Miso Made the Masterful Way–But in North Carolina

This article is published in partnership with The Food Section.

Driving the backroads from Asheville to Rutherfordton, it’s hard to believe the tiny town of 3,700 residents is home to the world’s largest organic producer of a Japanese culinary staple. 

Tucked away in a cluster of warehouses on the outskirts of town, Miso Master has stayed true to the centuries-old technique of naturally aging handcrafted miso with the seasons since 1980. Most Americans know miso from the soup served at Japanese steakhouses, but in Japan it’s used in everything from seafood glazes to ramen broths to savory desserts. A fermented paste made from soybeans or chickpeas, rice or barley, salt, and a fungus called koji—it is a cornerstone of Japanese cooking. 

Back in the 1960s, owner Barry Evans was a typical teenager whose Pennsylvania family followed the standard American diet, which was heavy on red meat and processed foods. Yet even as a young man, Evans wasn’t comfortable with eating animals. When he left home for college at Princeton University, he sought out alternative diets, savoring the writings of Adele Davis, a nutritionist who advocated for natural foods, and Catharyn Elwood’s Feel Like a Million.

“I became a vegetarian and never looked back,” Evans said.

He wasn’t the only one. Evans’ dietary exploration coincided with the macrobiotic movement in the U.S. Pioneered by Japanese author George Ohsawa, a proponent of alternative medicine, the macrobiotic diet is free of refined grains, sugar, and tropical fruits. Jonathan Kauffman, author of Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat, describes it as “a Japanese peasant diet.”

“His philosophy was that the more you bring yourself into accord with universal forces through food, the more you promote peace and bring the rest of society into accord with the forces of the universe,” Kauffman said. “Macrobiotics was one of the first dietary systems that counterculture kids attached themselves to.”

At the time, the macrobiotics movement was very small, and very fringe—but Evans was in the right place to further his nutrition journey. In Florida, Evans attended lectures by Michio and Aveline Kushi. The husband and wife team were students of Ohsawa and helped popularize macrobiotics in the United States. He also met their devotee Sandy Pukel, owner of Oak Feed Store in Coconut Grove, the largest natural food store in the state. 

Eventually, Evans invested in the store, and he and Pukel became business partners. As they pondered which macrobiotic-friendly products to stock, miso came to the forefront.  

“The problem was, most of the miso companies in Japan were mechanized and used additives methods to speed up fermentation,” Evans said. “This was in contrast to the traditional way of making miso, which was aging it through natural seasons.” 

Evans and Pukel cultivated an audacious vision. They would start their own American-made miso brand. The plan? Send the Oak Feed Store manager and his wife—John and Jan Belleme—to Japan to learn the ancient art of miso making from the masters. 

On-the-Job Training  

With the help of macrobiotics champion Michio Kushi, the Bellemes connected with the Onozaki family, who made miso the old way in the foothills of Japan’s mountainous Tochigi prefecture. For seven months, they lived, worked, and trained with the Onozakis, learning the centuries-old technique of fermenting soybeans with salt, grains, and koji, a mold critical to the fermentation process.

Over the course of a miso-making season, from November 1979 through June 1980, the Bellemes gleaned all the knowledge they could from the Onozakis–a task made more challenging by a language barrier. None of the Onozakis spoke English, so the Bellemes took Japanese lessons at the Berlitz Language Center in Miami before their journey. Those classes came in handy when the couple was invited to appear on Japanese television. 

“We were on the Japanese version of 60 Minutes, and we had to answer all the questions in Japanese,” Belleme said. 

Once their training in Japan was complete, the Bellemes returned to the U.S. to start making miso. The team chose Rutherfordton as their base of operations for two reasons.

First, it was a convenient halfway point between Miami, where Pukel and Evans then  lived, and Boston, where the Kushis planned to open a natural foods distribution company. “They chose a location close to Harvard because they wanted to introduce the brightest people to the macrobiotic movement,” Evans said.

Second, the area’s latitude and climate—important factors in traditional miso production—closely mirrored that of the Tochigi prefecture. As a colossal bonus, the 120-acre tract of land sat atop one of the largest, purest aquifers in the U.S. “We’re virtually the only company in the world using well water in our miso,” Evans said.

The early days were tough. Initially, the Bellemes lacked confidence in their miso-making abilities, which prompted a visit from patriarch Takamichi Onozaki himself. The seasoned miso master, who had never left Japan, traveled to Rutherfordton to guide them through their first full production season. The next season, the Bellemes were joined by Onizaki’s daughter and son-in-law, who had recently wed and were honeymooning in the U.S. They stayed for several months, ensuring the family’s miso-making techniques were passed down correctly. 

Meanwhile, Kushi had established his distribution company, Erehwon (“nowhere” spelled backward) in Boston, with plans to distribute natural foods from Maine to Washington, D.C. 

A Buddhist priest came to bless the miso factory, and the venture seemed bound for success. But two weeks later, word reached Rutherfordton that the Kushis had declared bankruptcy. 

“They were great teachers and philosophers, but unfortunately, terrible businesspeople,” Evans said. 

Pukel wanted to loan the Kushis money to reinvigorate their distribution project, but Evans argued they should invest that capital in the miso factory instead. In an amicable parting of ways, Evans gave Pukel his half of the Oak Feed Store, and Pukel gave Evans his half of the miso factory. Under Evans’ leadership, the Miso Master brand was born. 

Making Miso the Old Way 

Like many traditionally handcrafted foods, miso has fallen victim to the perils of modernization. 

Red miso is typically aged for a year or more, but many brands speed up production by adding yeast or using high heat. By contrast, every step at the Miso Master plant is done the traditional way, resulting in a product that Evans says is superior in taste, nutritional value, and probiotics.

The process starts with hand-milling organic brown rice, white rice, or barley, depending on the type of miso being made. The grains are then steamed, cooled, and inoculated with spores of koji, which facilitates the fermentation of soybeans or other legumes into miso. 

Once the koji-infused grains are ready, the production team hand mixes them with sun-dried sea salt and organic soybeans or chickpeas. Miso Master sources its base grains and legumes from the midwestern U.S.

Over the years, Miso Master has expanded its product line to include six varieties, including Mellow White Miso—the company’s most popular product—and Traditional Red Miso, which is aged for up to a year in recycled wood vats that hold up to 7,000 pounds. In total, Miso Master produces 1.7 million pounds of miso annually.

“This year-round fermentation process allows the miso’s natural flavors to fully develop,” said current miso master Cody Smith, a Rutherfordton native who oversees production and appraises flavors, much like a master distiller would do in a bourbon factory. “You really need four seasons to make naturally fermented miso. ” 

Evans, now in his late 70s, recently celebrated 50 years as a vegetarian. Though Evans has traveled to more than 170 countries and still helms a successful import business in parent company Great Eastern Sun, Miso Master remains tethered to the age-old principles that launched the brand. The vats still breathe through the seasons, the koji still grows in hand-tended batches, and the miso still takes its time.

Davina van Buren is a food, travel, and business writer from Sanford, North Carolina. 

Photographer Mike Belleme, a frequent contributor to The Assembly and a number of other national and regional outlets, is a son of John and Jan Belleme.