Date
Monday 5 October 2026
Place
Setoda, Onomichi, Hiroshima
Group
Members of Ginza's restaurant association
Host
Masami Oginuma, J-Catalyst

October, when the green lemon harvest begins. Masami Oginuma of J-Catalyst accompanied members of Ginza's restaurant association to Setoda.25

01

Why go all the way to the orchard

Every kitchen has lemons. That is exactly why knowing where they were grown, by whom and how changes what a single wedge on the plate can mean.

J-Catalyst has been working to bring Setoda lemons to restaurants in Ginza. This visit was a chance for the people who supply them and the people who cook with them to stand in the same orchard.

A green, unripe lemon on the branch, backlit Photo: Revital Salomon / CC BY-SA 3.0
A lemon still green on the branch, before it colours.
02

Picking in the orchard

The group visited a lemon orchard in Setoda and picked fruit themselves. October is when the open-field green lemon harvest begins; JA Hiroshima describes these early-picked lemons as offering a fresh aroma and a clean acidity.

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03

Understanding how lemons are grown and shipped

The party then visited JA Hiroshima, the cooperative through which the lemons are supplied, to learn how open-field, greenhouse and stored fruit are combined to ship through the year, about the special cultivation certified by Hiroshima Prefecture, and how the fruit is graded and dispatched. J-Catalyst received the cooperative's official materials that day; many of the figures and descriptions on this site are based on them.

12132See sources and evidence
04J-Catalyst's view

What it means when chefs and growers connect

Which dish, and which season, for a lemon you can use peel and all? Each kitchen will answer differently. The more chefs know the orchards, the richer the ways lemons will be used. J-Catalyst will keep working in the space between the two.