Seed to Plate Tour Japan

For the last seven years after the farm season comes to an end, Stacey Givens of Side Yard Farm heads to Japan on Side Yard’s ‘Seed to Plate Tour’. During these annual trips she invites Portland chefs, farmers, makers of all kinds to join her in visiting Japanese farmers, ranchers, bakers, dairies and get to know the folks behind organic Japan. Stacey and the crew prepare farm to table dinners for intimate groups using local Japanese ingredients that she sources from her farm visits and gets a chance to spotlight these farmers/makers. Stacey also speaks about making the most of small acreage, farming among urban residents, how her work as a chef and her event space is key to her success, and what it means to be a young queer woman farmer. All the Portland makers involved have a chance to speak about what they do, how community is everything and inspire young folks to farm. Every bit of this is directly relevant in Japan, where many farms are shoulder to shoulder with urban housing, and where the average age of a farmer is even older than in the United States—at 65.9 to our 58.3. There’s a desperate need for new blood. Japanese folks from all walks of life visit The Side Yard Farm every season to discuss the importance of organic urban farming and how to develop more urban farms in Japan. Over the years, these trips have paid off and more and more young folks in Japan are getting into agriculture. The connections, the friendships and what we learn on these trips are life changing.