Happy taste in homemade miso…幸せな味です 自家製の味噌

My family makes the miso once every three years in spring.
The middle of March is scheduled this year. It is the
enjoyment now. The soybean was a kitchen garden where I
borrowed the field in the parents' family, and I made it
from no agricultural chemicals. The soybean also has the
one that is uneven, and being eaten by the insect.

Families gather on the day when the miso is made. My daughter
also comes back and help, mother, and the wife are very busy
in the preparation etc. The relative also comes, they boil
with a big boiler, the soybean is crushed from early morning,
koji(malted rice) and the salt are sprinkled, hardens, and
lays it down in the tub.

Koji and soybean are used with the same amount. The miso of
about 30 kilos is ready in the following autumn of half a
year. We had made it in cooperation with neighbors in old
times. Old tools remains in my house, we importantly use them.

There is only 5% rate of self-sufficiency of the soybean
when statistics are seen. I doubt it by all means even if
it was written, "Domestic production soybean use" in natto
and the miso. Recently, there is variously problem in the
import food. There is less salt but flavor in the soybean
and the miso made by myself. I feel happiness.

After I was born, I keep eating a homemade miso. It is delicious.
It might be said that this is a true TEMAEMISO(this side miso).

--
2008/2/19 Asahi Shimbun "Voice" column
Hoshino-SAN
Komoro City, Nagano 53 years old

…
わが家は３年に一度、春に味噌を作ります。今年は３月中旬を
予定しています。今から楽しみです。大豆は実家の畑を借りた
家庭菜園で、私が無農薬で作りました。大豆は不ぞろいで、虫に
食べられている豆もあります。

味噌炊きの日は、家族らが集まります。娘も帰ってきて手伝い、
母、妻は用意などで大忙しです。親類も来て、朝早くから大豆を
大釜で煮て、つぶして、麹と塩をまぶして固めて桶にねかせます。

麹と大豆を同量で作ります。半年後の秋には約３０キロの味噌が
できあがります。昔は近所の人と共同で作っていました。わが家
では昔の道具が残っているので大事に使っています。

統計を見ますと、大豆の自給率は５％しかありません。納豆や
味噌が国産大豆使用とあっても、どうしても疑問符が付きます。
輸入食料にいろいろ問題がある時代に、自分で作った大豆と味噌は、
塩分控えめで、コクがあって幸せをかみしめています。

私は生まれてから自家製味噌を食べ続けています。おいしいです。
これがほんとの手前味噌と言うのでしょう。

--
2008/2/19　朝日新聞　「声」欄
長野県小諸市　星野さん　53歳