My friend Earnest Migaki, pictured above, needs your help. It's not just the residential rental market in Portland that's tight -- the commercial rental market is as well and Earnest has been without a production facility for his Jorinji Miso company for several months now. In a month he will run out of all of his already produced miso currently available throughout Portland in markets such as Uwajimaya and Anzen. Portland, we cannot let that happen.
I first met Earnest and his late wife Sumiko when I was researching the first issue of my book Food Lover's Guide to Portland -- they were the first interview that I conducted for it. And every year following they participated in the Portland Fermentation Festival. Earnest's miso is some of the very best that I've ever had (I really love miso) and if you haven't tried it you better help Earnest find a new commercial kitchen otherwise you won't get to! Miso takes a loooong time to make. The youngest miso that Earnest makes takes four months of fermentation.
Why should you care? My friend Earnest is an amazing human being and he has endured so much hardship in the past year -- more hardship than I've endured my entire life. Earnest has been to hell and back again and now he needs Portland's help. Step one: help Earnest find a commercial kitchen for Jorinji Miso. Please email me at liz crain at gmail dot com with any leads and I will pass them along tout suite to Earnest.
Please SHARE THE FUCK out of this -- word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, bulletin boards, forums, get it tattooed on your FACE. Thank you. Don't actually get anything tattooed on your face. Your face is beautiful just the way it is.
Earnest is looking to lease: A standard commercial kitchen space that is 1,000 to 2,000 square feet that is $2,000 or less a month in Portland, ideally Southeast Portland. The kitchen can be shared but he can't work with anyone working with yeast because the koji for the miso doesn't work when yeast is present. Ideally the space will have plenty of storage space, a 3 basin sink, an 8-10 gas burner, room for a large industrial mixer and AC.
The day I met Earnest and Sumiko five years ago.
From Earnest's Jorinji scrapbook.