The harvest of the vegetable "Navana", which heralds the arrival of spring, is at its peak in Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture.
Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture, is known for its early-blooming rape field, and about 30 farmers ship "Navana", which is harvested at the bud stage before the rape blossoms bloom, as a special product.
Harvesting is at its peak now, and in Kotaro Hayashi's field, the work of scraping the leaves that have grown to a size of about 50 cm and cutting the buds together with the stems with scissors is being continued every day.
The nabana grown by Mr. Hayashi has less bitterness so that it can be eaten raw by devising fertilizer, and it is also provided for school lunch in Moriyama city.
This year, the cold weather last month caused the leaves to freeze and be damaged, and the weight of the snow caused the stems to break, so production is expected to be about 40% less than usual.
Mr. Hayashi said, "It's difficult to manage due to the cold weather, but it's delicious as usual, so I want you to enjoy it with tempura and so on."
The harvest of Nabana in Moriyama City will continue until early April, and will be lined up at local direct sales offices and supermarkets.