We began as a tiny enterprise to promote a vegetarian lifestyle. Now we’ve grown into an environmentally friendly company providing excellent employment for more than thirty people.

In 1977, when the natural foods industry was in its infancy, Norman Holland and Andrew Schecter envisioned a business to serve as a vehicle for positive social change. With the help of $7000 in loan money from friends, Northern Soy (that’s our company name, SoyBoy is our brand name) began making organic tofu. From the conviction that happy workers produce higher quality foods, Northern Soy has since strived to create a workplace where people can enjoy their work and have their needs fulfilled.

Fast forward to the present: the natural foods industry has experienced explosive growth over the past four decades. Big food conglomerates have largely taken it over. At SoyBoy, we remain independently owned, and Norman and Andy still manage the daily operations.
In 1977 our first small tofu-making factory was a scene right out of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Over time, the system has evolved profoundly.

Back-breaking repetitive jobs have been replaced with microprocessor-controlled state-of-the-art machinery, allowing people to focus on quality control and food safety. We have worked hard to remain true to our original ideals. Andy and Norman are still vegetarians. From our inception we have supported organic agriculture as both a business and a personal conviction. The extent we have succeeded can be measured by a loyal customer base that continues to grow, and in the dedication of our Northern Soy family whose average tenure is 10 years.

To all who have made this possible – WE LOVE YOU.

To see how we made tofu back in 1977, view our gallery on Facebook.

To see how we make tofu today, check out the pictures.

SoyBoy

Over the Years!

Click a gallery for more pictures.

1. Where it all beganIn 1977 we rented 900 square feet of industrial space on North Goodman Street in Rochester. Inspired by Bill Shurtleff’s “The Book of Tofu,” but with very limited resources, we built our version of the traditional Japanese tofu shop.

The process was physically grueling. Heavy buckets of ground soybeans and water had to be hand-carried up a narrow staircase.

On an upstairs platform the bean/water mixture boiled in a large kettle.

The cooked mixture ran by gravity through a pressing barrel lined with coarse nylon netting.

Placing 120 lbs of weight on the end of the lever applied 500 lbs of force on the pressing barrel. This helped squeeze soymilk from the soybean pulp.

After coagulating the soymilk with nigari (a sea-water mineral), the curds were dumped into forming boxes lined with cheesecloth.

Norman levels the curds in the forming boxes so each piece is the same size.

Each forming box took 150 lbs of stones, bucket and cinder blocks to press. At the end of the day, no one had to go to a gym to work out. We’d already done it at work!

Sometimes the curds came out too soft and were slow to drain. Here Andy sits on them so they’ll press faster.

It takes lots of steam and soybeans to make tofu.

Our original logo, 1978.

2. Soybeans and Stainless SteelIn 1980 we moved to a 2300 square foot space on Somerton St. It featured an all-new stainless steel tofu-making system from Japan.

The stone mill quickly ground soybeans and water into a fine puree.

Here tofu cools down under water, while the pressing cloths are peeled off the next batch.

Hot curds are ladled into forming boxes. Pressing with heavy stones gave way to mechanical pressing devices.

Environmentally-friendly, reusable buckets are washed before being filled with another 25 lbs of tofu. We still sell lots of tofu in buckets.

Our parrot friend, Rocky Road, was a faithful member of the office staff. He specialized in sharpening pencils.

While on Somerton St we also operated America’s first “soy delicatessen” called “The Tofu Shop.”

3. Teamwork pays offTofu-making as a team sport: it took a dedicated and talented crew to make tofu fast and well.

In 1988 our business demanded that we move to a larger facility. We bought a 17,000 square foot building on West Ave and went through truckloads and truckloads of soybeans.

Here soybeans are transferred using a hydraulic lift.

A sanitary stainless steel bean mill modernizes the process.

Since adding coagulant is the most critical step in tofu-making, we still did it by hand on West Ave.

Fresh, hot curds are ladled into perforated stainless steel forming boxes.

Pneumatic cylinders apply 300 lbs of force on forming box lids.

4. Our current state-of-the-art factoryIn 2001 we built our newest factory from the ground up. It’s situated on 7 acres of land outside of Rochester.

State-of-the-art equipment from Japan makes high-volume production easier and safer for the SoyBoy crew. It also produces a more consistent and better quality product.

Production areas are lit with plenty of natural light from windows and skylights. We spent months tweaking the plant design so working conditions would be most enjoyable.

Coagulant is mixed in using the perfect ratio.

A microprocessor-controlled curding machine gives operators full control over tofu quality.

The automatic pressing and cutting machine creates tofu pieces that are uniform in size and texture.

Tofu is cooled in large, stainless chillers.

Tank 18 gets the thumbs up from Quality Control.

A smile comes free in every case of Not Dogs.

What would summer be without a company picnic on a sunny day?

We Love

Our Planet!

Local Sourcing

We believe in eating local, and we source our ingredients locally whenever possible. In the last year, we’ve used organic soybeans from the Finger Lakes region of New York (50 miles), Ontario, Canada (150 miles) and Eastern Michigan (260 miles). We always try to buy as close to home as we can, but market conditions sometimes mean going a little farther to get the high-protein organic beans that we need. But our US-Canada Grown Organic soybeans have always come from dedicated Organic North American farms.
We buy organic soybeans from:
Rosedale Organic Farm (Rosedale NY)
Thorpe’s Organic Family Farm (East Aurora NY)

We Love

People!

Investing in Safety

For decades, we’ve been investing in two things — producing high quality products and creating a really good place to work. Safety is an important part of both, so we invest in food safety and people safety. It’s part of the fabric of everything we do.
Our “Hawaii 5-0” team on the production floor is responsible for enforcing the culture of cleanliness and hygiene. These folks back up all our safety systems with the element of human observation. They ensure procedures, guidelines, and best practices are being followed every day, by every member of our team. It’s a tough job, and they’re proud to do it.
To improve food safety, we’re constantly looking for ways to reduce the potential for human error to impact our products. We’ve isolated the production of gluten-containing ingredients to dedicated equipment. From signage to process automation, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that our products are trustworthy.

Creating Jobs

We came to Rochester to find community at the Zen Center, but when we started making tofu, we found a family in our local community. Part of loving the people around us is creating great jobs. Having a company that employs dozens of wonderful, interesting, diverse local people is one of the best parts of our success! All of our people really know one another, and most of them stay for at least a decade. To help support the individuals on our team beyond their paychecks, we’re committed to offering the best benefits package anywhere in the Rochester area.

Our Story

We began as a tiny enterprise to promote a vegetarian lifestyle. Now we’ve grown into an environmentally friendly company providing excellent employment for more than thirty people.

SoyBoy

Over the Years!

Click a gallery for more pictures.

We Love

Our Planet!

Local Sourcing

We Love

People!

Investing in Safety

Creating Jobs