A VEGETABLE SHOP THAT CONNECTS FARMERS
AND CONSUMERS THROUGH STORYTELLING

Creating Ice Cream using Substandard Vegetables
and sharing the current agriculture culture in a popular way

A 10 minute bus ride from Aobadai Station on the Tokyu Denentoshi Line, brings you to a quiet residential area where a brick building stands reminding you of an old town somewhere in Europe. When Micotoya House was founded they only sold wholesale to restaurants and personal customers and had no physical shop. On their 10th anniversary, they opened their current location which combines a vegetable shop, shipping area, office, ice cream factory and ice cream shop all in one.

Seasonal flowers boom at the entrance. In the summer Kiwi and Crape Mryrtle bloom

Micotoya House was founded in 2011 by Teppei Suzuki and his high school classmate Toru Yamashiro. It all rooted from Suzuki’s fascination of the mountain tribes he encountered when traveling through Nepal as a backpacker in his twenties. The natural cycle of life that they lived in impressed him and became the main reason he decided to step foot into the agriculture world when he returned to Japan.While studying agriculture, Suzuki started questioning the standard that was set for vegetables that could be shipped and sold. These vegetables had to meet those standards for quality assurance of agricultural products and despite being naturally cultivated with the safety and security in mind, many vegetables were rejected because they were “slightly” different. Suzuki thought if more consumers were willing to accept vegetables that were slightly different in colors and shapes, there would be no need to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers in order to produce “standard-specific” vegetables. He thought that if there were vegetables shops that would sell naturally grown vegetables that embrace the natural shapes and colors, this could change the environment surrounding agriculture. With this in mind, Suzuki traveled all over Japan visiting famers and started his own store.

Storytelling to connect farmers and consumers

Mikotoya works with more than 200 farmers all over Japan

In order to change the mindset of consumers and open their minds, he decided to target people who showed little or no interest in agriculture. He opened booths at events like sports, music and craft markets and slowly but gradually began to notice change in the awareness people had towards vegetables. He also launched “Kiki Natural Ice Cream”, a craft ice cream made from B-grade fruits and vegetables. He explains that this ice cream became a storytelling tool that helped him causally introduce the essence of agriculture.

In order to reduce food loss, the vegetables and fruits used in the ice cream are not only leftovers from the store, but also vegetables that have been damaged due to the weather like eggplants damaged by strong winds, cracked grapes and the thinning of green tomatoes. Since the flavors are created based on what ingredients are available, the flavors are constantly changing. One of their popular items are their hand-grilled corn. Rice flour, rice bran, soybean flour is blended and is grilled daily in their factory. The ice cream is all traceable and can show the faces, voices, thoughts and even the state of the fields of all the producers of each ingredient used which represents the encounters with all the famers Suzuki has worked with over the past 10 years.

Boiling Edamame to make Edamame ice cream

Edamame ice cream with a gentle, natural color

Currently, there are more than 200 farmers in Japan that they work with. Most of the vegetables are naturally grown without the use of pesticides or fertilizers, but they also believe that cultivation methods depend on what the farmer thinks is best for his fields, therefore they respect the methods that the farmers chooses. The most important things to them is that they know who is growing the food and their intentions. Suzuki aims to bring famers and consumers closer together by providing feedback in both directions which he knows cannot be done at a typical supermarket.

The name Micotoya originates from the Japanese word “Mi-Go-To” which means admirable. It is said that in the past, something that is “Mi-Go-To” is to have the three elements of sincerity: sincere words, sincere intentions and sincere actions. When something doesn’t contain the three elements of sincerity it is considered “shameful”. They believe that as long as they remain admirable, trust is naturally born. Micotoya continuously tells stories through their products in order to build a bridge of trust between farmers and their consumers.

Fresh vegetable and goods delivered from farmers all over Japan