Trivia about Wasanbon | A year in the life of a sugarcane farmer

The gentle sweetness of Wasanbon.

Wasanbon is made from sugar cane, and today's topic focuses on sugar cane.

When you think of sugar cane, many people probably think of Okinawa.

In fact, sugarcane is cultivated in many places other than Okinawa, including Kyushu and Shikoku.

In the Shikoku region, sugarcane is grown in Kagawa and Tokushima prefectures, and sugarcane for brown sugar is grown in Ehime and Kochi prefectures.

Sugarcane cultivation period and cultivation method

In Japan, it often takes 8 months to a year and a half to grow from planting to harvest.

Sugarcane is carefully nurtured by farmers and grows well in the sunlight, and it accumulates a lot of sugar, which becomes the raw material for sugar.

There are three types of sugarcane growing seasons.

・Spring planting: Planted in spring and harvested the following winter (cultivation period: about 8 to 10 months)

・Summer planting: Planted in summer and harvested in winter the year after next (cultivation period: about 1.5 years)

-Stump-growing: A method of growing shoots that emerge from the stump after the winter harvest and harvesting again the following winter.

Each farmer devisees their own cultivation methods, such as shifting the cultivation period, lengthening it, or using different soil.

Summer planting has a longer growing period than spring planting, and the sugarcane grows longer and thicker, so it is said that the sugar yield per cane increases.

The Shikoku region has a warm climate and winters are colder than in Okinawa and other areas, so spring planting is the norm.

The sugarcane grows rapidly by receiving plenty of summer sunlight, and by surviving the slightly cold period from autumn to around December, the sugar content of the sugarcane increases dramatically, resulting in a higher yield.

Sugarcane is sensitive to the cold, so if it is left out for any longer than that, it will become damaged or diseased, resulting in a decline in quality.

In December, the sugarcane is harvested all at once and pressed as soon as possible after harvesting to obtain fresh sugarcane juice.

Does sugarcane have seeds?

Sugarcane has buds at the nodes of the stem, and planting these will cause new buds to appear.

At harvest time, sugar cane is separated into sugar cane for sugar production and sugar cane for the following year, and the cane for the following year is buried in the soil to keep it warm and overwinter.

About sugarcane varieties

The sugar cane used to make Wasanbon has been called "bamboo sugar" or "chikusha" since ancient times.

Local farmers in Kagawa Prefecture often call this sugarcane "hosokibi" (thin sugarcane) because it is so thin.

As its name suggests, this variety has thin sugarcane that is prone to bending during typhoons and has a low yield per cane.

In addition, this variety of sugarcane has a lower sugar content than varieties that have been improved, making it difficult to crystallize.

Currently, sugarcane is grown in Tokushima and Kagawa prefectures, but each farmer and sugar factory has their own unique approach to sugarcane cultivation and sugar production.

It might be interesting to try different Wasanbon flavors and compare them!