A Granville Island sake maker is getting closer to making their brew a hundred per cent locally produced.
Masa Shiroki has been making sake on Graville Island since 2007.
He used to import the rice necessary to make the signature Japanese beverage, but has been moving toward making a purely B.C. based product.
“It is natural that I want to grow rice because I want to control the ingredient, rather than import rice from Japan,” says Shiroki.
Shiroki started experimenting with local rice growing back in 2009 in Kamloops, Ashcroft, Agassiz and Vancouver Island.
In 2011 and 2012, Shiroki planted sake rice in an Abbotsford field.
This fall, his company Artisan SakeMaker is expected to produce enough sake rice on what is Canada’s only commercial rice paddy to sustain their entire 2015 production.
In May of last year, they made the first sake made entirely with B.C. grown rice.
The next batch followed in January of this year.
PHOTO GALLERY: Sake maker Masa Shiroki at this year’s rice planting in Abbotsford
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