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Rice

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Mature Rice Plants

Mature Rice Plants

We started our walk on May 18th and it is now July 9th. Where did the time go? What really puts the passing of time into perspective is watching the rice. We have seen the plants be planted, grow, be transplanted, mature, be harvested, be reaped and then dried. It is an incredibly labor intensive process. Doug passed on some interesting facts about rice to me. The farming of rice uses almost 1/3 of the world’s fresh water supply. Rice cultivation is well suited to countries with low labor costs and high rainfall. Rice consumption accounts for more than 20% of the calories consumed by humans world wide. Next time you go to Costco, check out how insanely cheap a 25 lb bag of rice is.
This photo shows how rice is dried. We see lots of it being dried in what are essentially people’s driveways and paved front yards.
Rice Being Dried

Rice Being Dried

About Micae Martinet

6 Responses to “Rice”

  1. Kieron

    That’s an astonishing figure – I guess rice cannot be grown using salt water.
    When Noriko gave birth to the twins I spent 3 months in Japan on their farm watching both our children and the rice grow. As you say, it’s a lovely barometer with which to measure the passage of time.

    • Micae Martinet

      That’s a beautiful story. Are your children growing up bi-lingual?

  2. Thomas A Martinet

    I love rice, especially brown rice. Also like wild rice although I think it is not the same family as regular rice! It is really a handful of people, comparatively speaking, that feed the entire human race. A great shout of thanks to these hard working folks!

    • Micae Martinet

      Doug and I love rice too. Our favorite variety is Cal Rose rice. It’s a sticky rice but I don’t think I’ll be eating any for a while after we get home. That goes for rice noodles too. I’m not even sure I could eat pasta.

  3. jc

    Hi Micae,

    My father spent a large part of his life in Asia trying to improve rice growing (albeit using the company’s products. Better living through chemistry!). He is quite sick, but seeing your pictures takes me back to when we were in Japan and I would see him walking in the rice patties, talking to the farmers. Thanks for the memories. Good luck.

    -jc

    • Micae Martinet

      Hi JC, I had no idea your father was involved in that kind of work. Rice farming looks like hard work; it seems only fair that it should be as productive a yield as possible. I’m sorry to hear that your dad isn’t doing well. I’m glad my little rice growing story triggered a fond memory. I hope he is feeling better soon.

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