Domingo is collaborating with towns in Hokkaido for a month to bring you the second installment, this time focusing on Memuro Town! We will be delivering information on how to enjoy the town and its special local products over a period of four weeks. This time, we would like to introduce Memuro Peanut Butter by MEMURO PEANUTS as a local specialty of Memuro Town.

What is "Memuro Peanut Butter"?

This peanut butter is made from peanuts grown in Memuro Town, Tokachi, Hokkaido.

"Memuro Peanut Butter" is made from 100% peanuts produced in Memuro Town! This peanut butter contains no sugar, salt, oils or fats, is made from 100% peanuts and no preservatives, and is made with carefully selected ingredients. Grown in the fertile soil of Tokachi, Hokkaido, the peanuts have a superb sweetness that is created by the difference in temperature between day and night.

Memuro Town's new specialty "Memuro Peanut Butter"

When it comes to peanuts, Hokkaido residents probably think of the bean-throwing ceremony on Setsubun.

The most famous peanut producing areas are China and Chiba in Japan. In fact, there is a group of farmers in Memuro-cho, Hokkaido, who are working to make peanuts a major product of the town. That group is "MEMURO PEANUTS." We spoke to its leader, Fujii-san!

Peanut cultivation in Memuro Town, Tokachi, Hokkaido

"MEMURO PEANUTS" was born about five years ago. "Originally, about 12 years ago, peanut cultivation started as an initiative by the youth group of the Kamifushiko area to 'grow a new crop!' When I first started farming, the youth group cultivated peanuts on a scale similar to a home vegetable garden and sold boiled peanuts at the JA festival. I really enjoyed working on a new crop with people of the same generation. It was in the spring four years ago that I said, 'I want to grow this in my own field!'"

In Chiba Prefecture, where peanuts are produced in Japan, production volume has been declining year by year due to the aging population, so Fujii and his team were encouraged to start producing them in Hokkaido. Deciding to seriously tackle peanut cultivation as a crop, four farming households formed a peanut production group. In the second year, the number of households gradually increased to seven, in the third year to nine, and in the fourth year to ten. Now, in the fifth year, 13 farming households are producing peanuts under the name "MEMURO PEANUTS."

However, as mentioned at the beginning, China is the main producer of peanuts in the world, and Chiba Prefecture in Japan. If we trace it back further, peanuts are originally from South America. We have the image of peanuts as a crop that grows easily in warm places, so the fact that they can be grown in Hokkaido is surprising. "In Hokkaido, where temperatures are low, even if you grow them in the same way as in Chiba Prefecture, they don't grow as well as they used to. After five years of practice and research, we've finally established a way to grow them well here in Tokachi."

At first, peanut production started with four households on an area of ​​about 80 ares, but this year, in the fifth year, there are 13 households and the total area is 8 hectares, which is about 10 times as much. Everyone is working hard to make Memuro Town a major peanut producing area.

This is Fujii's peanut field. Due to the terrain, the back of the field is not visible, but it is said to be 340m deep... In addition to the four Tokachi field crops (wheat, sugar beets, potatoes, and beans), peanuts are produced on this scale, so the work of Tokachi farmers and the scale of their field crops is truly amazing. "Tokachi and Memuro Town are large-scale farming areas, and it has become possible to grow peanuts on such a large area of ​​our field. I believe that mechanization is absolutely essential to produce peanuts on such a large scale as an agricultural crop. We have been working with an agricultural machinery manufacturer to develop machinery for peanuts." I was surprised to learn that they are not only working on growing peanuts, but also on developing machinery for efficiency and large-scale peanut production, by importing machinery used for harvesting in China, where large-scale production is carried out, and developing new machinery as well. I was impressed by how they are taking on the challenge of unprecedented large-scale peanut production in Hokkaido, through trial and error, through repeated practice and research.

MEMURO PEANUTS leader Fujii-san and member Tsuchiya-san. They're going to be filming a YouTube video together soon!

MEMUEO PEANUTS is also broadcasting on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe to the channel!

How can you enjoy peanuts from Memuro Town?

MEMURO PEANUTS peanuts can be enjoyed in a variety of forms, including boiled peanuts, roasted peanuts, sweets, ice cream, and peanut butter. By the way, Fujii's recommendation is boiled peanuts. In the town, there are restaurants that serve boiled peanuts on their menu (Yakiniku Suzuki, Restaurant Hiro, Izakaya Kinari), roasted peanuts are sold at the Ainaya Farmers Market, and you can also enjoy peanut gelato at Ice Shop next door.

As introduced in the article by the Domingo editorial department , "Memuro Town," a town where you can enjoy food and the outdoors in a landscape created by agriculture, the Hidaka Mountains, and blue skies, you can also enjoy "Mempie Soft," a soft serve ice cream made with 100% ingredients from Tokachi, at the Farmers Base on the 1st floor of the National Guest House, Memuro Shin-Arashiyama Sky Park, from July 15th.

Photo courtesy of Memuro Town Facebook

How can you eat peanuts from Memuro Town?

The prize for this giveaway, "Peanut Butter," is made from 100% peanuts from Memuro Town! The peanuts are harvested, shelled, roasted, and then ground into a smooth paste. This peanut butter is made from 100% peanuts from Memuro Town and contains no sugar or starch syrup, and the rich sweetness and fragrant aroma of peanuts spreads in your mouth.

This is a luxurious product that requires a lot of effort, from production to processing. In fact, the editorial team at Domingo also purchased and tasted this peanut butter, and its richness, the sweetness of the peanuts, and the versatility of its uses completely overturned our previous image of peanut butter as something to spread on bread. It is a truly delicious peanut butter with a fragrant and gentle sweetness that can be used in a wide range of applications, from sweets to cooking, such as drizzling it on ice cream or yogurt, mixing it into cookie dough, as a sauce for Bang Bang Chicken, as a salad dressing, or in dandan noodles.