My background is very atypical for a market gardener. I was born in Tokyo and went to school there, at the Franco-Japanese high school. I learned French from an early age, I passed the patent, then the baccalaureate, in the French system. I had the chance to travel a lot, including many round trips between Japan and Europe, and the more I traveled, the more I realized how little known my country was.
When I finally settled in France for my studies, I was determined to make the “good things” of Japan known to the rest of the world, by creating bridges between countries, which led me to study business. and management of international projects. I worked for almost ten years to help Japanese companies develop in Europe, in very diverse fields: automotive, art, fashion…
“For me, vegetables can be bought at the supermarket. So when I sowed my first seeds, and saw that it was growing, that it was easy and natural, I was overwhelmed,” Anna Shoji
My last mission was in Algeria, where I lived for five years to support a highway construction project. Funnily enough, this is where my story with vegetables began. Because there are a lot of vegetables in Algeria, but they are often the same all year round: onions, tomatoes, zucchini… In Japan, we like to feel the passing seasons, the climate variations through the products. And, since we couldn’t find what we wanted, my colleagues and I decided to start a small vegetable garden to plant the vegetables we liked. I didn’t know anything about it.
I didn’t have a grandmother in the countryside who sent us crates or showed us how to cultivate a garden. For me, vegetables can be bought at the supermarket. Suffice to say that I was quite skeptical when I sowed my first seeds. When I saw that it grew, that it was easy and natural, I was overwhelmed. And the first cucumber from our garden was delicious. I understood that when the vegetables are good and well grown, there is no need to even cook them. They can be enjoyed raw and raw, minimally processed. I said to myself: “I have to introduce Japanese vegetables to the French!” »
I told my boss and my colleagues that I wanted to go market gardening (which made them laugh) and I started looking for land in France. It was seven years ago. I chose Touraine, because the climate is favourable, and I found a plot of 2 hectares, already cultivated organically. I went to train in Japan, I met the best producers, to understand how to grow vegetables and bring out their tastes.
My idea is to present Japanese varieties, often more delicate, to be eaten raw or very undercooked, very pure, as we like them in Japan. Last year, for the first time, I managed to grow lotus. It’s complicated, because you have to plant it in the ground, under water, and extract the roots not with a spade but with large jets of water. For me, the lotus was an ultimate goal, because it is a product that my mother cooked all the time, to make a sweet and salty, crunchy and soft dish, which symbolizes all my childhood.”
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