Hello, my name is Marnie Mikell, and I work for Great Eastern Sun, the parent company of the American Miso Co. mentioned in the recent Mountain Xpress article “Cultural revival: Koji Claims the Culinary Spotlight” by Brit Washburn. I wanted to thank Mountain Xpress and Brit for including the American Miso Co. and the Miso Master Miso that is traditionally crafted there. I also wanted to make two corrections that were stated in this article:
1. “Marnie Mikell of the Rutherford County-based American Miso Co. …”
Marnie Mikell works for Great Eastern Sun, the parent company of the American Miso Co. Great Eastern Sun is located in Asheville.
2. “Rural Rutherford County was chosen as the site for the American Miso Co.’s production facility because its climate approximates the environment in which miso was traditionally made in Japan. The similarity in seasonal temperatures is important because the traditional process requires that some varieties of miso be aged for up to two years in wooden barrels in a warehouse that’s not temperature-controlled.”
Rural Rutherford County was chosen for the American Miso Co. because it approximates the climate where our first miso master learned the miso-making process. Since traditional miso-making depends on the local climatic environment rather than temperature control, location in Rutherford County was critical in order to reproduce in the U.S. the miso that our miso master had learned to make in Japan.
Thank you again for including the American Miso Co. and Miso Master Miso in this informative article on the culinary wonder of koji.
— Marnie Mikell
Art Director
Great Eastern Sun
Asheville
Editor’s note: We appreciate feedback from our readers, and we have updated the online version of the article to reflect this corrected information.
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