Turning to Tempeh
By Peter Benner
The Brown family has been making tempeh since the late seventies. They’re having lots of fun with it, and still marvel at the process of turning organic soybeans into a fermented whole food that is high in complete protein, high in fibre, and yet containing no cholesterol.
Their home-based Noble Bean Tempeh Shop sits on 10 acres ( 4.05 hectares) of land in the rugged highlands of rural Lanark County just outside the village of Elphin, Ontario.
Noble Bean is Canada’s largest tempeh manufacturer, and that’s something to celebrate after 25 years.
Yet Allan and Susan Brown still maintain a thoughtful, careful, yet inspired pace to the livelihood that has sustained them through the years. They live in a close-knit community, many of whom are homesteaders, crafters, artists and artisans.
The recently expanded, 1,500 square foot (tempeh shop is just across the driveway from the house. Here the couple has lived a vegetarian lifestyle and home-schooled Casey and Marty, their two sons. They’ve developed the business and improved their craft, but are still committed to making the tempeh in small batches using certified organic ingredients. That’s the way the entrepreneur couple started out their grassroots venture in 1979. They left their country location and relocated to Toronto, following their dream of providing a new kind of protein alternative to the natural foods market.
“We purchased some equipment from Robert Walker, an older gentleman from Port Perry, who was the only tempeh maker in Canada at the time. He was making 50 pounds per week and supplying the Toronto market. He was retiring due to health reasons. Our first tempeh went into Baldwin Natural Foods store in Toronto, with the encouragement of the owner, Paul Smith,” Allan recalls. Allan is a Toronto native.
As business grew, the Browns delivered the tempeh to over 40 stores in the Greater Toronto Area. An annual natural food show and word of mouth were their best marketing tools. With the market well established, Alla nand Susan found distributors, bouoght some land back in Lanark County and returned there in 1985.
The Noble Bean is still supported by retail natural food stores, restaurants, buying clubs and coops, the same type of customers they served in the beginning. They plan to do some in-store demos in the future to give shoppers some tempeh taste tests. Last summer , they became a certified organic producer/processor through OC/PRO, which will support the efforts of Eastern Canadian distributors Koyo Foods, Ontario Natural Food Co-op, LaSoyarie and Co-op d’Alentour
Turned On To Tempeh
How did the Browns get turned on to tempeh in the first place?
They met each other in Wisconsin in 1974 at a sister community to one of the largest intentional communities in the world...The Farm in Tennessee. They moved to The Farm in Tennessee for six months. Susan recalls that once Allan started dabbling with tempeh there, he became quite excited about it. That was enough to convince her, too.
"I'd never seen him as enthusiastic about something before. It looked like it was his calling, so I said, ‘Okay, we'll try it.’ “
"It [The Farm] was the largest vegetarian community in the United States. Tempeh was just at the experimental level in North America. Being at The Farm, we helped people like Cynthia Bates take it from the lab stage to the next level, providing enough tempeh for the community, which numbered 1,000 people at the time. We still get our Rhizopus culture from Cynthia's Tempeh Lab down there," she said.
The Browns moved back to Canada two years later, 1976, and helped establish a Canadian Farm community near Lanark, Ontario.
They became founding directors of an outreach organization called Plenty Canada. Plenty, a very grassroots organization, focused on soy nutrition and established water, solar and wind systems in developing countries. Farmers in these countries were given seed and developed fields of soybeans. Then with soy techs from the community (The Farm), soy dairies were built and interested people were trained to produce soy milk, tofu and soy ice cream to help improve the protein content in the local diet. The Browns have trained a number of folks to make tempeh and take that training into underdeveloped countries.
Slow Food, Soyfully
Noble Bean has also innovated and created new flavours along the way. Most important to them though, is educating others about the many health benefits of eating tempeh. And there are many.
Tempeh is high in fibre. One serving of tempeh contains more fibre than most people consume in a day.
Tempeh is ideal for people on low sodium diets.
Rhizopus culture produces natural, heat-stable antibiotic agents against some disease-causing organisms.
Tempeh is good for diabetic patients. Its protein and fibre content can prevent high blood sugar levels and help keep them under control. Some diabetics have problems with animal sources of protein, so tempeh is an excellent substitute.
Tempering Tempeh Traditionally
“It’s a genuine slow food business. We use locally grown soybeans. Over the years we’ve purchased them from Homestead Organics, Mountain Path and La Soyarie,” says Allan. The Noble Bean uses a variety of bean that performs well and grows well in this climate. Clear hilum and low moisture beans suit their purposes the best.
“One of the most important ingredients comes from the land itself…our pure, deep well water,” Allan emphasizes.
Patience and timing have also been key attributes to the Noble Bean’s success.