On November 1, 2022, a cafe restaurant “C-farm cafe” using plenty of organic vegetables opened in Hirano-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe.
We deliver dishes using local ingredients that are good for the body, such as lunch plates that are particular about Kobe products (the menu may change or the supplier may change depending on the season).
Since it is rare to find a spacious restaurant with 50 seats in this area, it has been the center of attention even before it opened.
More than 200 people have visited since the first week of the grand opening, and it has already become a popular restaurant because you can enjoy a leisurely meal while looking at the rural scenery.
C-farm, which operates a cafe, was founded by 28-year-old young farmer Chris. After retiring from professional baseball in 2019, he says he turned to farming. We asked him in detail why he decided to start farming in Kobe and why he decided to open a shop here.
Mr. Masayuki Inagaki (Chris), Representative of C-farm Co., Ltd.
After graduating from university, he joined an independent league in Shikoku and fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a professional baseball player. He became interested in agriculture when he visited a rice farmer when he was in the independent league. He became independent as C-farm and opened a cafe restaurant using organic vegetables from Kobe in November 2022.
C-farm cafe is a place where you can experience agriculture through food
────Why did Chris open C-farm cafe in this place?
I opened this place because I wanted to open a shop next to a field. C-farm valuesTo have people come into contact with agriculture through “food, body, and housing.”
I wanted to create a cafe-restaurant in a place surrounded by fields where you could also experience farming. At C-farm cafe, we hope that “food” will be the entrance to delicious organic vegetables, Kobe-produced ingredients, and agriculture. I’m thinking
──Is it possible to experience farming?
yes. Local children and their families have already experienced it. My own field is still in the preparation stage, and it will take some time to prepare it so that customers can experience it at any time, but I want to create an environment where anyone can experience agriculture.
How are the ingredients grown before they reach the dining table?
I think there are very few opportunities in modern society to experience the joy of farming and the real work of a farmer. It is said that children are increasingly away from nature.
I want to spread the joy of using our bodies to come into contact with nature, growing vegetables, and eating delicious food.
I think that’s what we can do because we decided to put down roots in this prosperous town and develop our business.
Healthy food made with local ingredients
────The monthly lunch plate is prepared with ingredients from Kobe.
that’s right! There are three types of lunch menus, and the “Monthly KOBE Lunch Plate” is made with Kobe ingredients.
The “bagel hamburger” is specially baked by dannapan, a popular bakery in Nishi Ward, and is a bagel made with 100% domestic wheat and homemade yeast.
“Seasonal Vegetable Aigake Spice Curry” also uses locally grown vegetables. We have two types of curries that are uniquely blended with dozens of spices.
As I am using dannapan’s bagels, I would like to collaborate more with local shops, open a marche here, and use it as a hub facility.
I think it has enough space, so if you want to hold something in this town, I think we can cooperate as an event space.
────When I read your posts on social media, I felt that many local people were involved in the farm work and interior construction before the opening.
I agree. I asked university students in Kobe to help me with the farm work, and the interior construction and table production were completed with the help of the local people and my acquaintances.
sponsored by the cityKobe Rural StartupThere is a start-up support program that specializes in entrepreneurship and business creation in rural areas (Kita Ward and Nishi Ward).
I’m a 3rd generation student there, and some of the staff are from the same generation. The furniture was made by 2nd gen students, and the people I met in this program helped me a lot.
Agriculture that healed my heart when I was an athlete
────I heard that Chris was originally a professional baseball player. I think he’s in a completely different world, why did he become interested in agriculture?
When I was in the Shikoku Independent League as a professional baseball player, I went to help a rice farmer in Kagawa Prefecture as part of my community contribution activities. It was a lot more fun than I imagined.
You can walk into the rice field barefoot and plant rice, or witness the beautiful scenery of the ears of rice growing like a golden carpet. For me, it was a very stress-free and calm time.
──Is the gap between you and the life of an athlete, where you have to keep winning under pressure every day, a factor in your love of farming?
I think there is also that. Actually, I joined the team at the bottom of the draft, and they said that if I didn’t produce good results in my first year, I might be fired in my second year.
I was barely able to become a professional, but I got injured in my first year… I spent my days constantly thinking, “This is bad.”
Luckily, in my second year, I was able to record good results, such as the home run king and the best nine, but in the next year, it is expected that I will surpass those results, so the good results I have left will push me next year. You will also be able to
I think that part of me was drawn to agriculture, which continues to be surrounded by nature, because I have been under such pressure for so long that degeneration and stagnation are unacceptable.
Agriculture is also said to be “a battle with nature”, and there are many things that can not be harvested due to the weather, and it is not easy to grow, but all of these things are worthwhile, and above all, I found it fun.
After 20 years of devoting myself to baseball, I spent a year searching for “what I want to do” and found the answer
──Did you ever think about starting a farm when you retired from baseball?
No, I didn’t have a specific vision to that extent. So after retiring, I was thinking of getting a job at some company.
When I retired from Shikoku and returned to my parents’ house, my father unexpectedly told me, “Instead of working for a company, you should start your own business and find what you want to do.”
My father had always supported the family as an office worker, so I think he had something in mind when I said, “I’m thinking about changing jobs.”
──I see, so your father gave you some advice. Was there anything else you wanted to do specifically?
At the time, I couldn’t think of anything concrete, so I decided to try various things, and experienced a lot of work over the course of a year.
Experience the hospitality industry as a bartender, work at a hotel, use your knowledge of the body to become an instructor, and take on the challenge of field work.
As a result of trying various things, I thought that the farming I experienced in Kagawa was the most fun. I decided to do farming.
To increase the number of young people involved in agriculture
────What kind of future do you want C-farm to draw?
Well, the most important thing is to increase the number of people who are interested in agriculture.
The average age of farmers in Hyogo Prefecture is about 70, and they are facing problems such as a declining farmer population and a lack of successors. Young farmers are needed, and prefectures and municipalities are taking various measures to solve the problem, but there are still few examples.
In 2021, Kobe City willKobe Next Farmer System” was established, and it became possible to rent small-scale farmland by receiving short-term agricultural training that allows you to study while working.
Even if it is not a full-time job, I think it is very important to change the environment to make it easier to do something while farming.
However, agriculture is a profession where the population involved is very important. Even if you do farming as a side business, you need someone who can introduce you to farmland and teach you how to start farming.
Of course, I would like to share more and more what I can teach, but I think that I need to think about plans and measures to increase both “people who start” and “people who teach”. I’m here.
I want to make C-farm cafe a place where people gather as a result of agriculture. I think that increasing the number of people who are interested in this area will increase the number of people who are interested in agriculture.
I would like to expand C-farm so that it can reach people who had no contact with agriculture, like I did at the time.
Chris who turned from an athlete to a farmer. It took three to four years to open C-farm Cafe from a place where there was no right or left.
It was very difficult to start farming and opening a restaurant at the same time, and there were some negative opinions.
After opening, it seems that they are making improvements every day while listening to the voices of customers.
Various tie-ups with local shops are also being planned. The influence of C-farm seems to be getting bigger and bigger!
When you visit Kobe, please try to eat delicious Kobe rice surrounded by rich nature.
After belonging to the editorial department of the web media “TABI LABO”, became an independent freelance writer in 2018. He likes the stories behind people, things, and things, and plans and writes mainly interviews. As a copywriter, she is active in a wide range of activities, such as creating concepts for apparel brands and serving as a writing instructor at SHE likes.
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