It is essential for improving immunity.

Made with 100% pesticide-free ingredients from Satoyama Club Minuma farms.

Fermented Food “Miso Making” Workshop

Information for recruiting participants

Applications for 2022 have been closed.

“Miso Making” Workshop Outline

Made with pesticide-free soybeans and rice from Satoyama Club Minuma’s farm

The First Session

From 9:45 am to 3:00 pm on Saturday, April 2, 2022

The Second Session

From 9:45 am to 3:00 pm on Saturday, April 16, 2022

Schedule for the day

  • Meet at the clubhouse at 9:45 a.m.
  • In the morning, we will prepare miso.
  • After lunch (please bring your own), we will take you on a tour of the nearby farmland cultivated by the club (rice paddies, fields, and orchards). You will be able to interact with the club members.
  • Afterwards, we will go back to the clubhouse and dismiss the group to take home some miso. We will probably finish by 3:00 PM.

Others

  • The contents of the first and second sessions are the same.
  • After each session, you will be able to take home about 4kg of miso.
  • We will use organic, pesticide-free “Aoyama Zai-rai” soybeans, a specialty of Ogawa-machi, Saitama Prefecture, and the same variety of soybeans grown at Satoyama Club Minuma’s farm, and rice malt made from pesticide-free rice grown in the club’s rice paddies.
  • This pesticide-free rice is then sent to Hoshida Shokuhin, a rice malt maker in Ogawa-machi, Saitama Prefecture, who uses only pesticide-free rice to make rice malt. Mr. Shigeru Yokota, an organic farmer in Ogawa-machi, Saitama Prefecture, introduced us to Hoshida Shokuhin at the time of the launch of our club and every year when we have problems, he gives us valuable advice.
  • However, if the situation of the new coronavirus infection worsens before the date of the workshop, the workshop will be cancelled and the registration fee will be refunded.

2021 Miso making workshop (in the clubhouse)

2020 Miso Making Workshop (in the rental space)

Summary of This Workshops

At Satoyama Club Minuma, we grow a variety of soybeans called “Aoyama native soybeans” in our own fields in Higashiurawa, Saitama city without using pesticides, which we receive from an organic farmer in Ogawa-machi, Saitama Prefecture. We use these soybeans to make our own miso in February and March every year. We are looking for people who are interested in cultivating the crops necessary for making miso, a fermented food, as well as the farm work up to (and after) harvesting and making the fermented food.

Why We Believe This Workshop is Important

People have recently started realizing the efficacy of fermented food for keeping health conditions. However, the miso and other fermented foods we buy in supermarkets today are made from soybeans sprayed with pesticides or genetically modified soybeans from the U.S., and are mass-produced with a lot of preservatives. It is highly doubtful that the original benefits of fermented foods can be nowadays maintained. In such times, Satoyama Club Minuma has been working every year to produce miso, a basic food essential to the Japanese diet, using safe and secure soybeans and rice grown at our own farmland without using agricultural chemicals. We would like to invite people who agree with our concept and are willing to participate in the work of growing soybeans and rice, the essential ingredientsnecessary for this event, and we are looking for participants. This time we will be making miso, but in the future we plan to try making soy sauce as well.

The Process of Making Miso/ Necessary Agricultural Works

Making miso from soybeans requires a lot of agricultural works. The main tasks alone require the following:

1. Sowing soybeans (early to mid-July) 2. weeding 3. pile-driving 4. Spraying wood vinegar for insect control 5. Soybean harvest (late November) 6. Removing beans from the pods (mid-December) 7. Bean sorting (mid to late December) 8. Making miso (February to March every year)

To be able to enjoy the feeling of fulfillment of “I made homemade miso!” while ensuring the safe and delicious miso for your family and to be able to boast to your friends, the farming work up to the harvest is also an essential part of the process.

Sowing soybeans

Weeding

Removing the beans from the pod

Bean sorting

Sowing soybeans

Weeding

Removing the beans from the pod

Bean sorting

Application Guidelines

Conditions for Invitation

Applicants who agree to the following conditions are welcome to apply.

  1. Every Saturday is a regular farming day, and we need people who can participate in these days as often as possible. However, from January 2022, you can join us on Tuesdays, and Thursdays in addition to Saturdays.
  2. Those who are interested in agricultural work other than harvesting soybeans and making miso, and who like farming (we grow rice, wheat, soybeans, various vegetables, and fruit trees) are very welcome.
  3. You will be asked to join as a regular member of Satoyama Club Minuma. However, there is no annual fee for the first four sessions as they are a trial period.

What you need to know

As explained in the section above on The Process of Making Miso/ Necessary Agricultural Works, it takes a lot of time and effort to obtain soybeans suitable for making miso. Therefore, our club is holding this miso-making event with the aim of recruiting people who are willing to share with us the hardships and joys of farming soybeans (and other fields). However, in the past, we have had many people who just wanted to take home some miso from the event, even though they were not interested in farming from the start, just to get their hands on a very rare food product, “miso made from rice malt made from pesticide-free domestic soybeans and pesticide-free rice. Please refrain from attending this event if you are like that.

Entry fee

¥7,000

Other notes

  1. If there are too many applicants, we may not be able to accommodate all of your requests.
  2. Making Miso
    1. Use 1kg soybeans + 1kg rice malt + water + salt (natural mineral salt). The finished product will be about 4~5kg.
    2. We will provide the containers and all the other equipments necessary for making miso.
  3. Other common items
    1. Participants are requested to bring their own masks, aprons, hair covers (or towels for these items), and lunch box for lunch.

Where will the Workshop be held?

Satoyama Club Minuma Clubhouse
1-15-12 Higashi-Urawa, Midori-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama 336-0926, Japan　3 minutes walk from Higashi-Urawa Station, JR Musashino Line

How Many Applicants Accepted?

The first 4 people to arrive for the first and second sessions

How to Apply

  1. Please apply using the entry form below.
  2. When you receive an e-mail from the club saying “Your application has been accepted” . Please transfer the registration fee of ￥7,000 to the following account within 8 days of receiving the reply email from the club.
    Musashino Bank, Higashiurawa Branch Ordinary Account 1121847 “Satoyama Club Minuma”
  3. Applications without the payment of registration fee not received within 8 days after the Club sends out an e-mail stating that your application has been accepted will be considered invalid.
  4. If you would like to have a trial farming experience on one of our regular farming days (every Saturday) before or after applying to this Workshop, please fill out the inquiry form below. We welcome you at any time. Up to four trial farming sessions are free of charge. If you would like to participate in this program, please come to the club’s greenhouses (see map below) by 9:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Paddies and fields

Clubhouse

Nearest Station: Higashi Urawa Station, JR Musashino Line Clubhouse: 3 minutes walk from the station Rice Paddies and Fields: 12 minutes walk from the station