O u r S t o r y
Beginning
go-en fermented foods was founded in 2015 out of a passion to share the real good Japanese miso with more people in the community in US.
Founders, Mika and Nicholas Repenning, met in Japan and started life in Maine together with their son in 2011. It is here that they started to make koji and miso for ourselves and have since continued to grow outward sharing more love for Japanese fermented food and culture with friends and community.
Meaning of Go-En
Go-En is a Japanese word about connection and relationship. It has an interconnected holistic sense and exists in the convergence of peoples, places, and all events where each has an equal, mutual relationship.
Go of go-en is Japanese honorific prefix that is used before a noun to show respect.
En is like a spider web where each strand connects and affects the others, it is the pieces and the whole.
What We Believe
Food is life, the source of the energy for our bodies. Real food has real life energy, enriching our lives and giving us strong body, healthy thoughts and wisdom. Wild food embodies the true nature of food. Fermented food is harmony food filled with the gifts from Mother Nature utilizing the wisdom of the ancients and beneficial microorganisms. It is necessary to survive in this modern society. Microorganisms are the key. Fermented food gives us a joy of eating with umami ( fifth sense of taste ) that is turned out by the action of microorganisms. It is full of ideas and skills for preservation and makes foods more available, digestible, and nourishing.
Healthy guts make your thoughts positive and you feel happy. Fermented food has potential to bring billions of good microorganisms into your body for total health, bringing to our guts an invisible world. Searching in the invisible world gives us so much realizations and is unbelievably mysterious itself. We love to explore that beautiful world and feel that being healthy should be fun. At go-en fermented foods, we wish to unlock these mysteries and create foods which are healthy and delicious while allowing us to have fun.
As humans living in this visible world, we are committed to supporting local businesses and communities. go-en embodies all that is community. It encompasses the ever expanding circle of connection which develops from an individual outward into a society. Whenever possible we source ingredients local and utilize local connections to support those around us creating a circle in harmony.
Vision
Like ripples start from a tiny dot and spread, our go-en spirit stretches out and connects with people and community to share the pleasure of good health. More of sacred power of both microorganism and human race are discovered and it brings us back to origin. Raise our powerful mind and body with real food, especially for the children for their bright future. We see love and peace.
We are here to learn and share the differences. If many of us could recognize all different qualities, learn from each other, fuse in harmony, and create the new original wave of culture that coexists with all the other creatures….. so exciting.
If many people make an effort to recreate the wonderful world of fungi full of vitality, creativity and harmony in this human world, it will surely become a good world.
For a good world, each person should follow their true path. To follow your true path, open your heart. To open your heart, you need peace of mind and security. Our mission is to share the security and healthy life through fermented food and our activities, for a good world.
We personally hope you experience traditional Japanese culture and spirit, and if you found something beautiful in it, we would be so happy.
