Miso Master Miso Heritage
MISO MASTER MISO·WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2018·
In the spring of 1978, a group of macrobiotic supporters approached Michio and Aveline Kushi with the idea of forming a new company to produce miso in the United States using traditional organic ingredients. The Kushis entreated Ariyoshi Kazama, founder of Mitoku Trading Company, a major supplier of Japanese natural food, to f
ind someone to train our would-be miso makers in the rapidly fading art of traditional miso manufacture. Kazama searched for someone who still made miso the old-fashioned way, yet was open-minded enough to invite strangers into his home. Kazama finally located, in the mountains north of Tokyo, Mr. Takamichi Onozaki, one of the remaining handful of country miso makers of the old school.
300 year old Onozaki home and miso shop
Mr. Onozaki generously opened his home to gaijin (foreign) seekers after knowledge from half a world away, and agreed to house and train an American couple, John and Jan Belleme, for an entire miso-making season. From November, 1979, until June, 1980, Mr. Onozaki taught his students all the miso lore he had accumulated from a lifetime of miso making in his small, rural miso factory. Upon the Bellemes’ return to America, we rapidly constructed our miso factory building near Rutherfordton, North Carolina, around fifty miles southeast of Asheville, and arranged to ship our new equipment from Japan. By late 1980 we made our first batches of experimental rice miso. Miso Master Logo
Although our miso was sold only in bulk for its first two seasons, our familiar one-pound and eight-ounce tubs with the Miso Master logo soon arrived on the scene and sales slowly but steadily grew. Starting with eight barrels, we began adding more vats until we now have a total of 55 of these leviathans, each holding over four tons of two-year miso. All of our vats have been crafted out of recycled wood by the Arrow Tank Company of Rochester, New York, the only remaining traditional hand-crafted barrel maker in the US. In order to house our expanding activities, we built a second factory building as big as the first in 1993. In the fall of 1981, Mr. Onozaki came to Rutherfordton on an inspection trip to see exactly how well his students learned their lessons. He had never left Japan before in his life. He stayed and worked in the factory alongside our own crew for weeks, patiently reviewing our practices and refining our procedures until he pronounced himself fully satisfied. At first the American Miso Company produced Miso Master Organic Traditional Red (Aka) Miso, the only type made by Mr. Onozaki, but soon the Bellemes developed a recipe and technique for making Country Barley (Mugi) Miso, eventually paying back part of our debt to Mr. Onozaki by teaching him to make barley miso of his own in Japan. Over the next few years, the Bellemes developed, in succession, Brown Rice (Genmai) Miso, Mellow White (Shiro) Miso, and Mellow Barley (Shiro Mugi) Miso, all of which had never before been produced outside of Japan. They next produced two completely original kinds of miso never before produced anywhere, Chickpea (S0y-Free) Miso and Sweet White (Low-Salt) Miso, to round out American Miso Company’s product offerings. Miso Master Organic Miso
There was no organic certification of processors in 1979 or for many years thereafter, but American Miso Company used only Certified Organic Rice, Organic Barley, Organic Soybeans, and Organic Chickpeas from the very first day of operation and became certified as an organic processor as soon as this procedure became available in the late 1980’s. From then until today, Quality Assurance International, an independent third-party certification organization, certifies all American Miso Company manufacturing, processing, and warehouse facilities as organic. Department of Agriculture has put in place a set of national standards that food labeled “organic” must meet. The USDA Organic seal tells you that a product is composed of at least 95 percent organic ingredients, and you can be sure that it was produced using the highest organic production and handling standards in the world. This seal is displayed on all American Miso Company organic miso products. From the beginning, the American Miso Company chose to produce only organic miso and we have never wavered from that commitment. Atlanta Kashruth Commission, and independent third-party certification organization, certifies AMC manufacturing, processing, and warehouse facilities as kosher. Another stamp of integrity that Miso Master Organic Miso has achieved is from the Non-GMO Project. The new design of each miso tub now proudly bears the Non-GMO Verified logo, indicating third-party certification that no ingredient in our miso has been genetically engineered or modified. The American Miso Company story continues on into the future with our latest certification being Gluten-Free for all varieties except Country Barley and Mellow Barley. Scientific research is now supporting what ancient tradition has endorsed regarding the benefits of miso. As miso moves from the exotic to mainstream, we explore delicious new ways to introduce miso into the American diet. PURCHASE MISO MASTER MISO at YOUR FAVORITE NATURAL FOODS MARKET or FROM OUR GREAT EASTERN SUN ONLINE MARKET: http://bit.ly/2F1c0hs
