Japanese Miso, a couple from Quebec and a story of a Rwandan girl.

This week we’ll tell you a story of miso, the story that began in Rwanda in the 70s with Suzanne Dionne and Gilbert Boulay, founders of Aliments Massawippi.

Aliments Massawippi is Canada’s one and only company to offer an extensive line of organic miso products that undergo the oldest traditional process of fermentation. "Our sole mission is to produce living organic products that will maintain or improve your health and reduce the incidence of problems linked to food intolerance,” says Suzanne.

Their story began in Rwanda, Africa. At the time, Gilbert was an advisor to the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and his wife, Suzanne, was working in nutrition centres introducing health-promoting food products. When the population of Rwanda grew and nutrition became an issue, the soybean was introduced to supplant native foods and to increase soil fertility.

After the introduction of the soybean, Suzanne believed that the people of Rwanda had to be introduced to miso to improve their nutrition. To be able to do that, she made a quick trip to British Columbia and learnt the most ancient technique of miso making with Yoshi and Lulu Yoshihara. Upon her return to Africa, Suzanne gathered some means to rent a house and turned it into a miso workshop and a neighbourhood restaurant.

One day a woman walked in. She came in with a doctor who was treating the woman’s daughter, a girl who looked three when she was actually five. The little girl couldn't hold down any food. After being unable of helping the child, the doctor brought the mother and the daughter to Suzanne.

Without making any promises, Suzanne poured some miso broth in a cup. The girl drank the broth and half an hour later, for the first time in weeks, she asked for more food. The mother broke down in tears watching her malnourished and weakened child drink warm miso broth. It was the probiotics that the girl’s body needed so desperately.

Two weeks later the girl started eating other foods. After a few similar stories, Suzanne and Gilbert decided that they must bring the miso production technique home…

Upon returning to Canada, Suzanne completed her MBA and shortly after, the couple launched their business, Aliments Massawippi, in the lake region of North Hartley, Quebec in the 1999. Since then, their small team never stopped constantly working hard on introducing new products that are high in nutrients, rich in enzymes and in lactobacillus. “Our home-grown company has produced organic, unpasteurized, long-fermented miso and miso-damari since 2000”, says Suzanne. 

So what's fermentation?

Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to acids, gases, and/or alcohol. Fermentation of food and beverages dates back to the Neolithic age! At Aliments Massawippi, all of the miso products are fermented for a period of two to five years, the most ancient traditional process, using the highest-quality ingredients.

Most of the modern miso producers forgot or set aside some of the essential steps of the miso producing techniques. At Aliments Massawippi, this is not the case: "we are artisans with a deep conviction and the most noble of intentions, beyond the trappings of style and trends, devoted to creating and producing living foods, certified organic, that provide a vast array of exceptional functional properties,” says Suzanne.

They made their first commercial batch of miso in 2001 for local distribution and in June 2001 Suzanne received the Prix Entrepreneurship Féminin at the Concours Québécois en Entrepreneurship for creating new health food products! "Our sole mission is to produce living organic products that will maintain or improve your health and reduce the incidence of problems linked to food intolerance,” says Suzanne. 

You can try their vast variety of long-fermented organic miso products here!