Go-En Fermented Foods

Founded in 2015 by Mika and Nicholas Repenning, Go-En fermented foods was born out of a passion to share real, good Japanese miso within the United States. Mika and Nicholas met in Japan and started life in Maine together with their son in 2011. They started to make koji and miso for themselves but started to grow as they shared their love for these Japanese ferments with friends and their larger community. 

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 as an equal, mutual relationship. Go of go-en is a 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. 

This philosophical attitude is at the heart of their production. As they write on their website, “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."