Toshie Nagashima

Toshie has lived in Vall del Ges, in Osona, for seven years. She leads an al­most self-sus­tain­ing lifestyle: grow­ing her own veg­eta­bles and crops in her gar­den, and af­ter­wards using them to pre­pare her own food. In fact, she gives classes in mac­ro­bi­otic cook­ing, which is her great love.

Toshie does nearly every­thing her­self. Apart from teach­ing her classes at home, she also gives classes around Cat­alo­nia. If you like cook­ing, es­pe­cially veg­e­tar­ian cook­ing, then look no fur­ther! Toshie's hus­band is a bio-builder and re­built their house 30 years ago, using only nat­ural ma­te­ri­als. They have solar en­ergy, well-water and a fire­wood stove. Toshie en­joys being at home, when she is not out walk­ing in the woods. She also prefers to work in her gar­den in bare feet, as she says that way she can feel the earth be­neath her. She likes med­i­ta­tion and being to­gether with her fam­ily.

1. Fire­wood stove: Ideal for slow, overnight cook­ing, which also pro­duces de­li­cious re­sults. At the same time it warms up the whole house as well as pro­vid­ing us with hot water.

2. The gar­den bas­ket: This is to bring in the veg­eta­bles I've grown in the gar­den. It's also handy for car­ry­ing my lunch. I al­ways have it nearby.

3. My tool bas­ket: This is an es­sen­tial ob­ject for me; I just couldn't be with­out it.

4. Knife and chop­ping board: I use these to pre­pare my veg­eta­bles for the pot.

5. Ume­boshi: Japan­ese salted or pick­led plums.

6. Surib­achi (Mor­tar): I use this for grind­ing the sesame seeds when I am mak­ing a veg­etable ham­burger, for ex­am­ple.

7. Oben­to­bako: This is a breath­able wooden food box which helps pre­vent the food from rot­ting. It is also a keep­sake from my fa­ther.

8. Tawashi Brush: I use this to wash the veg­eta­bles so that I can eat them with the skin on, the best and most nu­tri­tious way to eat veg­eta­bles.

9. Iron fry­ing pan: This is ideal for mak­ing stir-fried veg­eta­bles and Span­ish omelette.

10. Ce­ramic pot: This is the per­fect con­tainer for cook­ing rice and por­ridge.

11. Home­made Miso: This tra­di­tional fer­mented food is very pop­u­lar in Japan. Along with Ume­boshi pick­led plums, its my en­ergy food.

12. Azuki beans from my gar­den: This is the best food for heal­ing my body.

13. Mill: I use this to make my own flour.

For more info, go to: http://​umegusto.​blogspot.​jp