[This post is from the old forum]
This is maybe a bit off topic. But… you guys ever heard of nattō? Here’s a picture attached.
So during the pandemic I learned of the vital importance of vitamin D3, and how very much more we were getting as hunter gatherers in African than us modern humans do now. Essential for good immune system. But, if we take enough to get our levels to what they’d be historically (which for most people means 5,000~10,000 IU per day supplement), that D3 makes calcium more available through digestion, and that can end up calcifying the arteries. The solution to that, is sufficient vitamin K2. K2 naturally occurs in lactofermented pickles, and through meat from grass fed animals to a lesser degree, also from bacteria (in their digestive tract). Modern people usually lack both of those sources!
But nattō has 10 times more vitamin K2 than any other source, so it is said. (The K2 suppliments sold in shops are generally (always?) made by extracting it from nattō). And this is why I started making nattō. Why buy something if I can make it myself, right? Basically, I soak soy beans for 24 hours, them steam them in a pressure cooker for about an hour, then infect them with a special bacteria (Bacillus subtilis var. natto), and incubate at around 40C for 20 hours, then rest in the fridge for 24 hours, then I can keep them to eat, they say for a week but I’ve gone 2 or 3 weeks, they keep well! Very umami. Bit weird for most Westerners but you can get used to them, or mix them with things and they’ll add great flavour! And no farts - the beans have been pre-digested! If I’m hungry and lazy I just cook rice then add nattō (you don’t cook nattō, it’s ready already) and soy sauce and there’s the meal! Maybe add a bit of raw tomato or spring onion or whatever if you like, or a raw egg 
So regarding LANDRACE - The way people do this process is to buy a powder that is the dried bacteria basically. And they use this powder for each batch. That’s a bit expensive for me and also not my natural way. So I made one batch and froze a portion of that in an ice cube tray. Then I use one ‘cube’ to infect the new batch. I also have frozen gen 2 for making batches. The thing is, each next gen is weaker than the last. That’s why people don’t do this. The freezing helps because I can make gen 2 last a lot longer that way - it’s been a year now and I only ever bought one pack of bacteria! But I’m thinking, maybe the issue here is inbreeding depression? Bred to survive in too sterile conditions?
So I was thinking, maybe it would be good to buy packs of this special bacteria from as many different sources as possible, mix them all together, and make a kind of nattō landrace? Perhaps that way I could end up with a community that can keep breeding generation after generation?
I’d love to hear especially from anyone who has or has heard of anyone doing this, or of any sources of more sustainable nattō culture (known as nattō-kin in Japanese).
Oh and by the way, this bacteria can be used also to infect other beans, not just soy beans. People in the West have done such, even though in Japan it seems only soy beans, and at that, usually soy bean varieties particularly favoured specifically for nattō. But any bean seems to work, just might not be the same degree of slimy stickiness as soy beans.
[To save you all from reading the whole old conversation, here is what I added that may be most relevant]
so I’ve just read some Korean instructions from 1766, which make it sound pretty simple:
“Boil well-washed soybeans. Wrap them with straw and keep in a warm place for 3 days until thread-like stickiness is developed.”
From this nice video:
And yeah I think if wild strains would work here, that’s probably going to be better than trying to make a domesticated landrace.
Also… it seems the bacteria is in the air, don’t necessarily even need straw, as this lady demonstrates:
However, her result is rather lacking in the sliminess, so I guess straw should give a higher concentration of the good bacteria and let them establish and dominate quicker I guess.
Regarding producing the lovely stringy slime on other beans - it is possible, just not as much. Here’s success with chickpeas:
Now for my personal conclusion looking back on this from today:
I think the most ‘landrace’ way of doing nattō would be to ignore my idea of getting different strains from commercial sources, and instead rely on the local strains of bacteria specific to nattō, from the local environment. So I would suggest focusing on the specific processing and environmental conditions conducive to breeding those local populations, including temperature and humidity of the beans of course, but also in developing good practice in terms of what plants to put around the beans - perhaps locally growing bamboo leaves, or local straw, and might be worth testing what straw species would be most suitable. And ideal would probably be to either grow that straw oneself or collaborate with local non-toxic farmers who do. I would expect variables in the type of straw and processing may be significant in the final quality of the nattō.
But I totally get what you mean! It reminds me of a time I was in the mountains in India and we were learning massage for a couple of weeks, and I was sat on a rock with some foreigners and dropped my food on the ground then picked it up and carried on eating it. And they were like gross! And they were all into soap and stuff. Who knows maybe they even had a … what are those damp sterile napkin things? Anyway I was like hey, it landed on a leaf. For me that leaf is a lot cleaner than your soap! 