Sugarcane is the main agricultural crop of the island and the weeks following New Year is the busiest time of the year for sugarcane farmers. During the harvest season, the entire island is ablaze with golden rods of sugarcane. The sweet scent of sugar fills the air as trucks ferry the harvested sugarcane to the large sugar mill factories in Gusukube Town and Shimoji Town.Fifty years ago, there were no sugar mill factories in Miyako. The residents of Miyako used primitive machines powered by horses or cows to crush the harvested sugarcanes and press the juice out. The juice is boiled until it thickens into a syrup, then poured into molds. Once cooled, the final product is a thick mass of granulated black sugar crystals. During those times, food supply was not plenty. To survive, the people would add locusts to the boiling cane juice and cook them for food. And because protein sources were very rare, they supplemented their diet by eating African gypsies, lizards, and wild birds. Miyako is a treasure house for herbal medicine. Most of the wild grasses growing throughout the island can be used as herbal medicine. In January, after the sugarcane has been harvested, farmers would pick wild garlic from the fields and cook them in a porridge of rice and vegetables. Juices squeezed from spring grass, seafood, and seaweeds provided a ready source of vitamins. January and February is also the season for Hitoegusa (a type of seaweed), the islanders' favorite seasonal food. If there is a trait that can best typify the ancient island people of Miyako, it is their reverence for nature. Nature has always figured prominently in the lives and culture of the people on the island and this is most evident in their celebrations and festivals.