Pork and beef ssam. One of my favorite meals to cook for a group. All day roasted pork shoulder and grilled marinated beef with lots of little dishes, wrapped in lettuce with rice and punchy sauces.

One more much bigger batch of soy sauce started. 2 gallons of salty, moldy beans! Last big fermentation project for at least a couple months. Probably. Maybe.

Sushi night! Far from perfect, but every time I make maki rolls it goes a little quicker and less clumsily.

Pretty good braised chicken with sichuan inspired flavors. Love using my growing collection of my hand made bowls too.

The fermentation station expands! But somehow is still full? Time to start a few more batches of soy sauce.

After another month setting out, then racking and filtering, my first batch of soy sauce now looks as good as it tastes. It's beautiful, clear, and dark. Finally calling this batch done done. I feel like a god damn wizard.

Trying my hand at vegan ramen. Vegetable based miso broth. Maybe too many pickle-y toppings. I was really happy with how this salted / purged / broiled zucchini came out, and crispy fried garlic with chilis and douchi.

The suggested prompt at the studio is "chia pet." I'm taking a more austere interpretation, but came so much closer to what I envisioned than I hoped. The best one started cracking after I finished, but 2/7 isn't too bad for a much more extreme shape than I'm used to.

I'm really happy with these little vases / pitchers. In particular, the shape of the feet and the glazing is a huge improvement for me. A clean edge makes them look so much more polished. But, now I just want to go back and remake my sets of ramen and rice bowls which feel very sloppy by comparison

Kinda hard to beat a dog on a toasted bun with mayo, topped with a freshly cracked batch of home made sauerkraut

Gotta keep the big jars occupied! Pressed a big batch of "barley sake" last night. I'm not sure that's a thing, and I'm not sure it'll be drinkable, but plan to use it to make vinegar and mirin, maybe other projects. We can keep pushing "from scratch" further in the fermentation lab.

New work from the spring session at the Potter's Guild. I feel like I'm improving a lot. Lots of flaws to work on but I think I have a clear sense of what they are which is honestly a satisfying place to be.

After a year of aging I pressed my first batch of shoyu this weekend. The results are actually great. To complete the cycle I started another batch, this time with mushrooms. I think I'll start a new one every couple months to keep it going.

More ramen. As usual home made noodles and broth. Working on my noodle fold for presentation. I'm excited next week to have home made shoyu. One degree further from scratch. Honestly I'm not sure what's next on that journey that doesn't involve quitting my job and buying a farm.

Year two attempting to make mulberry wine from local trees. This time, I smashed most of them and let them start fermenting in a loosely sealed jar for a week. Then pressed and sealed with an airlock. Hopefully we wont end up with vinegar this year. Although thats not a terrible outcome.

New bowl! Gotta put it through the paces with miso ramen with fried tofu, cabbage, and turnip pickles.

Help. My fermentation log has exceeded the capacity of the notes app.

Landing on a shape I like enough, switching to production mode. A lot of these will get culled but hoping for a consistent set of 6-10 sauce dishes.

I love a lunch of little dishes and I love my growing set of hand made little bowls.

My most beautiful batch of koji to date! And god the smell! Time to do some brewing.

Spent a while throwing tiny sauce dishes, just experimenting with different shapes to figure out what I want to make a set of.

Bowls! Trying to be more thoughtful and experimental with glazes, and the way the glaze interacts with the shape of the foot.

After a mere year I'm really excited about how my first batch of shoyu is tasting. I think I'll press and bottle it on its birthday.

Started my first larger batch of miso after making a lot of little test batches over the last year and a half. I'm excited to see how it goes and to have a volume I don't feel I need to be precious with. The fermentation station's looking cozy.

Wednesday night pottery party at the guild. Back to one of my potluck go to's to fit the "garden party" theme. Experimenting with some bottle shapes.

Made an amazake with purple sweet potatoes. I love the color of it so much. What should I do with it? It's pretty sweet on its own but could make some beautiful cocktails.

I started my second large batch of shoyu (with some smaller experiments along the way). It's cool to compare this to my first that's been aging for about 10 months. The first batch is coming along well and I'll probably press it in a couple months. But optimistic the next will be even better.

I want to do nothing more! Pickled red carrots I made a couple months ago. They're great on salads and have such an incredible color just from the carrots. 2% total weight of salt, black pepper, cumin, mustard seeds, bay, allspice, dill, and cloves. Fermented a couple weeks before refrigerating.

Steak dinner from a couple nights ago. Still feeling satisfied with this meal. Did a good job on the ribeye, and also made fresh bread, braised leeks, smashed potatoes, and a salad with fun pickles.

Second year trying my hand at wax resist egg dying. Lots of room for improvement but I don't hate it!