Ferment Fest Organizer Masuno Rie on Enriching Lives with Fermentation

Ferment Fest, an online celebration of fermentation that featured discussions and workshops by specialists in the field, took place in December 2020. The event was designed to bring fermentation closer to ordinary people by letting them see how dedicated fermented food producers are to their craft—and get some on-hands experience.

The head of the organizing committee was one Masuno Rie, who in her day job advises on educating children with special needs based on her twelve years’ experience working at elementary and junior high school. Ferment Fest was the first online event she had ever undertaken. We asked her how the festival got started and what made her so passionate about it. She also shared her vision for the future.

Inspired by a comment on social media.

The spread of the novel coronavirus has led to an increase in people cooking at home, and fermented foods are more in the spotlight than ever thanks to their immunity-boosting properties. Rie was inspired to organize Ferment Fest by a comment she noticed on Facebook.

“Ogawa Yuko ,* who later oversaw the event, posted, ‘Wouldn’t it be exciting to hold a Ferment Fest?’ She didn’t go into any detail about what to do or how, but I immediately commented, ‘Sounds like fun!’, and there were similar comments from others. Things proceeded quickly from there, and soon we were working on making Ferment Fest happen.”

The name Ferment Fest thus came before anything else. But fermented foods were already at the back of Rie’s mind in connection with her job as an advisor on special needs education.

The organizing committee members were from all over Japan. Not only did they become acquainted online; they made all the arrangements there as well.

*Head, founder, and principal of the Organizing Committee of the Online Experiential Fest for Parents and Kids.

“In caring for children with developmental disabilities, there’s the idea that you should improve the intestinal environment. For that reason I was already studying fermented foods and incorporating them into meals. But when discussing fermented foods in the context of special needs education, diet is inevitably talked about from a negative perspective.

“What I mean is this. In many cases mothers of children with developmental disabilities try every trick in the book until they’re at a total loss and don’t know what to do anymore. Even so, in their desperation to do something, they turn to diet. By then, though, they’re completely worn out.
“I wanted to give a lift to moms as well as their children by taking a more enjoyable approach to fermented foods. And I figured Ferment Fest could be the first step to doing so.”

Inspired by Ogawa Yuko’s social media post and Rie’s vision, thirty-two people volunteered to join in. They set to work on organizing Ferment Fest in mid-July 2020.

An experiential program—despite being held online

The fest was conceived as an experiential shopping mall providing a first glimpse into the world of fermentation. Consequently, it offered a full range of programs on fermented foods. These ran the gamut, from workshops where you could make miso or soy sauce koji to panel discussions featuring registered dietitians and physicians. There were even lecture sessions where you could buy sake, wine, or cheese while listening to producers talk.

There was a lecture session where you got to listen to a talk by cheese expert Kasseki Tomoko when you made a purchase through crowdfunding. The subject matter: the history and varieties of cheese, pairings with other foods, and wine.

An additive-free pickling bed kit made with naturally grown rice bran. It was this that first made Rie aware of the importance of fermentation. Producers helped out with crowdfunding Ferment Fest.

Among the items on sale: a kit for making your own soy sauce

“We didn’t have any specific exhibitors in mind when we launched the fest, so the members of the organizing committee all searched from scratch for people willing to exhibit. We contacted our favorite eateries and reached out to experts. Also, when we received a tip about a place, the first thing we’d do is visit it and try the food. If we liked it, we’d submit a proposal and deliver our spiel [laughs]. It was the first time we’d ever held the event, and the fest was completely unknown, so it to be honest, it was quite a struggle in that regard. But in the end the people at our favorite places agreed to take part, so it was a fun thing to do.”

A total of twelve parties signed up to exhibit. One thing that Rie was determined to include in the lineup was a workshop program giving participants hands-on experience despite being held online.

Ferment Fest: The big day

“The fact is, a hands-on experience once had a transformative effect on me personally. I’d had an aversion to white rice ever since I was little. I had to force myself to eat it. I found it really stressful being told to finish it all. For that reason I never enjoyed mealtimes. But then one day a friend invited me to a hands-on session making a rice-bran pickling bed. That experience completely altered my perceptions of food.

“As I listened to all the facts about bacteria, I realized how much they enrich human life. Above all, when I ate a bowl of white rice accompanied by vegetables pickled in my own rice-bran pickling bed, I found it tasted delicious despite my previous aversion. That was the first time in my life that I truly had an appetite. It was my first glimpse into the world of fermentation, my first experience of it. I wanted the Ferment Fest participants to experience the same firsthand.”

The term “experiential shopping mall” is pregnant with meaning.

“There are so many different varieties of fermented foods out there, and many people must be at a loss which to choose. They don’t know which to buy. After all, I was like that myself. I conceived of the fest as a kind of Fermentation Land, which brought as many different types of fermented foods as possible together in a single place that was fun to visit.”

Fostering a sense of the interconnectedness of life through fermentation

The first Ferment Fest was a great success, but Rie doesn’t intend to stop there.

“The fest was designed to foster a sense of the interconnectedness of life. We think of this interconnectedness as threefold: the connection between producers and consumers of fermented foods, the connection between bacteria and humans, and the connection between taste and soul. By awakening people to these connections, we want to make them conscious of how they can enrich their lives through fermentation.

“No matter how finicky you are about your food, you’ll never be satisfied if it lacks soul or a human connection. Far from it, it won’t be of any benefit at all. I hope to spur people to focus on the enriching power of food: savoring your food, desiring to eat a particular food, sharing a meal with someone and agreeing how good it tastes.”

Rie and the rest of the organizing committee are now thinking about holding a second iteration of Ferment Fest.

“I’m embarrassed to have to admit it, but I didn’t know that December was the busiest month for people working in the fermentation field. There were therefore those who were unable to exhibit at the event due to time constraints. Some said they’d be more than happy to take part next time, so we hope to be able to do it again.

“Going forward, we’d also love to create opportunities for children and mothers with kids to experience fermented foods. What we want and aim to do above all is to bring more people the message we shared at Ferment Fest.”