Kimura-method
Akinori Kimura developed natural organic apple cultivation after his wife's illness was traced back to pesticides. From then on, he decided to completely dispense with the use of pesticides and fertilisers.
His method goes one step further than conventional organic farming. It relies on the natural power of the roots and creates an environment from the soil itself in which the existing microorganisms live in symbiosis.
This development takes time and the changeover was followed by long years of poor harvests and scorn from other farmers. But in the meantime, Kimura apples have developed splendidly and have even earned the nickname "Miracle Apples", and demand for them is high. Probably the most prominent supporter is Yoko Ono, who also wrote the foreword to Takuji Ishikawa's book "Akinori Kimura's Miracle Apples".
At Shimodozono Biofarm, this cultivation method was applied to another plant species for the first time in 2004 on the initiative of Hiroshi Shimodozono. The tea plants could only be harvested again for the first time 6 years after the changeover.
Hajime Shimodozono und Akinori Kimura with the 'Miracle Apples'
KEIKO Managing Director Markus Hastenplug at the Biofarm 2015. The two rows on the left were cultivated using the Kimura method. 4 more rows have since been added to the original 4 in order to increase the harvest volume and gain further insights into the method.