Edible Chesapeake, Fall 2008
By Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen
The technique for making tofu may come to us from far away, but our tofu doesn’t have to. Twin Oaks Community Foods of Louisa, Virginia, and Sunergia Soyfoods of Charlottesville, Virginia, are making it right here, and they’re using certified organic soy grown in Virginia, too.
Twin Oaks Community Foods, a worker-owned cooperative that’s been making tofu since 1991, offers extra-firm tofu in plain, Italian herb and fine herb flavors. The products of Sunergia, an offshoot of Twin Oaks formed in 1997, offer spicier, more adventurous flavors such as Indian Masala, Spicy Thai and Spinach Jalapeno. Sunergia’s tofu, made by Twin Oaks Community Foods using Sunergia’s recipes, is also mixed with other ingredients like organic textured soy flour to lend it a chewier consistency. Both companies’ tofu products, available at many area stores and co-ops, are certified organic, certified kosher and wheat-free, and are made using soy from Gouldman Creek Farms based in Colonial Beach, Virginia.
Sourcing their soy locally fits in with the overarching beliefs of the people involved in Twin Oaks Community Foods, a business of the Twin Oaks Intentional Community, an income-sharing group founded back in 1967 on principles of cooperation, sharing, nonviolence, equality and ecology. “It’s our philosophy to keep things as sustainable as possible… and support the local businesses that are here,” says Kelly Tassinari, who has been working with the community’s tofu business for about four years. “It’s a big part of the intention behind Twin Oaks, and the way we, as a community, live our lives,” she says.
