More beans

The picture of the "magic beans" is truly frightening - let's hope that if they grow the fresh ones look better. My mom-in-law keeps everything in the barn and worms get into everything. My husband assures me it's all natural. Sure.

More beans today - but today it was soybeans. We take the last of last year's soy beans, soak them and cook them until they are soft so we can make miso paste tomorrow. Why am I saying "we"? My mom-in-law won't come because the little girl at the auntie's house has the flu; my sister-in-law won't come because her back hurts and her leg hurts and her head hurts etc etc; my husband won't come because he has to help my daughter with her homework. I was told today that I will be taking over from next year. In a way, it is an honor (again), that I am entrusted with the family miso because this is a big deal. We make lots of it - an entire year's worth for the entire family (sisters, cousins, aunts). It's a real snub to my sister-in-law who probably is more competent in the whole affair since I don't really understand all the bickering that goes on every year. They've been making vats of miso for some fifty-odd years yet every year we go through the same arguments of how much salt to add, how well to mix it, when to add the beans, too much, too little. I don't know why they don't just write down the formula and follow it -that's what I'm going to do tomorrow!

Yesterday, obachan (I call my mother-in-law "grandma" just because it's easier and that's what my kids call her) measured out 6-sho of soybeans into six separate buckets and filled them with water. I took the soaked and swollen beans and cooked them, a portion at a time, in the pressure cooker until the house was filled with the pungent aroma of soybeans. Oh, that's the reason the other greedy sister doesn't help, she can't tolerate the smell of the cooked beans (but she sure is quick to pick up her share of the final product.) The drained beans are stored until tomorrow, where they will join the other beans, the soaked, steamed and fermented rice and wheat.

In Kyushu, we make miso using wheat whereas other areas, like Tokyo and Kyoto and more refined areas use rice or only soybeans to make a smoother sweeter paste. We make one batch and are kind of committed to that taste for the whole year.

I moved the big rocks from the burning area to reform the back steps. The back steps were damaged when some scaffolding fell and I am weary of trying to go up and down broken steps. So before my spine completely dissolves, I thought I'd better move the last of the big rocks.