Heiwa means peace

Last week we went on a tour of Heiwa Tofu in Rockport, Maine. It’s a brand we love and always buy, but I had never seen the actual operation and I was curious. The tour was really worth it. Jeff Wolovitz, the founder, gave the tour. After almost 20 years, he is still energized and busy growing the business, with big plans for the future. They only make one product, the 1-pound package of medium firm Heiwa tofu, and it is delicious.

First we went into the soybean storage area. They are getting organic soybeans from New York State and somewhere in New England, but are thinking of switching to Canadian suppliers. They were very disappointed in the recent deliveries from New York, which had stones in them, requiring de-stoning. There were questions about tariffs and supposedly there are no tariffs on agricultural products. The Canadian supply is supposed to be of fabulous quality and cheaper, and it’s actually close enough, within 500 miles, so they can still claim it’s local.

When we entered the production room, the smell of soybeans was very strong. First the soybeans are soaked, then ground, and cooked. There were countdown clocks on the wall that they used to time the various processes. Jeff had all kinds of facts at his fingertips as far as how long each batch took, how much they could crank out in a day, etc.

Sorry, the photo below makes it look like the employee’s head is coming out of the hopper of soybeans! It was hard to capture pictures because of the crowded space. About 20 people were on the tour, which was a large group for a tour. And there were hazardous machines around, such as giant heating kettles, and lots of water splashing out of large bins. So you had to be careful where you moved.

After cooking, the soymilk and the okara (soy pulp, a by-product) are separated. This is currently a manual step that they’re hoping to automate soon. A commercial outfit picks up the okara for composting. Jeff had a lot of ideas of how they could utilize it in products, but they haven’t experimented with that yet. It’s very perishable. When Sam and I used to make soymilk in a little machine, the process was the same and we could never use up the okara.

I missed a lot of the next set of steps. In general, there is calcium added which acts to coagulate the soymilk into curds. After the curds form, they are pressed to yield a firm rectangular block. Then the block is sliced to size using jigs as a guide. There are several sterilization steps involved, where the tofu is heated and cooled to kill any pathogens. I really trust that this product is made cleanly and with high attention to detail.

We talked about the single-use plastic bag they use. They’d like to get away from plastic, but there are no good alternatives. At least it doesn’t come in a plastic bin like other national brands. They vacuum-seal the plastic bag. All the underweight tofu is bagged in a clear bag and sold as seconds. I bought some!

They served little samples, which was fun. Tiny cups of soymilk with a little maple syrup. I didn’t care for the flavor, preferring oat milk. Cubes of cold tofu with either a soy or a sesame garlic tamari dipping sauce – super delicious. And finally a taste of chocolate mousse made with blended tofu. Also delicious.

I wanted to hear more about how he learned tofu manufacturing, Japanese cultural traditions, the Japanese influence, etc. but the tour was focused more on the operations. He did say that the market for tofu was growing. It’s a very high protein food. He’s been in business for enough years that some of the children raised on their product are grown and eating it as though it was quite natural and not exotic at all. Heiwa Tofu does seem like part of the Maine food shed, and I’m glad about it.