.  If I have a chance, I want to come back to pick apples someday.