Last month I prepared my first homemade pickled plum. Since it has been fermented for one month, now it is time to proceed to the next step, sun drying.

I put my plums on the tray and put the tray onto my garden chair in my back yard.

I concerned about any bugs being attracted to my picked plums, so I went back to my back yard frequently to check my plums. I didn’t see any bugs attacking my plums.

I will take the plum back to my house in the late afternoon. I will let it sun dry in the day time for two more days.

I haven’t sampled my pickled plum yet. I look forward to sampling two days later.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We have a jalapeno tree in our back yard. We bought a young plant this spring. It grew to a tall tree after summer. Now we have been enjoying the harvest of jalapenos every day.

I water my plants every morning. Yesterday when I checked the jalapeno tree, I saw one grasshopper perching on the branch. I also saw several leaves had been eaten.

I asked the grasshopper “did you eat my jalapeno leaves?”

I didn’t hear anything from the grasshopper. I felt though, the grasshopper did eat my jalapeno leaves.

I grabbed the grasshopper by my pointing finger and thumb on its abdomen area, and attempted to remove it from the branch. But the grasshopper was clinging onto the branch so tightly by its legs. I could not remove it from the branch.

I gave the grasshopper “dekopin-punch” on its back. It was not moving at all. By the way, “dekopin-punch” is a Japanese term to flip something with middle finger. You can do so by making a circle with your middle finger and thumb, and flip your middle finger by pushing your thumb toward a target.

I gave the grasshopper dekopin-punch again, and again. It never moved.

I sighed. I told the grasshopper “do not eat my jalapeno. You cannot eat a jalapeno anyway. It is too spicy for you to eat.”

I was happy to see that all the jalapenos were fine; they were untouched.  

***

This morning when I watered my plants, I saw one jalapeno had several bite marks. I noticed only one jalapeno had bite marks, but the others were still untouched.

I searched everywhere in the jalapeno tree. I could not find the grasshopper anywhere.

So, I guess the grasshopper ate my jalapeno yesterday. It was so spicy for the grasshopper that he had a tummy ache or diarrhea. Maybe it was why the grasshopper left from my jalapeno tree forever.

 ♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Back on February 10th of this year, I prepared my first homemade miso. The miso has been fermented for eight months since then.

I used two different types of beans; soy beans and black beans. It came to three glass bottles for the each bean miso.

For these past eight months, I checked my miso from time to time, by opening the lid of the bottles. They have a nice aroma. I don’t see any mold parts.

Today I used my first homemade miso for my miso soup.

My homemade miso was saltier than store-bought miso.

Maybe it turned out salty because I put an extra salt layer on the surface to prevent it from molding.

All in all, I am satisfied with my first homemade miso. It tastes sweet and mild when I take miso away from the extra salt’s layer.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

As I mentioned before, I have been studying macrobiotics through the online course. The first study materials (the DVDs and textbooks) arrived at my house on August 28th. Since then, I have been incorporating the cooking techniques that the instructor shared with us.

It has been more than a month passed. I noticed several differences in me.

The first finding is that I stay in the kitchen longer than before. I have started cooking more homemade fermented foods and pickles than before.

The second finding is that I like cooking more than before. The small things made my cooking easier. Followed by the instructor’s some advice, I changed the way to hold a kitchen knife and the way to cut ingredients. I also changed my cutting board from a plastic thin one to a wooden thick one.  

The third finding is that I feel calmer and happier than before.

At last, I have noticed my husband becomes calmer and happier than before. My daughter is always calm and happy, so that I don’t see any differences.

We all started enjoying homemade foods more than before.

Incorporating macrobiotics in our kitchen was definitely a great benefit to us.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

October is around the corner. My daughter’s school will have a one-week off for the autumn break in October.

My daughter has been counting days until the autumn break. She feels great about the break and it is a “thumbs-up” event. I secretly feels it as a “thumbs-down” event as I won’t have my alone time for the entire week.

That being said, I love spending time with my daughter. My daughter and I have started making a “to-do-list” during the autumn vacation.

She wants to create her own webpage, like I do. I offered her to add a page for her in my homepage. So, we will be working on creating her first homepage during the autumn break.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪