Japanese tofu

 I want to get people all over the world  interested in tofu, especially Japanese  nigari tofu. So I write this blog. Blog is ephemeral. Here is the point. If you really want to know the nigari tofu, you had better come to Japan and eat our tofu. You surely understand the words what I  am saying in this blog.

 Today  windchill made me feel much colder on the farm.  It is getting colder day by day here in Japan. But it is far from "chilly "felt recently in England my love.Temperatures has never fallen much bellow  5C here in Kanto area.

 I feel immensely privileged to own my farm and grow  experimently many kinds of soybeans not only Japanese one but many from China to Europe. There exists many in Europe, you know.

out of middle age crisis, one way.

 It remains only two weeks by the end of this year. There are a lot of soybeans to be cut down on the farm. I am in a  ultra-busy condition.
 I can only make two or three hours a day for the work.I works on the farm listening to many things through Sony's  cassette Walkman .It'a a very enjoyable time for me aged 56 in the midddle age crisis. I have about  3000-4000 cassete tapes. Almost all of them are live recordings from FM radio in 7o's to 90's. I cannot listen to them intensively otherwise beeing not on the farm. There are many lessons to be learned from the tapes.
 I am 100 % certain that there are great treasures in these times working on the soybeans farm.
 Though I am  in a  bit depression, I can  feel a optimistic feeling for a while.

Local committee of agriculture

 In Japan each city has a committee of agriculture. Today  I  joined it to express my wish to borrow a land for widening  my soybeans　cultivation next year.  This is because  the adjoining farmers of my now farming land are expressing their discomfort for my way of  farming. I use no agro-chemicals. Many grasses, many insects, they say. But I don't think it is. The criterion gap!
 The people coming to the committee are all but me  advised to let their grass rampanted to be killed.  I only came to express positive attitude to widen my farming area instead of now using land.

 There will be  many difficulties in Japanese agriculture in the coming free trade trend.
 But there certainly is a possibility of  sustainability of quality agriculture .Not cheap and mass production method.I am not a  full-time farmer. I am a tofu-maker. I can only use 3-5 hours a day for my soybeans farm if it does not rain.
 Soybeans farming back up me  not only phisically  but mentally.

 Government's export-oriented policy of  manufacturing industries  has long precluded sustainability of Japanese agriculture. Our agriculture is overall  very small-scale type.

My hope in my farm

 My project is not that big but it still has a long way to go.
 My memory is also a little weakening  and my logical reasoning is waning. This is a n ordinary phenomenon of my middle aged people?
 The farming without agri chemicals and man-made organic fertilizer  is the pinacle of experimental and intellectual achievement.Natural agriculture, not mere organic agriculture.
Very difficult but interesting.
Many crops for two or three years. But after that we can get very little or none up until seven or eight years later. In this interval and after that we need great intellects.
 Things don't go as we wish. It is more complicated  than  easily thought.  When the land get the natural cycle,we will find it tobe rather sublime.

 When in difficulty with no crop we should try to be positive and forward looking. We can turn the land into this way of farming gradually not at once.

Very Hot Summer

Here in Japan it continued to be very hot around 35c up until 20 September this year. We slept very badly over a month. The temperature rarely went down to 30c even at night. Agriculture has  received a severe blow. In some areas and some crops seriously damaged.
 Near here soybeans are damaged seriously. But the heat benefitted some kinds of soybeans.
 In my 1 hectare farm , some are good and others bad.
 I grew about 20 kinds. Half of them are not that good, but the others very good. My experimental way of farming is not sustainable economically but it will give me  important informations of sustainability of soya farming.
 It doesn't necessarily come to a conclusion that the heat is the only factor for bad crops in my "special " farms. I never use agri chemicals nor man-made organic fertilizers. Only fallen leaves and threshed hulls etc. Certain grasses grow symbiotically in my farm.

 In one sense this year is a predicament but it also give me a hint of sustainability of  consecutive soya farming  every year.

 My work with cassette walkman or IC recorder is a lot of fun.
 It'a pinacle of  working time of my life.

Đặng Thái Sơn's Piano

This evening I heard  Đặng Thái Sơn's playing of Chopin's works in Japan many years ago.I like his playing very much. 2010 is the Chopin piano competition  year but I don't knwo who won it. The winning is not necessarily a requirement  for  a great success for her/his later life, but this is a great competition.
Đặng Thái Sơn's restrained  but glittering piano touch strikes me.

nigari

The coagulant nigari respond vividly to soy milk.  It extract  the good taste of  the soybeans. The other coagulants cannot.  You had better eat nigari tofu uncooked. Please come here Japan to eat  it. Nigari tofu will only be able to prevail worldwide. Japan will give a clear picture of where the tofu-making is all going.