Strawberries grown with the help of shochu lees from the Izu Islands' Niijima village have been harvested for the first time in Minamiboso, Chiba Prefecture.
The strawberries have been named Tokyo Island Berry, as the islands are part of Tokyo.
A company producing strawberries in Minamiboso sprayed shochu sediment on the leaves of the berries, which attracted bees to pollinate the strawberry flowers. This resulted in larger berries with a balanced sweet and sour taste.
The lees were provided by Atsushi Miyahara, 55, of Niijima.
"I hope this will be a good opportunity for Niijima's shochu to become widely known," Miyahara said.
The idea of using the lees for strawberries was proposed by Tokyo Metropolitan Islands Promotion Corp. in Minato Ward, Tokyo, which was formed by towns and villages in the island chain.
Around last spring, the company started looking for new specialty products for the islands. During the search, the company set its eyes on shochu from the village and strawberries from Minamiboso.
Hiroshi Nakajima, an executive of a company that produces and sells strawberries in Minamiboso, decided to try growing strawberries in his greenhouse using lees from Miyahara, who distills shochu from sweet potatoes and barley.
When the sediment was sprayed on seedling leaves several times, honeybees gathered and pollinated the flowers, which led to noticeably well-shaped berries.
Nakajima, 46, said he thinks something in the composition of the lees might have increased the bees' attraction and will study the effect closely.
"If those strawberries can spread as a local specialty product, they will increase the income of farmers who were badly affected [by Typhoon No. 15 last year]," Nakajima said.
Miyahara said, "I'm glad that the shochu lees I was going to throw away became useful."
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