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PeggyHave you considered offering a variety of small soybeans for making natto?
Hi Peggy,
there’s not a great calling for natto in Australia and so we’ve not been asked for small size soybeans. We would need to know there’s a market demand before we got our farmers to grow a crop. Do you know if the soy beans required are a different variety to other soybeans? And why do they have to be small – why can’t you use standard soy beans?
Sheridan
MegI came to find this topic when I was looking for small soybeans for natto. We can still make natto with regular sized soybeans however small sizes soybeans taste much better and commercial natto is mostly made with small soybeans. I have many friends who have been looking for small soybeans for natto. Please consider to supply them!
Hi Meg, thanks for letting us know. I’ll look into the small soybeans in more detail. So far I’ve not been able to work out if they’re a different species. Can you buy Australian grown small soybeans?
MegHello, Sheridan. Thank you for reply. I have been trying to find one at store but all soybeans I found were bigger size than I wanted. Then I tried to find stockists or supplier who would be able to supply small batch but the only supplier I found was asking for minimum order to be 150kg. I don’t think I can find friends who can consume that much with me…
I went to search about difference between big soybean and small soybean. Apparently they are same species and harvest times are same, too. They are just big or small (like strawberries). As we should choose right size of soybeans for its use, they get sifted and divided into big size, medium size, small size and very small size (at least in Japan). For natto use, small and very small size are popular.Hi Meg
that’s very helpful. I will have a chat to the miller about how we grade our soybeans. There’s probably not enough of a demand to product retail packaging (the 500g size) but perhaps we could do larger bulk sizing. It’s worth looking into. Do you know “foodritual” on Instagram? He uses our normal size soy beans for his natto and tells me that the size of the beans doesn’t matter. Also, if you’re on Facebook check out “The Brew Life” facebook group where they discuss fermenting of all things.
JerryIt’s interesting that there are people looking for small soybeans, too. I have been using normal size soybeans to make natto. The taste is bad as the taste and smell is too strong. It is good for people who like this smell, but not everyone. This is why the small soybeans are popular for making natto.
Egbert HaldermanHi Meg,
Can you give me the supplier with the minimum order 150kg.
I have been searching a long time to find a supplier for small soybeans.
ShaneYep, interest is growing in Oz with ferment culture. How does demand get started of not available? Catch 22
ShaneYep, interest is growing in Oz with ferment culture. How does demand get started if not available? Catch 22 Same with high end rice cookers….
LikaSo many people are asking for this. Why is this so difficult to find? I can’t even source it from Japan. Even though I can buy the prepared product.The raw bean is very elusive for some reason.
Hi Lika & Shane
that’s interesting that these small beans are difficult to find even in Japan. The problem for us in providing small beans is that we don’t have a way to sort the smaller from the larger bean. I would think it was done by hand and eye traditionally. We use different machinery due to the volume of our product. We start with screenings where smaller sized things fall through the screen but the small beans are not small enough to be drafted off with this method. Then the beans move onto the gravity tables which works on weight and removes small stones and heavy things but even smaller mung beans have similar gravity.
To invest in the right equipment, we’d want to have a good measure of demand. I suggest that you start asking your favourite retailers (usually the organic specialty shops) and tell others to start asking for it. I have flagged your interest to the product team. It also needs to come from the retailers/ manufacturers.
