Our talented and inquiring people created the several methods of eating the fresh vegetables even in winter and widely used them for the dietary life.
One of them was Kimchi making.
Its history is long.
There was already radish, lettuce, eggplant, garlic, welsh onion and salt in the period of three countries and there were also the several kinds of fermented foods including alcohol, soybean and so on.
So Kimchi is recognized to have existed that time.
In the period of koryo there was an organ which made and managed Kimchi.
In Ri Gyu Bo’s book there is the record that Kimchi was the side dishes for winter.
In the period of Ri dynasty, the red pepper began to be cultivated and so Kimchi making method was developed more and more and the number of its kinds increased.
From the old times, our people regarded the soy and bean paste making and Kimchi making as the most important work each year and every family was very busy to make Kimchi when winter came.
The period of making Kimchi was different according to the places and season but mostly the beginning of winter was its criterior.
In the book titled“Haedongzukzi”, there is the record that when the winter came near, every family was very busy to make Kimchi and dig up the pit.
Kimchi for winter is delicious only when being made in time.
So every family tried to make Kimchi in time at any cost.
Even in the palace, for a month when Kimchi was made, every business was stopped.
In this period even court girls who had not come out of the rooms came out to help making Kimchi.
This shows that our people made great effort to make it.
Kimchi was used as the side dishes for 5 months from November to March of Next year and so our people said that Kimchi for winter was the same as the half of food quantity for a year.
Our people also paid attention to its storage.
The dugout for Kimchi was selected in the place without the direct sunlight and the Kimchi jar was covered with rice straw and the dugout was covered with the straw matting.
So even on the cold winter day, the cold wind could not go into the jar.
Our people have traditionally helped with each other when making Kimchi for winter.
They thought of the mutual help as the natural.
The neighboring people and relations washed the vegetables, made spices and dug up a dugout for kimchi together.
Then they exchanged their Kimchi with each other and gave the necessary advice to others.
Such Kimchi was refreshing and fragrant and our people always regarded Kimchi as the most important and eventual item for the dietary life and accompanied it even when eating meat, rice cake and pancake.