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

Grandfather's powerful "Demon, go outside."… 祖父の迫力の「鬼は外ォ～」

"Demon, go outside. Demon, go outside. Demon, go outside."

When Setsubun(means the day before the beginning of spring)
approaches, the bean-throwing ceremony of the grandfather
who lived in Shimane and established custom every year is
recalled. The full voice is raised by becoming of my ear
trembled, and he throws out mightily toward the road in
front of the door. The even demon might also have barefooted
run away by his power. It is surprised to not only the demon
but also passers-by .

I was associating in this bean-throwing ceremony until
a primary schoolchild. But I became shameful to the passer-by
and the vicinity when I became a junior high school student.
And when the grandfather started the preparation for the
bean-throwing ceremony, I became to hide myself in the interior
of the house quickly. Still, the grandfather did not change
every year and continued the bean-throwing ceremony.

I married on ground left from the parents' family, and
gave birth to the first child last year. I became parents
and became to think that I want to teach the traditional
event of Japan to my child neatly.
Demon's mask and the appearance of the bean-throwing ceremony
are scheduled to be shown to my daughter at Setsubun.

My grandfather aged 86 with the advanced acknowledgment
syndrome has not done the bean-throwing ceremony any longer now.
However, the voice of that bean-throwing ceremony of the
grandfather sounds clearly in my ear now. I wish sincerely to
express our gratitude to the grandfather who left strong memories
now. It is because my child is made to hear a lot of memories
story every time Setsubun comes.

--
2008/2/1 Asahi Shimbun "Voice" column
YOKOYAMA-SAN
Sapporo City, 34 years old


…
「鬼は外、鬼は外、鬼は外ォ～」

節分が近づくと、島根の実家で毎年恒例だった祖父の
豆まきを思い出す。私の耳がキーンとなるほど大きな
声を張り上げ、玄関前の道路に向かって勢いよく投げ
つける。迫力に、さすがの鬼も裸足で逃げ出しただろう。
鬼ばかりか、通行人たちも驚かしたものだ。

この豆まきに小学生まで付き合っていた私は、中学生
になると通行人やご近所の目が恥ずかしくなり、祖父
が豆まきの準備を始めると、さっさと家の奥に隠れる
ようになった。それでも祖父は毎年、変わらず豆まき
を続けた。

実家から離れた地で結婚した私は、昨年初めての子供
を産んだ。親になり、我が子には日本の伝統行事を
きちんと教えていきたい、と考えるようになった。
節分には、まだ赤ん坊の娘に鬼のお面や豆まきの様子
を見せてやる予定である。

現在８６歳で、認知症が進んだ祖父は、もう豆まきは
しない。しかし祖父のあの豆まきの声は、今も私の
耳に鮮明に響く。強烈な思い出を残してくれた祖父に、
今は心から感謝している。節分がくる度に我が子に
たっぷりと思い出話を聞かせてあげられるからだ。

--
2008/2/1　朝日新聞　「声」欄
札幌市西区　横山さん　34歳

Raw garbage change to a rich harvest…生ゴミ転じて豊かな実りに

I have continued life of burying the raw garbage of
the kitchen under the vacant lot of the little plot
of grass for about 20 years.

I dig up the hole with the shovel at intervals of
several days, put vegetable rubbish, husk of egg
and the raw garbage such as tea in the hole,
and cover with the soil.

There are not marks such as the vegetable rubbish
when doing for as much as one month even if it
digs up, and either it was changeable to a black soil.
I am surprised by managing nature. In addition,my
being surprised,the seed of the vegetable and the
fruit that will exist in the raw garbage begins to
sprout.

The seedling persimmon and the mandarin orange
becomes the sapling of ten or twenty centimeters,
and they have grown up also here and there in my
house garden in which I moved two years ago.
There are still about ten totals or more
though I sometimes thins out.

Many many pumpkins could be gathered last year.
Many potatoes were harvested this year, and the
tomato also put out the bud. Various size tomato
colored the table many times in summer.
Thus, I am enjoying a rich harvest of the no
agricultural chemicals organic farming.

--
2006/9/19 Asahi Shimbun "Voice" column
NAKAMURA-SAN
Koganai City, Tokyo 74 years old


…
小さな庭の空き地を見つけては、台所の生ゴミを埋めるという
生活を２０年近く続けてきました。

数日おきに、しゃべるで穴を掘り、その穴に、野菜くずや卵の
殻、お茶がらなどの生ゴミを入れ、土をかぶせます。

１ヶ月もすると、掘り返しても野菜くずなどの跡形もなく、
黒い土だけになっていて自然の営みには驚かされます。さらに
驚くのは、生ゴミの中に入っていたであろう野菜や果物の種が
芽生えることです。

２年前に越してきた今の家でも、実生（みしょう）した柿やミカンが
１０～２０センチの苗木になり、あちこちでところ狭しと育って
います。時々間引くのですが、それでも合わせてざっと十数本は
あります。

去年はカボチャが何個も採れました。今年はジャガイモをいくつも
収穫し、トマトも芽を出しました。夏には様々なサイズのトマトが
何度も食卓を彩ってくれました。無農薬有機栽培の豊かな実りを
楽しんでいます。

--
2006/9/19　朝日新聞　「声」欄
東京都小平市　中村さん　74歳