Toshiko Iwasaki
I have found happiness.
My nickname is ‘kabocha mama’ or Pumpkin Mama. I received that name because my life’s passion has been pumpkins.
Until eight years ago we grew eight thousand pumpkin plants on this farm, and although my husband and I grew many different varieties it is the Ajihei pumpkin that we became well known for. When we first tasted the Ajihei, its intense sweet flavour blew our minds. Not only were other people amazed by its flavour, but we were also able to grow each pumpkin with a perfect shape, meaning each and every one made it to market for sale. For these reasons, our pumpkins became very highly rated. My husband and I were so proud, as together, we had worked really hard to grow such a product.
It was also at that time that our youngest child had just graduated and was beginning his first job. We could begin to focus on our own lives and projects. And then all of sudden my husband passed away, in July, just before the first pumpkin harvest of the season. He was only fifty years old. Following that I found it difficult to eat and sleep, let alone imagine how I could farm pumpkins all on my own, and sustain this large farmland. There was however no choice but to complete the autumn harvest before the snow fell.
I really thought I couldn’t go on to farm another year. And then on Christmas day I received an email from a consultant asking me to be involved in the Niseko Halloween project. The community would assist me to plant pumpkin seedlings and grow pumpkins for Halloween. My husband and I had always wanted to grow giant pumpkins and display them like they do in other cities and towns around the world, but he passed away before this dream came true.
Now you can see my pumpkins at the station plaza, Kira Street in the downtown area, and several accommodation premises including Hilton Hotel, Kanro-no-mori and Yugokorotei. I think my husband would smile to see the pumpkins.