BUSINESS & COMMUNITY
THE WEST END NEWS | JUNE 2020
had a few Zoom cocktail dates, which have been fun. And when you compare Zoom to a phone call, Zoom is so much better – I feel like I’ve actually seen someone.
Tara Treichel of SeaMade
But with my closest girlfriends – I’m not sure. Some of them I haven’t seen in months now. We’re such a sharing and emotive group, and Zoom is not the way I want to connect with those friends, which is unfortunate, because then we don’t connect at all.
Every month Peloton Labs founder Liz Trice interviews a Peloton member for the West End News. This month Liz caught up with Tara Triechel, the owner of SeaMade, a Maine-based company that makes seaweed-based snacks.
Silver Linings: Local Foods & Time to Experiment
11
dling supply. Seaweed is a small fraction of the harvest from the ocean, but can we eat wild seaweed forever?
So this morning we were experimenting with baking with farmed seaweed What’s happening with SeaMade – sugar kelp – which we think will give us a more consistent and cleaner product. It during the pandemic? For example, when I started baking brings a really robust flavor, and it’s really small batches in my kitchen, I was usOur “Cranberry Almond Kelp Bar” high in potassium chloride, so we think it ing puffed millet. Now that we’re doing is available at Rosemont, Harbor Fish, may be popular with endurance athletes. larger batches, it turns out you can only and Bow Street market, places like that, buy puffed millet in a 10-ounce bag, or a You’ve been running this company but with no foot traffic, those sales have 220-pound pallet. There’s nothing in bealmost come to a standstill. No one is call- for a while in your spare time. Where is tween: we cannot find anyone who will ing up and ordering Kelp bars with their your company in the growth process? sell us 25 pounds! So now we have to refish order! It’s like a little fir tree in the forest place the ingredient, and then we’ll have to On the other hand, our bar is pro- that stays small because it’s shaded in the buy new labels and pay for new nutritional duced at Fork Food Lab, and they have forest, but when there’s a break in the analysis. an online store, so we’re getting orders canopy and it gets some sun, it can shoot How has life been for you personthrough that website. Definitive Brewing up very quickly. We’re staying small while ally during the pandemic? contacted Fork and asked for products, finding solutions and waiting for opportuand we have a ready to go shelf-stable nities, like the infrastructure for farmed I appreciate the thoughtfulness of this snack that their customers can buy. Fork seaweed in Maine to develop. There’s also time, but I don’t like being on the computis also putting together sample baskets of a lot of education to convince consumers er all the time. I have a day job working reproducts produced there. We also set up that seaweed is a viable source of food. motely, and I recognize that Zoom is what an account at FoodDrop and are working we have to stay connected. That opening in the canopy could be a on getting into Whole Foods. large order and then we’d have a different I have connected with many people The other thing is, we have time to problem – how do we ramp up to fill a big on Zoom. There are some old friends in work on our recipe. Farmed seaweed is order. It’s hard to be a small producer.You Wyoming, and if it weren’t for the panavailable now . . . the only wild food we eat need machinery, you need ingredients in demic, we wouldn’t have connected until in this country is seafood, and it’s a dwin- bulk. . . small steady growth can be difficult. we could travel out there again. And we’ve
I’ve had group work experiences on Zoom, and that’s not very satisfying either. It seems like there’s a wide variety of experiences people are having. Yes. I have a friend who is an athlete and likes challenges, and he says that the extra stress has been a focusing influence on him and that he’s thriving under the pressure. Other people feel like they can focus and are not distracted by the demands of the outside world.And then other friends have anxiety that makes them want to avoid going out: Oh no, is that person going to walk too close to me, will they be offended if I step away... And it can be stressful to have to maintain distance from people we love. I think love is like that in general: it’s most painful when there are barriers to expressing the love we feel. PelotonLabs is a coworking space in the West End of Portland, Maine with a mission to connect and encourage people to manifest their visions without fear.
Fresh Approach The West End’s Meat Market Celebrating 28 years in the neighborhood!
Fresh Meat, Groceries, Produce, Dairy, Wine & Beer, Bakery, Deli, Freshly Prepared Salads & Sandwiches, Lunch-2-Go, Seating Available
Save time & money with ready to go foods! M-F 8-7 Sat 9-7 Sun 9-5 155 Brackett Street 774-7250
Check out wholesale prices online freshapproachmarket.com
ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED. WE ACCEPT EBT!
SERVING ORGANIC COFFEE & TEAS. LOCAL PASTRIES & FREE WI-FI
Offering free local delivery for Portland area customers. Simply order and pay online: homegrownherbandtea.com Or call (207) 774-3484.
