Washing the fresh natto grass clean, I spread it on the bottom of the vat. When the soybeans no longer felt hot to the touch and the temperature was not too high, I poured them into the pottery jar, wrapped them with the natto grass, piled a heavy stone on top, covered it with a cotton cloth and waited for ferntation.
I took the water used to cook the soybeans, added salt to it, and set it aside in the space for later use.
Normally, ferntation should not exceed three days – to keep the temperature around thirty degrees for ferntation. I placed the pottery jar on the heated brick bed, albeit at the rear where the temperature is a bit higher than in the middle, but still not too hot to handle.
By the fourth day, the fernting soybeans could stretch into transparent threads, a sign that the process was complete.
Then I mixed together the Five-Spice Powder, chili powder, small chili, chili, peeled and chopped yellow ginger, and sea salt evenly. Since I lacked alcohol, I didn’t add any – after all, with the space, I wasn’t worried about the mixture spoiling. This was the thod to make Water Fernted Soybeans.
There was also another thod for making dried fernted black beans. Similarly, dry them after steaming, but make sure to air out any moisture. Then, find so dry grass that hasn’t been rained on and spread it in a bamboo basket. Lay the soybeans evenly on top, cover with another layer of dry grass and let it fernt at the end of the heated bed for three days. White mold will grow on the surface; ignore it and continue to dry until done. This thod is simpler than the one for Water Fernted Soybeans, but regardless of the approach, the result was always delicious.
If you wanted bean sprouts, you could also use the soybeans to grow them, which was even simpler. Soak them for half a day, place them in the pottery jar, cover with a damp cloth, situate it at the end of the heated bed and change the water daily with warm water. The cloth should also be washed daily. To make the sprouts thicker and stronger, rely place a heavy object on the cloth.
Afterward, I made other delicacies from soybeans like soybean sauce, soybean skin, soybean tendons, sour tofu, tofu skin, dried tofu, bean flour, and more, making the first month of the Cold Season full of challenges and excitent. No one expected that the ordinary-looking soybeans could be so versatile.
Tangtang enjoyed fernted black beans. I used the dried fernted beans with sea fish to make Dou Chi Fish. Just pouring Water Fernted Soybeans into a bowl as an accompanint to rice was a delicacy in and of itself.
Stir-fried soybean sprouts with chili were extrely satisfying alongside a al. Tofu skin and tofu tendons particularly enhanced stews. Both the Beastn and the cubs enjoyed these foods, although aside from sour tofu which they weren’t as fond of, soybean sauce mixed with rice was also a hit.
With the warmth of the heated bed, I didn’t want to waste such a great opportunity, so I started with making wine yeast. I chose several types of grass to mix together as ingredients, since I lacked several types of grain wine yeast like corn, wheat bran, etc. – none of which I had – so I had to settle for plant-based wine yeast.
These grasses were common materials found everywhere in Beast World. I had already gathered plenty during the rainy season, such as Constitutional Repeal Grass, sweet knotweed, honeycomb grass, Purslane, and mint. I washed and chopped them, then placed them into a stone mortar carved from stone. Using a wooden pestle that could be operated by foot, I began to pound the mixture until it was fine and watery. I added well-ground millet to the mix and continued pounding for a while longer before shaping it all into balls.
Then, I coated them in a layer of remaining yeast powder from when I made the soybean yeast, rolling the balls in it until covered. There wasn’t much left over. Afterward, I spread a layer of lotus leaf in a bamboo basket, neatly placed the finished green balls on top, covered them with dry grass in a basin, and put the basket on top, then covered it with a cloth and a bamboo lid before setting it on the head of the heated bed for ferntation.
I had also wanted to see if our family’s grain fruit rice could actually make rice wine, so as I was preparing for wine making, I decided to give it a try.
I didn’t use much rice, to avoid waste if it failed. After washing and soaking it overnight, I filtered out the water, stead the rice until cooked, rinsed it with cool boiled water, and transferred it to a jar. I crumbled in a piece of wine yeast – one was completely sufficient for the three to four jin of rice. Then I added warm water to evenly mix with the rice. Afterward, I covered it with a lid and placed it in the middle of the heated bed. The adequate temperature ant I didn’t need to wrap it up. After a few days of sitting still, I began to stir it daily to evenly distribute the flavors and ensure uniform ferntation.
To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations for this type of rice. Firstly, because my wine yeast wasn’t perfectly made and secondly, the choice of rice wasn’t standardized as in my previous life. You could say I was feeling my way across the river, making do as best I could.
Now, with our family’s bed heated all day long, we made sure it was not for naught just by looking at the array of filled jars and pots; its versatility was evident.
In making sweet rice wine, I didn’t add sugar or sweet wine starter, so the result was bound to be just a typical rice wine flavor.
Because I stirred it every day, I could sense the gradual change in taste – just slowly, which was fine by as there was no need to rush. After all, the Cold Season was long, and there was plenty of ti to wait.
Cotton cloth was running out, so my sister and I began the process of spinning and weaving again. So of the cotton had been dyed during the rainy season, and now, flattened and rolled into wadding, it was ready to be spun into yarn for weaving. As the loom creaked back and forth in operation, a month of the Cold Season had stealthily passed by.
Since no one in our family worked outside, and we ate rich foods, our als shifted from three tis a day to twice a day.
Typically at ten in the morning and around four in the afternoon we ate once, each ti with generous servings.
Since the rainy season, whenever the cubs had gathered spores as I advised them, I had kept these spores in the space.
The winter provided the rooms with a heated bed and the perfect temperature for cultivating fresh mushrooms. I placed the spores into containers filled with cultivated soil – this soil was homade, composed of peat, grass carbon soil, and other components. This thod wasn’t simple, as it required the addition of pine needles, sawdust, grains, dry grass, cow dung, and more. This soil had to undergo natural ferntation, providing good water retention and perfectly suited for mushroom cultivation; I had chosen this thod specifically for growing mushrooms.
The soil had to be placed in bamboo tubes, mixed with the spores to allow water to sprinkle on and mushrooms to sprout from the carved-out tops. The tubes were then connected one after another and hung about thirty centiters above the head of the heated bed. Depending on the temperature of the soil, I sprayed water daily. With the appropriate temperature, spores quickly grew to a considerable size (if there’s an error, please leave a ssage. Thank you).
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