午夜剧场

Are you familiar with pasture-raised milk? When people think of milk, many imagine cows walking through vast grasslands, but most of the milk sold in supermarkets comes from cows tethered by their necks inside barns. "Pasturing," where cows are released into fields to eat growing grass, is actually quite rare nationwide.

Captivated by pasture-raised milk, my father and I opened "Musashino Dairy CRAFT MILK STAND" in Kichijoji, Tokyo, this June. It features milk from select farms focused on pasturing. While people often think delicious milk must be rich and sweet, pasture-raised milk is actually light with a delicate flavor. One sip will surprise you. It completely flips your perspective on milk.

I am clearly full of love for milk now, but I hated it when I was a child. To make matters worse, I hated it despite my family running a milk business for over 100 years since my grandfather's generation. I always left my milk unfinished during school lunches.

My dislike for milk changed in my late 20s after reading a book my father gave me about "Saito Farm," a self-taught pasture dairy farm in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. I was moved by the story of how they used the power of cows and nature to create a vast farm deep in the mountains—an area previously deemed unsuitable for dairy farming. I immediately flew to Hokkaido and helped out for a few days. On the steep slopes deep in the mountains overlooking the city, the cows walked calmly and robustly. I will never forget the milk I drank after work. It had no smell at all and went down smoothly. I was so moved that I gulped it down.

Since then, I have visited farms across the country and realized that pasture-raised milk is delicious and can be enjoyed even by those who hate milk. I began to think that I wanted to open a pasture-raised milk shop someday.

The plan became serious following my father's traffic accident. Last June, he was involved in an accident while driving his truck. Although he didn't suffer major injuries, he is 77 years old, and I felt it would be difficult for him to continue his current work of transporting goods. However, it isn't easy to make a father who has been self-employed for nearly 50 years quit working. Therefore, I decided we should start a milk stand together where he wouldn't have to drive.

It has been four months since we opened, and thankfully, many people have visited us. What makes me happiest is when people who hate milk tell me it's delicious. The dairy industry faces many problems, such as declining milk consumption and soaring grain prices, but I want to work with my father to communicate the new value of milk.