You so happy?
No, miso happy.
Actually, everybody so happy when it comes to miso.
The rich, savory, earthy flavoring has been a staple in Japan for about a millennium and a half. In America? It took a few years to catch on. But these days you can get small-batch miso, made in the ancient farmhouse tradition—direct from western Mass.
Christian and Gaella Elwell founded South River Miso about 25 years ago, when they married their wish for a meaningful farm life in New England with the Buddhist concept of right livelihood. Now, as then, they do everything with Zen attention.
They begin by cooking the grains or beans in a caldron for 20 hours, hand-stoking the wood fire. Then workers patiently tread on the mixture with their feet to bring out the flavors. Fermentation, which lasts 1-3 years, takes place in a wooden crib covered carefully by a blanket, to keep the grain mixture warm.
South River's 11 varieties, each with distinct, complex flavors, include light one-year misos (akuzi bean or chick pea), rich three-year misos (barley, black soy barley), and some stunning misos of their own invention, such as dandelion-leek (made from wild leeks, nettles, and dandelion greens picked locally).
We tried their sweet white miso, mixing 1 teaspoon of it with 2 teaspoons of mayonnaise to make miso-mayo. Then we brushed this mellow, nutty spread on toasted Ciabatta with sliced turkey, crispy crumbled bacon, and enough watercress to add a deliciously bitter edge to the sandwich.
Join the fermentation celebration at
South River Miso.