How to Make Silken Tofu and Firm Tofu at Home: The First Step Toward Self-Sufficiency
Text and photos / Qiwen, Jiren
This summer break I had time at home and read quite a few books. One of them, a major work called "The Book of Tofu," mentions that a community's self-sufficient economic activities need a tofu shop of its own to rely on! That got me even more motivated to make tofu with my own hands.
I won't go into the details of the book here, but our family has always wanted to move toward the goal of self-sufficiency, and we have always been walking at a slow pace!
This year, we realized that we need to make large amounts of kitchen-waste compost and use more organic soil for growing, and the more the better! Because we have decided to practice the deep-soil (lasagna) planting method, no longer hoeing or turning the soil, only covering the cultivated land layer by layer with organic soil. So we are thinking about how to obtain and reuse all kinds of organic fertilizer, including human feces, cow dung, dog poop, human urine…and other organic materials!
I remember an Indian soil-improvement video I saw before, about making large amounts of cow-dung compost. The title is "The Man Who Saved the World with Cow Dung." It is a very inspiring documentary, 24 minutes long, worth watching!
I truly believe that treating the soil well is an effective way to bring the Earth back to life, including all kinds of living things on Earth, including humans, which will all be improved together! So what we most want to collect right now is cow dung!
Besides making large amounts of compost to improve the soil, my husband also built a rainwater harvesting system to boost our access to a second-hand water source for growing plants. Once the dry season ends, our family will plant more grains and miscellaneous crops! Because this summer, I tried scattering rice beans, and even when I ignored them, they still bore abundantly!
What a coincidence! My nutritionist friend, Miss Bihe, reminded me to reduce starch and eat more beans and coarse grains, which happens to suit our family's characteristic of growing on wasteland! I am also looking for millet seeds, and I want to try growing millet too! Because Miss Bihe also mentioned that in Japan millet has become a preferred health food!
Growing leafy greens is more delicate, so I will give them up and grow root vegetables, beans and coarse grains! I plan to go to Aunt Meiqiao's vegetable garden once a week to buy vegetables, picked fresh right there. First, it supplies our family's basic need for leafy greens; second, it supports Aunt Meiqiao's hard work in farming! Later I plan to organize a group and invite other parents to go to the garden together to buy vegetables! Aunt Meiqiao's vegetable garden is in Dazhou, contact phone: 0922150191
Speaking of this, our family's trash can is forever full of packaging plastic bags, because only Luodong collects recycling bags, so all our garbage is plastic packaging bags! I really want to reduce our family's garbage to zero, so the chances of buying takeout will keep shrinking! Or I will return the packaging bags to the store for reuse! Still thinking about it…..
Tofu and silken tofu are our children's favorite, so we can't give those up! Plus, after reading "The Book of Tofu," I really agree with the author's concept of community economics, so I took the Do-It-Yourself tofu kit that Miss Bihe gave me two years ago, which I had never touched, and followed the instructions step by step. It is very easy! Just thinking about it in your head is harder! Once I actually did it, I found I had been intimidated for nothing! But that is also because I only just caught on now! If you like it sweet, make silken tofu; if you like to cook with it, make firm tofu. Even if you only make soy milk, you can make plain soy milk, or vegetable soy milk soup!
At this point, it seems there is a complete picture of self-sufficiency! My good friend Meihong said she is waiting to barter with me, trading for silken tofu and firm tofu!
I am very happy! I have figured some things out! And I am gradually connecting them together! I hope to live a simpler, more eco-friendly life! Let us encourage each other!