ContentsView article sectionsThe AttendeesSaturday: Day 1Sunday: Day 2Looking Back on GimjangSue’s Thoughts on GimjangTamara’s Thoughts on GimjangChristin’s Thoughts on GimjangGimjang with Sue 2023South of Seoul’s first Gimjang event was a huge success and it was our favorite event so far. Sue was absolutely amazing and the kimchi was fantastic. The Attendees Over twenty guests including men, women, and children showed up for Gimjang with Sue 2022 sponsored by South of Seoul. Despite the fact that the event occurred over two days and included a lot of uncomfortable, physically tiring work, everyone tackled different tasks with enthusiasm, humor, kindness, and joy. Saturday: Day 1 Gimjang started at 8:00 am on Saturday. During the first hour, we got to know each other, ate breakfast, and helped Sue with little tasks here and there. Sue had prepared many different snacks and drinks so we could start the day off with plenty of energy. Many of us embraced our best Gimjang lives and brought out our best countryside clothes. We legit respect countryside fashion and take this life seriously. Around 9 a.m. Sue put on a kimchi tasting. She put out three different kimchi boxes aged different lengths of time. Specifically, there was week-old kimchi, month-old kimchi, and year-old kimchi. Sue asked each of us to taste each kimchi and decide which we liked best. Then, she outlined how each one had a different flavor profie based on how they fermented. That gave us a guide to begin our kimchi journey. After the kimchi tasting, at about 10:00 a.m. the main event for Saturday started. Time to start preparing the cabbages. We all put on our gloves and Sue started teaching and giving us orders. We needed to slightly trim the bottoms off the cabbages, rinse them, and then salt them. The salting helps with the curing and removes the excess water. This was also the coldest part of the process since it requires cold water for each step of the process. Thankfully Sue kept a heated mat on the sofa for anyone whose hands couldn’t take it anymore. After the washing and salting, it was time to help prep additional ingredients for the Gimjang sauce. We all took about a 45-minute break to eat more snacks before jumping into the final stage of the day’s prepping process. Once the main event was done for the day, many folks went home but a small group of us stayed to help Sue with small tasks here and there. We also spent a lot of time hanging out, telling stories, and having lots of laughs. Sue loved having the company and ended up making us a special snack of grilled deodeok and oyster kimchi pancake. After we went home, Sue took over for the rest of the night, turning the cabbages every 3 hours until about 1 a.m., so that the cabbages would be ready for us on Sunday. Next year, we are going to make sure she has 1-2 people to stay and help with this process so that we can limit her work as much as possible. Sunday: Day 2 Sue got up at 4:30 a.m. to begin washing the cabbages and had about two-thirds of the work finished by the time Lisa arrived to help around 6:30 a.m. Lisa pitched in with additional preparation tasks as well. Then, three more of us arrived around 8:30 a.m. The main group arrived at 10:00 a.m. to begin the fun part. Staggering the arrivals on the second day worked well and we might streamline this support system for Sue in 2023. Once everyone arrived at 10:00 a.m., we socialized for about 30 minutes and then jumped into prepping ingredients to make the Gimjang sauce. The making of the sauce requires a base ‘glue’ of water and rice flour that needs boiled and then poured into bowls. Since we made both white and red kimchi, we had two different setups. To make each sauce, our Gimjang group chopped an assortment of fruits and vegetables including green onion, water parsley, onions, apples, pears, ginger and more. Once we finished prepping the sauces it was time to take a rest for an hour. One of the most imporant parts of Gimjang is coming together to share stories and build community. It was always a time for catching up with family and friends as well as making food for the winter. After our break, we began the final stage of Gimjang. This process took around 2-3 hours. Everyone was elbow-deep in sauces and chatting up a storm. We started with the white kimchi. Once we finished making the white kimchi, we all moved onto the main event: the red kimchi! Sue gave everyone a lesson. Then, they were off! Chatting, working, and having a great time. Sue’s husband built these wonderful tables for the international Gimjang so that we could all comfortably work together. Around 12:00 p.m. it was time to start prepping for lunch. The gimjang crew finished making all the kimchi and separated them into their containers. We all cleaned up and took an hour rest while Sue worked on setting up lunch. Looking Back on Gimjang Those involved in the Gimjang with Sue 2022 left feeling tired and full of both delicious food and delicious company. Sue’s Thoughts on Gimjang I thought about Gimjang on Monday morning with a clear mind and I wanted to share my feelings. While preparing for the Kimchi Festival, I thought about whether I would even be able to satisfy 90% of the people that came. I was scared when the first guests arrived on Saturday morning because I couldn’t read their faces. I wondered, “Are they nervous, too?”However, I saw everyone’s facial expressions change after going through the process of making kimchi. I felt that peak yesterday. Making kimchi with everyone was 200% more touching than I thought. In Korean life, the meaning of kimchi was not to store food for a year but to share it with a village … Continue reading Gimjang with Sue in Review