“In Japan, in autumn, it is customary to collect fallen leaves, put sweet potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil in the leaves, and light the fallen leaves to bake them,” remembers Chiharu. “When I was a child I did this at my grandparents’ home. It was a special time of cooking and eating together.”

“Instead of ice cream trucks circling the neighborhoods to offer treats, we had stone-roasted sweet potato trucks,” says Midori of her childhood in Japan.

Manami remembers planting sweet potatoes in elementary school and being excited when it was time to harvest the tiny schoolroom crop. And Hisako looked forward to sweet potatoes at snack time. “They warmed my body and my spirit,” she recalls.

Sweet Memories

What unites these memories of sweet potatoes is more than just nostalgia for Japanese culture. This team of Paris-based Japanese garden-lovers are all working in “Le Nid de l’Ortolan” — crossing cultures in a community garden in the heart of Paris.

And thanks to an innovative, cross-cultural idea from garden organizer Julien Chameroy, sweet potatoes are the focus of the moment (as well as a unique opportunity for a Japanese/French liaison project).

Julien, too, had memories of sweet potatoes from his time living in Japan—hearing street vendors hawking grilled sweet potatoes and seeing people hurrying through the streets while taking bites of the warm, sweet treat.

More than those memories, though, the Frenchman believes the sweet potato is a nutrient-rich vegetable that should have a place in the Paris community garden. And, he believes that learning about a plant—how it grows and what it needs in order to flourish—are all a part of the connection to nature.

His garden mantra: “The more you know about a vegetable, the better it tastes.”

Thus, the Satsuma-imo project was born, with a group of passionate Japanese amateur gardeners at the ready.

But First Some History: Le Nid de l’Ortolan

The site of the Satsuma-imo project, Le Nid de l’Ortolan, is a community garden born in 2017—a “nest” perched atop a gymnasium in the 5^tharrondissement of Paris (near rue Mouffetard).

The shared garden idea was seeded a few years earlier when founders Julien Chameroy and Joyce Sasse were working in a community garden in the 4^tharrondissement and realized there was no such jardin partagé in the 5^th.

They found the unused plot of “roof” land and went through all the phases of joining the Charte Main Verte (literally translated to Green Hand, but, in English, think Green Thumb).

This city organization of now more than 70 neighborhood gardens in almost all the arrondissements was created to encourage urban gardening, to support education about nature and the environment, and to bring communities together in a more social way.

All of these goals also support Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s ever present plan for the “greening of Paris.”

The “Nid” has about 50 members divided into teams that rotate each year so everyone gets to know everyone. Since the “Nid” sits next to a retirement home, the members of that community are invited to participate also.

The teams decide in January what to plant, and the 240-square-meter space currently hosts beans, chard, squash, spinach, cucumbers, sunflowers strawberries, potatoes, artichokes, rhubarb, peppers, garlic, lettuce, broccoli, herbs of all kinds, and much more.

The Satsuma-imo Japanese Team

Each member of the Japanese sweet potato team seems to share the overarching goals of the community garden. They all want to see more green spaces in urban areas, particularly in Paris. And they all want to spend more time close to nature.

In the process of the Satsuma-imo project, they are learning about the variety of plants grown in France and the different ways these plants are consumed in France and Japan.

You could tell by watching them work that they love touching the earth and feeling a part of the growing cycle. As Chiharu says, “Just thinking about this garden brightens my heart.”

The Sweet Potato Project

The satsuma-imo project began at a challenging time. Just after the start of the project, France went into a two-month corona confinement period. However, the timing proved serendipitous, as sweet potato seedlings must grow for at least a month to become ready for planting.

The seedlings were closely watched in the homes of the gardeners, a small pleasure during a time of little external stimulus.

“They took care of those seedlings as if they were their own children,” Julien says proudly. “And, when it comes to a plant, that makes a difference.”

The Garden After Lockdown

When lockdown was finally lifted, the garden needed serious tending. First, the battle of the weeds took place (the weeds lost).

Then, it was time to ready the soil for the planting of the sweet potato seedlings.

All systems were go. “The team was exceptional, always positive and humble,” Julien said. “It was not a case of ‘me, myself, and I,’ it was ‘what can WE do together to make this work.’”

The plants are now settling in to the warmth of the summer sun and will be ready for a late September or early October harvest.

The Next Chapter

Aside from having the chance to speak in Japanese for a few hours every week and have a sweet potato harvest party in September, the real raison d’etre of all the Japanese community gardeners is to be close to nature.

“We need to re-create the bond we lost with nature as a whole and between ourselves. Nature has an incredible power to heal.” Julien believes. “We must work with nature, not against it.”

And so, after the sweet potato harvest in September—and a celebration of Satsuma-imo memories past and present—the team will plant fava beans immediately—to give back to the soil what the sweet potatoes needed to take.