When Tomie Sasaki-Hesselink moved to Cedar Falls from Japan nearly 25 years ago, she was amazed to see fields upon fields of soybeans. The crop is a staple of Japanese cooking, integrated into daily life. They appeared in the textbook Sasaki-Hesselink was using to teach her children Japanese.
“We read about soybeans. How we enjoy soybeans in Japan, and how they produce miso, soy sauce, natto, tofu, so many things,” Sasaki-Hesselink recalled. “And then I learned that the Japanese buy a lot of soybeans from America — from Iowa.”
This realization inspired a years-long project to craft miso from Iowa soybeans, leading Sasaki-Hesselink to open a business selling Japanese ingredients produced in her home kitchen.
She first set out to teach her children to make miso, the umami-rich paste of fermented grains and beans, which is a staple of Japanese cooking.
But after checking Cedar Falls grocery stores, she lacked an essential ingredient: soybeans. When she asked a friend how to acquire some of the beans growing just 10 minutes outside of town, she recalled being told those soybeans "are for pigs.”
Sasaki-Hesselink eventually found them at a co-op in Iowa City. She bought California rice and acquired koji, the strain of fungus which ferments the paste, creating unique health benefits and deep umami flavor in the process.
“Then I made miso together with my kids, and we waited one year [for it to ferment]. When we opened it, I won't ever forget the smell. The smell was so good, and the taste was wonderful,” she said.
Miso to give back
Sasaki-Hesselink continued making miso in her Cedar Falls kitchen, sharing the product with family and friends. After a tsunami hit her home country in 2011, she was looking for ways to raise money and aid the relief efforts. By offering cooking classes and selling Japanese crafts, she raised roughly $10,000, which she delivered to her hometown.
Sasaki-Hesselink's miso business grew out of a desire to thank Cedar Falls for supporting her homeland in a time of need.
“I thought, 'I would like to do something for this community,' and then, 'What can I do? I'm a housewife. I don't have much power, and I don't know anybody.' And I thought, 'OK, I will introduce the good food from Japan, but using Iowa soybeans,'" she recalled.
Sasaki-Hesselink worked with the Iowa Department of Health to secure approval for a home fermentation business — a years-long process. In 2020, she launched her business, Japanese Creative Solutions, and began selling her product, Iowa Miso, at local food vendors in eastern Iowa.
Sasaki-Hesselink continues to source her beans locally, prizing the quality and tradition of Iowa agriculture. But the process remains a challenge. Often, farmers are locked into large contracts and are unable to fill an order small enough for Sasaki-Hesselink’s needs. One farmer she partnered with has since retired.
Many soybeans on Iowa’s landscape don’t fit Sasaki-Hesselink's needs. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 70% of those grown in 2013 were for animal feed. In 2011, only 0.17% of the country’s soybeans were grown organically.
Currently, Sasaki-Hesselink buys beans from a farm in Preston, Minnesota, just north of the Iowa border. She has also developed a “6 Grain” miso, which swaps rice for barley and wheat sourced from farms in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
For good flavor and good health
In 2025, Sasaki-Hesselink began selling her products at the Cedar Falls Farmers Market, where she has a booth on the first Saturday of every month during market season, including an upcoming market on Oct. 3.
She recommends newcomers to miso begin by making miso tea and to drink it first thing in the morning. Sasaki-Hesselink simply dissolves a teaspoon of paste in hot water. She recommends using a miso with a shorter fermentation time and a mellower flavor.
“It's perfect for everybody in the morning because during the night your body loses water, and then in the morning you drink a glass of water, and miso tea, and the body absorbs the good nutrition” Sasaki-Hesselink said.
She said many of her customers have told her of health benefits over the years, including clearing digestive issues, less stomach pain or a stronger immune system.
“There is a reason why traditional food still exists in this time,” Sasaki-Hesselink said.
But foremost, her customers prize miso for its flavor, often sharing uses she had never considered before.
“You will find your way with miso. People give me new ideas that [compared with] Japanese traditional ways to use miso, are completely different,” she said. “And I think, ‘Wow, OK I will try [that].’”
