Ithaca Soy Provides Local Artisanal Tofu

By David Durrett – a current intern at GreenStar Food Co+op, David Durrett is a lifelong resident of Ithaca as well as a graduate of Ithaca College. He is a freelance reporter whose work has also appeared in Tompkins Weekly and The Ithaca Voice, among other publications. 

Ithaca Soy Provides Local Artisanal Tofu

Ithaca Soy has served as a local source of tofu products for decades in Tompkins County, including being the primary source of tofu for GreenStar.

Ithaca Soy has been in business since the 1980s, having started out as a conglomerate of people. Adam Potenza is the fourth owner of Ithaca Soy, after the previous owner, Thomas Trause, asked him if he would be willing to take it over. Potenza runs Ithaca Soy as a family business, with his father selling soybeans to Ithaca Soy.

Potenza prides himself on keeping the Ithaca Soy business local, noting that his father’s farm is 15 miles away from Ithaca Soy, and that he is a few blocks from GreenStar’s main location.

Ithaca Soy has been selling its products to GreenStar since it first started producing tofu. GreenStar was their first customer, and Potenza said, one of his best. He sells the local food co-op about 550 pounds of tofu each week.

Potenza expressed fondness for GreenStar as a customer, citing their dedication to using his product in their prepared foods. “If you’re buying prepared tofu from GreenStar, it’s Ithaca Soy,” Potenza said.

“They’re excellent, they’re really good,” Potenza said. “They’re oriented towards local, they’re committed to helping small-scale and local producers. They’re my favorite customer; they’re the one customer I take the most pride in selling to.”

Potenza also appreciates how GreenStar sells his tofu out of the food-grade five-gallon tofu buckets he uses, which GreenStar returns to him after the tofu is sold. This allows customers to take their own containers to transport their tofu home, reducing how much waste is produced; only the plastic lining on the tofu buckets goes in the garbage. According to Potenza, GreenStar is one of the only stores that allows customers this option for buying tofu.

Ithaca Soy not only sells its products at GreenStar, but at 20 different other locations throughout Tompkins County. These locations include Wegmans, Taste of Thai, Viva Tacqueria, Northstar House, Agava and other locations.

Potenza runs tofu production three days a week, and produces about 2,600 pounds of tofu each week on average, 75-percent of which stays in Tompkins County. In order to produce more, he would need to acquire a larger production facility, then hire more employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Potenza’s supply chain, making it difficult for him to find packaging as well as driving up the prices for packaging and other necessities he’s purchased. The company that sells the grinder he uses went out of business during the pandemic, forcing him to source new equipment.

Potenza said he is happy to hear customers’ feedback about how much they love eating Ithaca Soy’s tofu, calling that the most fulfilling part of running the company.

“There isn’t any other handmade tofu that you can buy in the Ithaca area,” Potenza said. “So it’s a different product, it’s a specialized product, it’s something that we take great pride in feeding the community.”

Whatever happens in the future, Potenza hopes to stay true to Ithaca Soy’s identity.

“I think, overall, it’s most important to keep Ithaca Soy what it’s always been- an local handmade tofu company,” Potenza said.