Cooking the Way We Live — The Day We Started Composting

I have been alive for fifty-six years now.For a long time I thought I had made my own way — and perhaps I worked hard in my own small way.

But more and more, I find myself seeing it differently: I am here because of many people, and because of the gentle environment of Japan that has held me all this time.

So for the years I have left, I would like to give something back. 

To contribute, even a little, and to leave something good for the next generation.

This is not a grand plan.

 It is simply the things I can begin right now, today, for the earth my grandchildren's generation will inherit. 

I have started looking honestly at my own daily life — asking how I might create less waste, throw less away, and think about waste even at the moment I buy something.

As one first step, at the third Organic Lifestyle EXPO here in Kyoto, we bought a small composting kit.

And this past Sunday, after a cooking class, we began — on June 15th — turning the day's leftover vegetables and the spent dashi ingredients into compost. 

A book I have been reading on growing healthy vegetables from kitchen scraps has been quietly teaching me along the way.

It is my very first time, so I honestly do not know yet how it will go.

 But that is exactly why I am looking forward to it. 

In time, once the compost is ready, we hope to grow vegetables in planters — and perhaps, one day, cook with them in our classes.

This is what "cook the way we live" means to us. We will share each small change here, as it happens.