We are not pet food industry insiders. My husband and I spent years working in finance — abroad and then in Tokyo — before moving to Karuizawa with our dog Umi. We did not move here to start a food company, but living here changed what we expected from food.

Walking the same fields and forests every day, watching the seasons work on the land around us, eating vegetables from farms we could name and meat from hunters we knew. The standard shifted quietly but completely, and the gap between what was on our table and what was in Umi's bowl became impossible to ignore.

So we started making her meals at home. Wild venison from the forests around Karuizawa, apples from Shinshu orchards, vegetables from the farms nearby. Umi had been an anxious dog in Tokyo. In Karuizawa, eating this way, she became more herself. We think the mountain air deserves some credit, but so does what she was eating.

Eventually the question became inevitable: why didn't food like this already exist for other dogs? That question is why Karuizawa Harvest exists. Every product we make uses whole ingredients sourced from Nagano Prefecture with the same ingredients, from the same places, that we cook with at home. Small batches, made in a place we love.

~ Anne & Umi