JIU Josai International University
Regional cooperation
2024.10.24
Students and faculty harvesting
Harvested olives
On October 23, 2024, as part of the "Olive Production Area Project" (supervised by Mitsumoto Atsushi), one of the regional academic co-creation projects, about 40 people, including students enrolled in the regional academic co-creation project, students from JIU Wellness College Program, staff from the Minori no Sato Togane Roadside Station, and staff from the Agriculture Policy Division of Togane City Hall, harvested olives in a field in Togane City.
This project was started in 2013 and aims to support Togane City's efforts to brand olives as a local area through student activities. The main event, harvest time, came in mid-October, when the trees began to take on autumnal colors. This year's harvest is not expected to reach last year's volume due to the effects of the extreme heat, but students split into morning and afternoon shifts and continued to harvest shiny yellow-green, high-quality olives, mainly Mission olives from Roadside Station Minori no Sato Togane, until their baskets were full.
Iyo Kasai, a fifth-year student Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Department of Clinical Pharmacy, said with a bright smile, "The amount of fruit that can be harvested varies depending on the field, and I realized how difficult it is to grow them, but I was so happy when the harvested fruit filled a bucket. I worked together with people from outside the university, including the people at Roadside Station Minori-no-Sato Togane, and learned a lot from our conversations, so it was a very fulfilling time."
収穫した実はオリーブオイルなどに製品化され、11月末ごろに道の駅 みのりの郷東金で販売される予定です。また11月9日、10日に開催する、JIU FESTIVALでも本プロジェクトのブースを出店し、オリーブ関連製品の販売や製作体験などをおこないます。ご来場の際はぜひこちらにも足を運んでください。