As part of the advance planning for 2019 Japanese Festival of Marmalade @marmaladeawards, I travelled to the top of the hills above the city of #Yawatahama, #EhimePrefecture in northwestern Shikoku, Japan, where rare and delicious citrus fruit seem to wildly flourish and grow everywhere, from steep terraced farms to random patches along the extremely narrow road that weave up through the hills. This same area was the focus of torrential flooding and landslides that destroyed homes and farms, and then was hit by the recent #TyphoonJebi but somehow much of it survived intact. I’m here with the farmer, Mitsuhiro Katitani who grows organic citrus fruit under the #10factory label (for top chefs and stores around Japan) from the traditional #mikanorange (a type of mandarin) through to dozens of rare and (at least to us in the west) relatively unknown varieties that are just starting to get appreciated around Japan. I’m here with a group from the Yawatahama City Office, and the essential oil producer Miyuki Kokubu @OrangeLeCura and part-founder of pretty amazing artisan food store @agoramarche. More to come.
