About Midori Farm Kyoto
Chuck Kayser taught himself to be an organic farmer and found his passion for raising delicious vegetables. He established Midori Farm Kyoto to give others the chance to enjoy healthy produce and experience the joys of growing food in balance with nature.
Greetings from the founder of Midori Farm
The Power of Organic Farming
Hello, I am Chuck Kayser of Midori Farm in Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture. I moved to Japan from the U.S. 25 years ago, and founded Midori Farm Kyoto to sell vegetables, host volunteers, operate tours and organize events.
I love growing organic vegetables and teaching others about the process and joy of farming. We also maintain a YouTube channel to share our techniques; we now have over 80 videos. Organic farming has changed my life and made me realize what the most important things really are. I would like everyone to experience for themselves how the vegetables we eat every day can be produced in such a way as to improve our quality of life, build communities and help us coexist with the natural environment and give hope for future generations.
The origin story of Midori Farm
Sometimes I am asked how I started farming. Most are surprised to hear I had never studied agriculture in school, never volunteered on other farms, and never imagined I would ever grow vegetables until I planted my first garden in 2009. For over a year I had been looking to buy some land in the beautiful mountains north of Kyoto City on which to build a log cabin. It was very difficult to find anything in the mountainous area for sale, however.
The owners tended to be reluctant because they felt it would be disrespectful to their ancestors to sell their land, which had been passed down for more than 10 generations. Some friends of mine who lived there helped me find a small piece of land in a tiny village that the owner was willing to sell. We negotiated a price and went to the government office to transfer ownership. Unfortunately, the lot needed to be rezoned in order to build a house on it. This doubled the cost and, in the end, I could not buy the land. The kindly gentleman apologetically said to me, "Why don't you use that land for your garden?” I was not interested in gardening at the time at all, but my friends encouraged me to do it.
So, reluctantly, I started gardening in the mountains of Kutsuki, having no idea what I was doing, but hoping that in the process the village residents would get to know me better. Perhaps then they might be willing to sell me a small patch of land. The first year the garden seedlings looked good until the deer came and ate all of them right to the ground. The next year I built a fence and got some carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and more- I was hooked. Completely by accident, I had begun my journey towards Midori Farm. It took me several more years, tears, and mistakes to begin producing enough vegetables to begin a proper business, but it was all worth it.
