What Jack Didn't Grow
Remember the boy who traded the cow for a handful of beans?
I know we're supposed to think he was silly for trading a cow, which could give milk and butter and cheese, and possibly meat, for a handful of dry beans that couldn't make even a good-sized pot of soup.
But if they had been just ordinary soy beans, and he used them as seed to grow more, and then saved the seed and grew a field of beans and had enough to eat all winter, and not only that but made soymilk, and okara (the cooked soybean meal left after making soy milk), and enough felafel for the whole family, then maybe we wouldn't be thinking he made a bad bargain.
And of course he saved some seed to grow his field of beans year after year, so he had enough extra beans to trade for other vegetables at the market, maybe eventually even a cow, which he fed well on soybeans from his field, and he got from another young sprout smart enough to know a good trade when she saw it.
One "magic" bag of organic soybeans from the Anew store (if you can't grow your own): 399 yen
Water: free-ish.
Labour (1 to 1 1/2 hours on a Sunday): free and fun too, if you're a bit of a food geek like me.
Results: 1 quart/liter of delicious soy milk, used to make a couple cups of vanilla soy milk, which go great in a pot of morning coffee, make two wonderful breakfasts when poured on top of brown rice and raisins, and make one recipe (with a bit more soy milk) of Vegan Chocolate Almost-Instant Pudding.
Enough okara to make about 30-40 felafel, which eaten with some brown rice, and followed by the chocolate pudding with coconut in it, make a nice Sunday feast.
Magic? You decide.
Here are the extremely easy to follow and useful videos that made it all possible, courtesy of a wonderful poster to youtube. A big thank you for your generousity, Ms. Magic Chef, (Sarah?) whoever you are.
How to make soymilk and okara:
Okara felafel:
18 comments:
magic!
so it was jack that started the free trade movement...
Ginger:
The _good_ kind of free trade, the one we SHOULD have. :)
Hahaha, Jack had a good idea. I bet he used non-GMO soy beans too, just like your Anew store. Right?
Domestically grown soy here in Japan is 100% GMO-free. Hokkaido farmers are great at keeping their seeds and maintaining Japan's biodiversity.
Wonderful to know, Martin, for those of us that can't (always) buy organic ones.
I have a question for you, do you know if soy beans grown in other countries, especially the USA and Canada, have to list Genetically-Modified on the labels? Or if we buy organic ones in those countries, will we be safe?
Great that the Hokkaido farmers are so smart and conscientious!!!
i just read an article in the february, 2008, issue of vegnews called the great soy debate that claims that 90% of all soy grown in the usa is genetically engineered to be roundup ready (for pesticides). in addition to that, farmers are not legally allowed to save and use seeds from previous crops.
i can tell you that most soy products i buy are clearly marked non-gmo/organic so i would have to assume, based on the information in the article, that if it's not marked non-gmo...it is.
Thanks, Ginger. I believe you're right. I'm not sure if Monsanto is behind this one or not, but I've read lately that they are agressively "protecting" their patent on GMO seeds. Whoever came up with the idea to allow patenting of seeds was not very forward- thinking. I'm sure they didn't think about the long-term consequences to farmers and people as the GMO seeds contaminated near-by fields (without anyone's "permission") or became products that could be so rigorously controlled that farmers couldn't even save their own seeds. If the farmers had a bigger lobby, maybe they could fight the GMO seeds "contaminating" THEIR crops.
I sure hope it will become a bigger issue in the future. I hate to think of all our crops being GM, with low public awareness of it. Soy and soy derivatives are in so many foods that it may be hard to determine which ones, without requirements to label, not to mention the problems of eating out.
Apparently it _is_ Monsanto. More information at the following link. Scroll down to see the article about The Supreme Court decision not to allow the farmer to save seeds:
http://www.saynotogmos.org/ud2008/ujan08.php#supreme
I'm also adding the website "SaynotoGMO" with more interesting articles to the Environment/Living Section.
yes, there are too many soy ingredients in too many pre-packaged foods in the usa for that to not matter.
many westerners eat too many of those packaged foods and don't realize what's in them....that could be why there's such a debate over here about soy and whether it's good or bad for you.
in addition to what's happening with the GM seed, there are now acres of land in south america being cleared for more soy fields to meet the demands of the new biofuels. it's rather ironic that biofuels are creating environmental issues.
thank you j
Japanese food companies are sourcing non-GMO soy in North America, making sure that tofu and natto here is non-GMO.
As for additives and flavours, we have no idea if it is GMO or not. Greenpeace Japan made a guide that is very useful, called the True Food Guide. You can access it from their website. They show which Japanese food companies are actively avoiding GMO.
It is a huge issue, and Jack would have been VERY angry if he had known about it!
Q: I have a question for you, do you know if soy beans grown in other countries, especially the USA and Canada, have to list Genetically-Modified on the labels? Or if we buy organic ones in those countries, will we be safe?
A: Yes, in Japan it would have to be labelled as GMO. And the JAS mark organic rules here in Japan clearly prohibit the use of GMO.
Ginger, it's great to hear that there is debate going on. I sure hope, though, that it doesn't focus on whether soy itself is good for you, rather than whether modified soy is.
I've found soy to be a wonderful mainstay of my vegetarian diet; I eat it almost every day, as beans, milk, okara or tofu. I would be very sad to not be able to eat it.
Let's hope that with the election in the US, a more sane government will work towards the health of its citizens and a more peaceful world, but it would help if more people like you made sure the people in government know what you want.
For sure we can't continue to allow the health of ourselves and the planet to be disregarded as a few companies play god.
Thanks, Martin, both for the information and the mention of the food guide from Greenpeace. I will go and look it up now.
Thanks, I should have given you the link!
http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/campaign/gm/truefood/
If you have any questions, let me know. The Greenpeace staff in Tokyo also speaks English. And there is the chocolate guide too, just in time for a GMO-free, Fair Trade Valentines Day...
http://www.greenpeace.or.jp/campaign/gm/truefood/chocolate
Wow- interesting post and comments!
Falafel okara- I'm very intrigued. I just had a poster recommending okara to me as a thickener. Fascinating! I just threw it away the last time I made soy milk.
Here's hoping for sane government. sigh.
-Sea
Thanks, Martin. I found it, but the link is good perhaps for other readers.
It's a bit slow going for me as it's all in Japanese. I could read some of the items but a lot of the companies and brands I have never seen around here. I guess I will stick to organics at this point and hopefully they will be okay.
I do think it's a fantastic resource for Japanese readers.
And it's good to know that the people at Greenpaece in Tokyo speak some English.Sometimes I wish I lived closer so I could participate more.
It's great that you put up the information about the Anew stores on your site. I think the stores are good because they are in so many locations in Japan so may be easy for people to find near where they live. And they carry fresh seasonal organic produce, which is hard to find here, even, hallelujah, APPLES.:)
SSea:
Don't throw it away! You can make lots of things with it. I'm thinking it could be used just like "textured soy protein" that you can buy for much money at the organic store. I intend to do some more experimenting, soon.
I just made my second batch of felafel and have a few tweaks which I'll be posting shortly. They made a big difference to the texture and flavour. :)
Organic apples! Wow. we've come full cycle, haven't we.
I bet you also had a granma and a grandpa with apple trees in their graden...
No need for chemicals there, and each fall they had more than they could eat AND give away. Pure joy for us kids.
No apple trees, though there were wild ones around, really sour and bitter that we sometimes tried to eat. I come from an apple-growing region so they were plentiful in stores.
BUT we always picked wild blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in season and were well supplied by my grandmother with yummy jams, muffins, cakes and pies. :)
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