Happy new year!
Last year was the year of departure,
This year is the year of evolution.
I would like to enthusiastically take on new challenges, not only in growing vegetables, but also in seasonal handicrafts and bamboo work.
The Year of the Snake is the zodiac sign of "rebirth" and "growth."
I would like to further refine the work I am currently doing and become new like a snake shedding its skin.
Thank you for your continued support this year!
Over the New Year holidays, the couple visited their parents' homes in the Kanto region, where they ate delicious food and soaked in hot springs to recharge. I'm sure the grandparents were also comforted by their grandchildren.
I also experienced mountain climbing for the first time. It was a small mountain that I used to climb often. I was carried on his back for about half the time.
My parents have a big yuzu tree and we harvested a lot of yuzu, so as soon as I got home I made yuzu mochi.
Cut the top of the yuzu and hollow out the inside to use as a lid and pot.
I had a lot of peanuts in stock, so I ground them up and mixed them with my homemade two-year-old miso and mirin to make a paste.
The bean paste was packed into the yuzu pot, which was then covered and steamed in a bamboo steamer for about three hours.The pot was then placed on the stove and steamed slowly.
Once the color is good, remove from the heat, let it dry a little, then wrap it in Japanese paper and leave it to dry in the shade for about a month.
The preparation is quick, but it takes an incredibly long time to make, so it could be called super slow food.
If you take this long, the nutrients will be concentrated and it will surely become a superfood. Looking forward to the finished product, people eat the rice cakes they made at the end of the year, and eat pickles, dried persimmons, and dried sweet potatoes little by little.
We are also able to maintain a rich diet thanks to the root vegetables that have been stored and the leafy vegetables that have survived in the fields.
As the new year approaches, the cold weather in Hokuto is finally starting to set in.
There are days when the temperature drops below minus 10 degrees, so the fire in the wood stove never goes out.
This month I've been busy with winter work such as cleaning up the fields that I wasn't able to finish last year, dismantling and moving the greenhouse that was given to me, and preparing the stepping greenhouse, as well as helping with the creation of a garden for earth regeneration, getting firewood, and maintaining the bamboo grove.
