26th March, 2017
I’m planning to grow Hechima (loofahs) this summer. I used to buy seeds through mail order from Noguchi Seeds Labo, which sells only non-filial 1 hybrid seeds. But now, I’m prohibiting myself from ordering things through mail order for a while, and the labo is deep in the mountains in Saitama prefecture. It is not practical to go there just to get a few seeds.
Fortunately, I found a seeds sharing system, “Tane (seeds) Box“. A booth like the picture above is installed at Aoyama Farmer’s Market, which is held in front of the UN university every week.
You can see the variety of seeds they offer on the link above, and some shops located in Fujisawa, Kamakura, Hachioji, and Setagaya have a “Tane Box” (refer to the right side column on the link).
To get the seeds, you choose the seeds you want, take some (the amount you need), and write a Thank You card. That’s it.
If you don’t have any seeds, you can just make an offer for now, it is no problem. I’m going to give back seeds if my chillies go well this year.
Here are the Hechima seeds I got, not F1 hybrid, packageless !!
About the farmer’s market, it was not as fruitful as I had expected from the viewpoint of seeking packageless vegetables. Almost all the produce is wrapped in plastic so elaborately that you can’t take only the vegetable and return the wrapper.
極東ゼロ・ウェイスト Kyokuto Zero Waste 