Kelp Sales Planning 101 | Farmer Forum

Recorded Dec 13, 2022
This webinar helps ocean farmers navigate the essential steps of selling kelp. GreenWave’s Market Development team shares strategies for both retail and wholesale markets, covering everything from creating buyer personas to building sales pipelines. Maine-based farmer Ken Sparta of Spartan Sea Farms provides real-world insights on diversifying sales channels and maximizing crop value.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
Overview of Farmer Forum series and session agenda
03:49 – Sales and Marketing Concepts
Understanding market channels, pricing ranges, and treating sales as a process
14:41 – Selling Directly to Consumers
Building your story, customer engagement strategies, and online marketing tools
29:44 – Selling Wholesale
Food business markets, customer discovery, and developing B2B relationships
42:47 – Non-Food Markets
Agricultural applications, materials innovation, and cosmetics opportunities
48:26 – Farmer Perspective: Ken Sparta
Real-world experience building multiple sales channels and leveraging co-op relationships
1:02:04 – Q&A Session
Discussion on regulations, processing methods, and market development
Transcript

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Cool. Well, I know we have a packed agenda

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today. So I'm gonna go ahead and kick us off and we'll let

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people kind of trickle in as they as they come. But

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thank you everyone for joining. Today's summer forum

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for those you don't who don't know me.

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My name is Lindsey Olson. I'm I am the

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director of training and support at Green Wave and I based up

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in Homer Alaska and I am joined today by Bruno's

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Market development team our director of

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Market development, Sam Garwin and our Market

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development program manager Grace callery. And

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then also we've got DG little bit helping out on

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Tech Support to introduce our illustrious guest

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speaker Ken Sparta of Spartan sea

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farms in Maine.

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Hello.

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so

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our for those of you who are just joining

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us for the first time for Farmer Forum

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just to kind of Orient you this is a new initiative that

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greenwave kicked off this year. And the goal was really to

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respond to a lot of need that we heard from different Farmers

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about wanting to have more touch points with each

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other and and really dig in on some sort of technical topics

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both on the farm operation side

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and also on the market side.

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So we sort of launched this series of

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monthly convenience and conversations where we bring folks

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together who actually doing this work and try in

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and kind of scratch beneath the surface and lots of

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time to to make the conversations really

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sort of conversational leave lots

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of time for questions. And so we hope that this can also be

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a really useful conversation and would encourage you

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to in to use the space and be as interactive as

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and you would like in terms of asking questions

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and and raising your hand.

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Um to that end, if you do have a question

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throughout the the call, please feel free to use the reaction button

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down on your screen to raise your hand or go ahead and pop

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it in the chat. We have built in sort of Q&amp;A blocks

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between different topics sections. So we'll stop and

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and catch up on questions during those blocks. And but

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if you have a clarifying question, like, please raise your hand anytime or

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this is where this is an informal thing

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and it yes, thank you Claire for sorry Clinton

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for asking. We we are recording at

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the moment. So if you do not you're feel

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free to turn off your camera and it is only recording and

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speaker view. So you would only be on camera if you are actively

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speaking and we are recording so that

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we can share it out with folks who are able to make the time today.

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and then lastly I just wanted to

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give a quick view at the end

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of the call. We reserved a little bit of time to Workshop a particular

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sales problem. That's that a farmer on this call is is

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struggling with at the moment and we want to so I

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wanted to just give you a heads up to Noodle on if

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whether if that is you if there's a problem that you're bringing to this

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Workshop that you would like to kind of workshop with the group. We

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left a little bit of time so you could think on that for the

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next 45 minutes.

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and

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awesome. Gigi can do the next slide great.

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So we are pretty big group today. Generally we

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tend to do these in person but I think since we've just got so many

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folks joining. I'm going to go ahead and ask people to use

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the chat function if you could share your name

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and if you are a farmer, where's your

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farm? And if you're not where you joining us from and

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if you are a farmer, what is

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your experience selling help? What is what has how's

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this process gone for you before and what kind

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of questions are you bringing with you to the call?

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awesome

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And I look forward to reading everyone's responses.

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And with that I will hand it over to Sam.

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Awesome. Thank you Lindsey next slide

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Gigi.

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Before we jump in I do want to acknowledge. This presentation is

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not intended to be any kind of comprehensive course

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on sales and marketing and it is more of a

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summary of some of our lessons learned over the past four years working

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to build a market mostly for sugar. Kelp

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here in the United States. And we've also Incorporated some

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general small business sales and marketing best practices, which we

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have modified to be more applicable to Ocean farmers.

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So here's our agenda. We're going to go

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over some sales and marketing concepts. We're going to talk about selling to

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retail selling to wholesale both food

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and non-food markets. And then we are going to hear tens perspective

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on when it's been like building his business over the past

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few years and then wrap up with some things to

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look forward to in the farmer Forum series and elsewhere.

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Okay, next slide GG. We are going

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to start off with those sales and marketing concepts.

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next slide again

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Awesome. So if you're here today, we are assuming that you already

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know the basics of ocean farming what it is essentially.

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So we're not going to go into any of that. We're gonna start when the

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kelp comes out of the water and at

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that point you really have two directions. You can go with your crop from

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a Market's perspective you have food and you have non-food and

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that pristine trimmed blade

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is generally sold into food markets. So

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this could be minimally processed in like a

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fresh or frozen form. It could be value-added processed

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into specialty food like, you know

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pickles or kimchi or it could

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be stabilized for use as an ingredient in other consumer packaged

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Goods. So think kelp Burger. Kelp jerky that

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kind of thing. It also could be extracted into functional

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ingredients use in nutraceuticals

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or Pharmaceuticals.

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So that kind of covers the food uses on the non-food side.

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That's generally more appropriate for things like stipes hold

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fast and biofiled portions of the blade and

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the two markets that we're watching really closely now are

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biomaterials and agricultural uses because

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they have the potential to move a really significant amount of

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volume and have a lot of Downstream environmental impact. So

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when we say biomaterials, we're talking about things like

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packaging codings films and

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single-use Food Service items. So basically think alternatives

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to Plastics and there are

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some companies that are also exploring seaweed as a key ingredient in

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textiles, which we think would be pretty cool.

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Agricultural uses are things like

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animal feed supplements. So kelp provides a really wide array

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of minerals to ruminants in particular and

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can also improve gut health. There's been some some research into

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that recently and also biostimulants and

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biostimulants are different than fertilizers in that

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rather than focusing on the big three plant nutrients. So

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that's nitrogen phosphorus and potassium or NPK biostimulants

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are just delivering a suite

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of micronutrients and bioactive components that improve

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root growth pest resistance and overall health and

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resiliency of the plant.

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so for each of these markets food and non-food

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and even within that between biomaterials and

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agriculture

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Each of these markets are calling for different quantity

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quality and pricing of kelp.

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In fact, one of the most challenging parts of entering the seaweed market

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right now is how widely the market price can vary based

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on how much you're growing who you're selling it

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to how you're selling it how it's processed and even where your

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farm is located can have an impact.

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So on the East Coast farmers who are within

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driving distances to big cities like New York and Boston

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have been able to successfully Market a small portion

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of their crop or small volumes of crop rather directly to

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high end restaurants and consumers as food and

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that can be either fresh or value-added and through that

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strategy. They've been able to capture a really really high price point.

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So we're talking upwards of $20 per pound for fresh wet

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kelp but it takes a lot of work takes

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a lot of work to come up with a brand to do marketing directly to

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Consumers. And you know, if you

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are doing those individual sales, you need

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to figure out last mile deliveries, which either that you're doing that yourself or you're

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hiring or working with a distributor.

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And so these buyers are not really buying that much

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at a time. So you can't sell very much of a time. So you're at a

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time. So you're harvests might be less efficient than

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if you were selling to a larger buyer and this kind of high-end Market

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is not always available in more remote areas. That's

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another thing to consider.

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Other farmers are selling their product wholesale

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is food either to aggregators who turn

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it into a stable ingredient for either turning into

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a value added product themselves or selling it to another consumer

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packaged goods company and this

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Market generally offers a price point

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of between 45 cents and two dollars per pound depending

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on the used but we have seen some Farmers receive up

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to eight dollars a pound but that is usually when they are doing some processing

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on their farm, so they're drying it themselves somehow

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stabilizing it so that the their

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consumer can use it on a more

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on-demand basis.

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And the Wholesale Food Market, the advantages are that you can

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move thousands of pounds of kelp at one time and that allows you

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to operate on a larger scale and have a more efficient Harvest schedule

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and everything that goes along with that the challenges that

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there aren't very many buyers right now and many of the buyers

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that do exist. Don't want to buy it wet or even

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Frozen they would really prefer to buy it in a stabilized format. So

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without that processing infrastructure in place right now, it can

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be kind of challenging to access this Market.

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The last Channel non-food uses

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is where farmers can move a lot

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of CBD at a time, especially if

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it's not viable for human consumption. So the

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advantage of this obviously is you don't have to worry about keeping

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to food grades standards for Harvest and transpoint and

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transport but the price point is

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a lot lower. So definitely under a dollar a pound

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a lot of times under 50 cents a pound. So well,

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maybe tempting to think that you could only focus on

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markets that command the highest price. The reality is

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based on the weather or seed quality or any

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number of other factors. You might need to utilize all

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of these options at some point in time.

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And so rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. We really

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recommend taking a whole whole Harvest strategy your

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whole crop strategy. So thinking of different ways

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that you can get value out of different parts of the crop and salvage

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value if you have a low quality harvest in general,

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this is a really great way to think about diversify.

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Your sales streams to maximize the value of

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that you can get off your farm.

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Next slide please.

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And the next concept we're going to cover is sales

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as a process. So there's a big misconception out

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there that fails is a transaction and

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I would like to dissuade you from that mindset. So sales

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is a process. It's persuasion. It

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requires trust and Trust builds gradually over time.

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So on the left side of the screen, you'll see a graphic of

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what's referred to as a sales funnel, which is just a model for thinking

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about the different steps in a sales process and the

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size of the colored band represents the size of the audience at

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each step in that process. So at the

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top of the funnel is awareness if someone isn't aware

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that you exist, they definitely cannot bike you

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buy your kelp. So the first step in the sales process is making

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people aware of your company and of your products

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and this is all that marketing is it's building awareness.

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So once someone is aware that you exist. They then need

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to become interested enough to learn more about your product

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what it is why they might want to buy it and how

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much it costs.

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And based on that information, they'll make a decision to

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move forward with the purchase or not. And then finally they will

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act on their decision and money will change hands and you'll give them

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kelp and they will live their lives happily ever after.

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At each step in this sales process, you will

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lose people and that is completely normal and does not

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mean that you are doing anything wrong. In fact, it's so

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normal that there's a word to describe it. So when people talk about your conversion rate,

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we're talking about the ratio of people that you

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can get all the way down the funnel. So from awareness all the

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way down to actually taking action to purchase your

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kelp and over time as you learn your customers

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better and refine your sales and marketing strategies. This rate

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should improve and this is something that applies both

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to in person sales and online sales. You

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can think of a conversion rate in almost any sales channel

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that you have.

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Bills is also a process not just in and of

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itself but a process that should be integrated into your plan for

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annual Farm activities.

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And that's because it's impossible to separate it from the logistics involved

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with day-to-day operations of your farm. So

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questions, like how many times are

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you willing and able to harvest or what access do

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you have to processing and packaging equipment? How will

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you physically move? Kelp from your farm to your customers? All

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of this really directly influences what you can

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sell and to whom

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So let's take a

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look at what that might look like after your Harvest each year, you'll

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have a period of downtime that you can use to gather feedback from this year's

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customers revise your farm operations and marketing materials accordingly.

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And as you start to plan for the next year's planting, you'll want to

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reach out to larger wholesale customers to get contracts in place or at least

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estimates of what they intend to purchase the following year Mission directly

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inform how much kelp you decide to plan? So we definitely do

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not recommend planting kelp before you know, where

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you're going to sell it and for how much money

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smaller purchasing agreements and pilot projects can be backfilled later

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in the season to sell what isn't accounted for through the

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larger scale contract and you'll definitely want to estimate these

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volumes before you plant but it's going to be a much smaller number than

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what you're moving through wholesale relationships. So, you know,

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if something doesn't come through it shouldn't be as big a

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deal as if one of the one of the larger contracts doesn't come through.

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And finally in early spring when your baby kelp is coming in. This is

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a great time to sell directly to Consumers with fresh. Kelp. And

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also how to introduce yourself to prospective wholesale

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customers who might be doing product development. We recommend

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providing the majority of your samples during

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this time when you have fresh scale available, but remember

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that new buyers might not know seaweed

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seasonality and so they're probably going

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to be doing product development a different times of

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year. So you want to make sure to retain some of that kelp to do samples the

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rest of the year.

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The last sales and marketing concept I want to share is one

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of right sizing.

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And that sounds like a fancy word. It's thrown a lot around a lot when people

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talk about Supply chains. But all it means is you want to make

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sure that your buyers and your sellers are similar sizes or

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at least that everyone is clear about the other's intense capabilities

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and timeline for scaling. So just like

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a kids lemonade stand is not trying to pitch a baseball

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stadium. That's the first customer beginning. Kelp Farmers

300
00:15:07.400 --> 00:15:10.200
should not be out there pitching Unilever. It's just not a

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great fit for the start. So for that reason, we really focused this

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presentation on markets and customer types that are

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more accessible to the beginning farmer because they're interested in smaller

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volumes, but there are also some really creative

305
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ways to get around size like providing enough

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seaweed only for one product of maybe

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a suite of products that the customer makes.

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Or just starting with 1% of a buyer's total seaweed Supply

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to start and working together over time to increase that

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percentage and we're really big fans of these approaches because

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they build longer-term Partnerships rather

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than just, you know, facilitating one-off transactions.

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Okay.

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So now that we've covered those overarching Concepts.

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Let's talk a bit more about selling directly to

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Consumers.

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When you are first starting out and have a very small

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amount of kelp your best bet may be to sell directly to

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Consumers. And so you know, what?

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What do they want? The reality is though many

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of us are doing this work because of the beneficial aspects of

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ocean farming to mitigate climate change in the

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moment of food shopping almost all people are driven by a few very

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basic concerns. The first of those

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is labor if it doesn't taste good it has an

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00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:36.000
unpleasant texture people will buy it once but they're probably not going to

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buy it again. So that does really matter.

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The second is convenience, which has two Dimensions there is

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ease of access. So how simple is

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it for people to incorporate this product into their existing routine and

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then ease of use and so is

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it the right format size packaging for whatever they're going to

333
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do with it.

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The third is value which is a little bit different than price

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and that people need to feel as though they

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got benefit from the product. But that that's

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more related to what they could get for the same amount of money

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elsewhere and oftentimes, you can influence people's

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perception of value through better marketing without ever

340
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touching your price point. So this is why getting your messaging down

341
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is is important.

342
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And finally people will buy products that fill an emotional

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aspirational needs. So this could be something like they

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want to think of themselves as someone who is climate

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aware or someone who is adventurous but anything

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that affirms their perception of themselves will

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make it more likely that they

348
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will buy your product.

349
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To stay centered on your customer it helps

350
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to get very very clear on who you are selling to exactly.

351
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So remember that conversion rate we

352
00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:53.200
talked about earlier in sales funnel. Your conversion rate is

353
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going to be a lot higher if you are making the right people aware

354
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of you to begin with so it's not a great use of

355
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your time and money to Market to people who don't need

356
00:18:02.300 --> 00:18:05.600
your product don't want your product or for financial or logistical reasons

357
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are not able to purchase your products.

358
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So you need to deeply understand your customers demographics Hobbies

359
00:18:11.500 --> 00:18:14.400
online behaviors Etc. And this can

360
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this process of understanding them is even

361
00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:20.400
more valuable if you write it down into a Persona like

362
00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:23.400
the one we've shared on the left, which is for a kelp and

363
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shellfish CSF.

364
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And by writing it down you can make sure that not

365
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only are you aware and and can keep in mind

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who this person is, but you make sure that everybody else who's working

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with you and your company is on the same page about who your

368
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customer is and what they want.

369
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And this might seem like

370
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a lot of work but having a specific Persona in mind can help you

371
00:18:46.100 --> 00:18:49.300
decide what kinds of products to develop and which sales and

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00:18:49.300 --> 00:18:52.300
marketing strategies to use. So on this slide, we're we're

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selling kelp to all three of these demographics but

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by understanding who they are and what their needs

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wants and pain points are we are tailoring the format of the kelp

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to their specific needs and obviously, these are all kind of

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aspirational value added opportunities here, but

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the goal is to show how from three totally different

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00:19:10.600 --> 00:19:13.300
demographics we get to three totally different product

380
00:19:13.300 --> 00:19:16.300
ideas and it wouldn't work to try to market the

381
00:19:16.300 --> 00:19:20.000
kelp bars and fun shapes to the 50s couple

382
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.800
in Brooklyn Brownstone. They're not gonna want that. So

383
00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:25.400
it's really to get the juices

384
00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:28.300
flowing and thinking about will what can I do to make

385
00:19:28.300 --> 00:19:29.200
kelp

386
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Exciting for the specific customers that I

387
00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:32.900
have access to.

388
00:19:37.100 --> 00:19:40.100
So in addition to knowing your customers' story, you also need to

389
00:19:40.100 --> 00:19:43.500
know your own and this is particularly important when selling directly

390
00:19:43.500 --> 00:19:46.300
to Consumers. So think about your story as

391
00:19:46.300 --> 00:19:49.400
part of your product. It's not it's not separate. It's

392
00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:52.300
not a nice to have it's really a core part of what you're

393
00:19:52.300 --> 00:19:55.300
selling and people want to know these days, you know who grows

394
00:19:55.300 --> 00:19:58.500
my food? Why are they doing it? How do they do it? What makes

395
00:19:58.500 --> 00:20:01.100
it so amazing and people want to

396
00:20:01.100 --> 00:20:04.400
buy from people they trust and from people who are real. So they want you

397
00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:07.300
to get personal and and to know really who you are

398
00:20:07.300 --> 00:20:10.800
that does take time to develop whether

399
00:20:10.800 --> 00:20:13.200
you're telling it in person or in writing and so,

400
00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:17.000
you know take every opportunity. You have to practice on this

401
00:20:16.100 --> 00:20:19.600
side. I'm sharing some of the farmer profiles

402
00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:22.900
that Atlantic Sea Farms has on their website. So again regardless

403
00:20:22.900 --> 00:20:25.400
of you selling to an aggregator or directly

404
00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.300
to a consumer your story is is really really important and

405
00:20:28.300 --> 00:20:29.700
can help make sales.

406
00:20:34.800 --> 00:20:37.100
So once you have your story in your product,

407
00:20:37.100 --> 00:20:40.400
it's time to get in front of prospective customers. When you first

408
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:43.300
starting out, you can't really expect to the people are going to come to you

409
00:20:43.300 --> 00:20:46.400
people are busy and building new habits takes time and energy.

410
00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:50.100
So we recommend really going to them and right

411
00:20:49.100 --> 00:20:52.500
sizing is important here. So I've

412
00:20:52.500 --> 00:20:55.400
listed out some options for places you

413
00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:58.200
might go and you're just getting started but you need to find one that

414
00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:02.400
fits with where you are mentally and geographically so

415
00:21:01.400 --> 00:21:04.600
if the idea of standing behind a table of farmers

416
00:21:04.600 --> 00:21:07.200
market doesn't sound Pleasant to you, don't do it

417
00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:08.900
find some other way to get in front of people.

418
00:21:10.300 --> 00:21:13.800
The general ideas that you're looking for businesses with strong local followings

419
00:21:13.800 --> 00:21:16.500
and similar customer demographics. And then

420
00:21:16.500 --> 00:21:19.400
once you go to where your people are you need to engage them

421
00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:22.300
and you know this starts with eye contact

422
00:21:22.300 --> 00:21:25.700
smile saying hello channeling your inner Costco

423
00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:28.200
sampler, and this is where your samples come

424
00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:31.200
in. So, how are you today is fine, but would you like to try

425
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:34.300
some? Kelp as much more likely to get some people to come talk

426
00:21:34.300 --> 00:21:34.500
to you?

427
00:21:35.600 --> 00:21:38.700
And in these scenarios, you always want to make sure you're that they're

428
00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:42.200
leaving with something in their hand and these are called point

429
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:44.500
of sale materials and traditionally it's things

430
00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:47.600
like brochures or business cards, but the more creative

431
00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:50.500
and unique you can be the better. So think you know

432
00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:54.000
postcards pins stickers temporary tattoos, and

433
00:21:53.100 --> 00:21:56.200
even if they don't buy something today, if you

434
00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:59.200
give them something fun and interesting they might come back to later or

435
00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:02.800
tell a friend about it. It's still

436
00:22:02.800 --> 00:22:05.200
increases the value of your brand and the likelihood that you will

437
00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:06.500
make a sale later on.

438
00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:11.600
You also may consider making a miniature for

439
00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:13.200
sale product when you

440
00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:16.500
first start out. So it's cheap and easy to give it a try. Someone just

441
00:22:16.500 --> 00:22:19.500
need it doesn't need to buy a lot or spend a lot of money to give

442
00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:19.900
it a shot.

443
00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:27.100
Then of course, your people are also online in addition

444
00:22:27.100 --> 00:22:30.900
to real life and to Market online. We the

445
00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:33.600
three things that you need are a website

446
00:22:33.600 --> 00:22:36.300
social media account and email marketing tool.

447
00:22:37.100 --> 00:22:40.400
A website makes you appear more more legitimate to

448
00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:44.400
both eaters and and wholesale customers. So, you

449
00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:46.400
know a Facebook page while it

450
00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:49.900
is nice is not quite the same as a website. So it doesn't need

451
00:22:49.900 --> 00:22:52.500
to be complicated to start a simple landing page is

452
00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:55.400
fine Squarespace and Wix are great options

453
00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:58.200
for big for beginners. They can build out

454
00:22:58.200 --> 00:23:02.900
something really quickly and it looks shockingly good as for

455
00:23:02.900 --> 00:23:05.400
social media. You should make a profile even if

456
00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:08.200
you don't use it immediately. It's better not to use it than to

457
00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:11.200
use it badly. So if nothing else just set up a profile link it

458
00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:13.100
to your website put one picture up.

459
00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:17.400
It's a good place to start. You don't need to use all the

460
00:23:17.400 --> 00:23:20.200
social media. Again. This is where knowing your customer comes

461
00:23:20.200 --> 00:23:23.900
in. So like if your

462
00:23:23.900 --> 00:23:26.400
targeting Gen X or Boomers Facebook is

463
00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:29.400
great Instagram, maybe for Millennials and video

464
00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:32.700
platforms for Gen Z and the key is consistency.

465
00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:35.300
So once you start using it pick a Cadence and

466
00:23:35.300 --> 00:23:38.300
try to stick to it and remember that it's called social for a reason.

467
00:23:38.300 --> 00:23:41.200
So the goal is interactivity. You want to be tagging people

468
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:44.100
liking and commenting on what others posts and sharing things that are

469
00:23:44.100 --> 00:23:47.300
brand aligned. You don't need to be on it constantly,

470
00:23:47.300 --> 00:23:50.300
but you do need to be on it. Regularly. There's a

471
00:23:50.300 --> 00:23:50.900
little difference there.

472
00:23:52.100 --> 00:23:55.600
Email marketing tools make it really easy to create and push

473
00:23:55.600 --> 00:23:58.200
content to people but of course to do this you need

474
00:23:58.200 --> 00:24:01.800
people's email addresses. So I think the ABCs of

475
00:24:01.800 --> 00:24:04.700
sales is not always be closing but always be collecting email

476
00:24:04.700 --> 00:24:07.700
addresses. It gives you a lot of control over

477
00:24:07.700 --> 00:24:10.300
your audience. If as we've

478
00:24:10.300 --> 00:24:13.400
seen as algorithms change on social media, you

479
00:24:13.400 --> 00:24:16.400
can find yourself almost overnight not being able

480
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:19.900
to reach people in the same way that you did before. So

481
00:24:19.900 --> 00:24:22.100
having email addresses is a great kind of

482
00:24:22.100 --> 00:24:25.500
insurance policy to make sure that you can still get in touch with people even if

483
00:24:26.300 --> 00:24:28.900
Instagram changes its algorithm for the millionth time.

484
00:24:32.200 --> 00:24:35.200
So remember the bigger the top of the funnel the more people are going to make it

485
00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:38.400
to the bottom. That's why we want to always be collecting the email addresses and

486
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:41.300
finally each of these tools comes with its own set

487
00:24:41.300 --> 00:24:44.400
of analytics. And the point of those analytics is to get

488
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:47.300
better at marketing using real data. So you

489
00:24:47.300 --> 00:24:50.600
can see your conversion rate. A lot of the tools have

490
00:24:50.600 --> 00:24:53.500
will tell you how much how many people bounce

491
00:24:53.500 --> 00:24:56.300
stuff your website so showed up and then left versus showed

492
00:24:56.300 --> 00:24:59.300
up and made a purchase and you can play with sending messages

493
00:24:59.300 --> 00:25:02.300
at different times of day with different subject lines to different groups

494
00:25:02.300 --> 00:25:05.200
and see what actually works and then do more of that.

495
00:25:09.100 --> 00:25:12.700
That is it from my section. Are there any questions

496
00:25:12.700 --> 00:25:14.000
that we can answer?

497
00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:24.300
Yeah, folks feel free to raise your hand or throw something

498
00:25:24.300 --> 00:25:26.300
in the chat there haven't been any questions that have come up.

499
00:25:27.100 --> 00:25:28.400
While you're speaking Sam.

500
00:25:35.600 --> 00:25:37.400
Anyone have a question for Sam on the basics?

501
00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:40.900
I do have a question.

502
00:25:42.900 --> 00:25:45.300
I'm not sure if you may have covered this

503
00:25:45.300 --> 00:25:48.100
or planned to cover it. But how do

504
00:25:48.100 --> 00:25:50.200
you go about finding your customers?

505
00:25:53.100 --> 00:25:57.600
That's a great question. So one

506
00:25:56.600 --> 00:25:59.300
of the things that we

507
00:25:59.300 --> 00:26:02.200
do at the market development program within greenwave is

508
00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:05.400
to help connect kelp Farmers with prospective buyers.

509
00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:08.600
So we do have a digital tool called

510
00:26:08.600 --> 00:26:11.400
seaweed Source where New farmers or any

511
00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:15.700
farmers can register to have a profile and then we screen

512
00:26:14.700 --> 00:26:17.700
buyers and they can

513
00:26:17.700 --> 00:26:20.100
see who's growing health and they can

514
00:26:20.100 --> 00:26:25.400
reach out in contact them. So that's one option another option,

515
00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:27.200
you know, a lot of folks who are

516
00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:30.900
selling to restaurants literally will

517
00:26:30.900 --> 00:26:34.100
show up with kelp at the restaurant and you

518
00:26:33.100 --> 00:26:36.400
know, they'll develop a list of restaurants based on

519
00:26:37.500 --> 00:26:41.200
Google searches for people who are sustainability sustainability

520
00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:43.900
focused, you know sourcing forward that

521
00:26:43.900 --> 00:26:46.400
you have traceability, you know farm names on their on their

522
00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:50.100
menu or people who are Seafood

523
00:26:49.100 --> 00:26:52.700
eccentric that does seem to be bigger with

524
00:26:52.700 --> 00:26:55.500
with the kelp crowd. But literally

525
00:26:55.500 --> 00:26:58.600
they will show up with kelp and a samples and and offer

526
00:26:58.600 --> 00:26:58.700
it.

527
00:26:59.300 --> 00:27:01.600
For for people to try it out.

528
00:27:02.500 --> 00:27:05.700
So it really depends on what kinds of Market you're

529
00:27:05.700 --> 00:27:08.300
seeking but you know at the end of the day, it's just

530
00:27:08.300 --> 00:27:11.400
people and finding the right person to talk with within your

531
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:13.200
your target market.

532
00:27:16.900 --> 00:27:18.100
Thank you. Super well.

533
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.100
I think let's take two more questions

534
00:27:23.100 --> 00:27:26.400
Theo I saw your question in the chat first and then Sean

535
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:29.500
I see your hand and then we'll other chance for questions after

536
00:27:29.500 --> 00:27:32.200
Greece's presentation. So these question is

537
00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:33.900
how do you deal with shortages and product?

538
00:27:35.300 --> 00:27:38.500
Yeah, great question. It's so

539
00:27:38.500 --> 00:27:42.200
hard to to know

540
00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:44.200
for sure. How much yield you're going to get

541
00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:48.400
off your farm. So first of all, I would

542
00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:51.900
definitely recommend tracking your yield from year

543
00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:54.500
to year so you can have better estimates to

544
00:27:54.500 --> 00:27:57.400
begin with and then this is

545
00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:01.000
where I think having a really good contract and/or

546
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:03.700
communication with your buyer is really really key.

547
00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:06.400
So because this is you

548
00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:09.800
know estimation is an arch not a science. You can initially provide

549
00:28:09.800 --> 00:28:12.500
people with a range that is based

550
00:28:12.500 --> 00:28:15.200
on past Year's data if you have it. So rather than

551
00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:18.700
saying like, you know, I'm definitely gonna get eight pounds

552
00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:21.700
per foot. You could say well last year. I got six pounds

553
00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:24.700
per foot. So this year I expect it'll be between four and

554
00:28:24.700 --> 00:28:25.300
eight which would give us

555
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:30.200
This range of possible yield and

556
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:32.500
you could just establish that understanding from

557
00:28:32.500 --> 00:28:35.700
the beginning that there is going to be some variability and then

558
00:28:35.700 --> 00:28:38.700
if you monitor your crop throughout the year, you should

559
00:28:38.700 --> 00:28:41.200
be able to provide updates to those

560
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:45.700
customers as you go and while your

561
00:28:45.700 --> 00:28:48.200
customer is not going to be happy if there's a you know,

562
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:51.300
a big shortage at least you will have communicated and

563
00:28:51.300 --> 00:28:54.300
that relationship will be intact for future

564
00:28:54.300 --> 00:28:58.100
years, you know, there's nothing you can do to control the ocean. So but

565
00:28:57.100 --> 00:29:00.200
what you can do is communicate really well

566
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:03.500
about what's happening. So your buyer trusts you

567
00:29:03.500 --> 00:29:06.800
is able to plan their business around your potential shortage

568
00:29:06.800 --> 00:29:09.500
and then you can kind of move move forward

569
00:29:09.500 --> 00:29:10.100
from there.

570
00:29:12.900 --> 00:29:15.100
Awesome, Sean. Do you want to pop in with

571
00:29:15.100 --> 00:29:18.400
your question and then we'll go ahead and move on to the next section. Yeah, appreciate that.

572
00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:21.200
Absolutely and just to throw this out for their for our

573
00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:24.800
Alexandra by having worked

574
00:29:24.800 --> 00:29:27.100
in food and worked at farmers markets and stuff like that

575
00:29:27.100 --> 00:29:30.800
going to them and buying things is great. I

576
00:29:30.800 --> 00:29:33.400
building relationships with those farmers. Who

577
00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:36.600
are there on my eye is awesome. And then

578
00:29:36.600 --> 00:29:39.300
that's where you know, if you have seaweed then you know,

579
00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:42.200
you know, if you've already been buying from people then you

580
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.100
can you know sell more industrial type stuff

581
00:29:45.100 --> 00:29:48.400
or hopefully you already know the person who's in charge

582
00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:51.600
or I can get, you know, like a two month

583
00:29:51.600 --> 00:29:54.200
time to to be there before your crop comes out

584
00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:57.700
to have samples and taste things

585
00:29:57.700 --> 00:30:01.700
and all but my question was I'd

586
00:30:00.700 --> 00:30:03.300
love what you guys have about all the

587
00:30:03.300 --> 00:30:07.000
different ways looking at I who to

588
00:30:06.300 --> 00:30:09.600
sell to and also not at

589
00:30:09.600 --> 00:30:12.400
the point towards the beginning of don't over.

590
00:30:12.900 --> 00:30:15.500
Plant, but I guess

591
00:30:15.500 --> 00:30:18.400
you know kind of my business plan thing. I was thinking yeah over

592
00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:22.300
plan but which was a any

593
00:30:21.300 --> 00:30:24.700
access I I would

594
00:30:24.700 --> 00:30:28.200
hope to do something involving carbon credits.

595
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:30.400
So you guys have any recommendations

596
00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.300
on you know, is that really set up because blue

597
00:30:33.300 --> 00:30:35.400
carbon doesn't seem to be as much up there as

598
00:30:36.300 --> 00:30:39.100
Green carbon Ken is just shaking his head at me.

599
00:30:39.100 --> 00:30:42.200
Oh my I and you know, I I

600
00:30:43.100 --> 00:30:46.300
Is that you know a reasonable strategy to say?

601
00:30:47.100 --> 00:30:50.100
You know, like I put it out there in the customers will one day

602
00:30:50.100 --> 00:30:53.500
come but for now, you know make make less based

603
00:30:53.500 --> 00:30:53.700
on that.

604
00:30:56.800 --> 00:30:59.700
Yeah, the carbon credits Market.

605
00:30:59.700 --> 00:31:02.500
I think everyone is hopeful

606
00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:05.500
not just an ocean farming but regenerative land-based farming

607
00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:08.500
that that will at some point be an actual Market that

608
00:31:08.500 --> 00:31:11.800
pays people I would not count on that right now

609
00:31:11.800 --> 00:31:14.200
it is we don't know of anyone

610
00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:17.300
who is actually getting paid in that way.

611
00:31:17.300 --> 00:31:21.000
So, you know for 2023 2024 I

612
00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:24.400
would not count on that. I do

613
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:27.700
think that, you know having a it you're not

614
00:31:27.700 --> 00:31:30.700
wrong to want to you know,

615
00:31:30.700 --> 00:31:33.700
I think there are some advantages to plant to

616
00:31:33.700 --> 00:31:36.100
planting larger volumes. Like there is a

617
00:31:36.100 --> 00:31:39.900
learning curve to learning how to farm larger volumes. But the

618
00:31:39.900 --> 00:31:42.500
point is that you need to at least have a plan for

619
00:31:42.500 --> 00:31:43.400
it. Even if it's not

620
00:31:46.100 --> 00:31:49.300
You know, it could be it could be selling it to local farms or giving

621
00:31:49.300 --> 00:31:52.700
it away to local farms. The point is that you're responsible for

622
00:31:52.700 --> 00:31:55.300
that. Kelp once you plant it and so you can't just

623
00:31:55.300 --> 00:31:58.600
leave it there in the water. You're gonna have to take it out. And so you if

624
00:31:58.600 --> 00:32:01.300
you know, you might not well for the

625
00:32:01.300 --> 00:32:04.100
benefit of your business you want to try to make money on that

626
00:32:04.100 --> 00:32:07.300
even if you can't make money on it, you got to know where it's

627
00:32:07.300 --> 00:32:10.400
gonna go and how you're gonna get it there and make

628
00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:13.300
sure you're not gonna lose money in dealing with

629
00:32:13.300 --> 00:32:16.500
that excess help that you've planted because it isn't free

630
00:32:16.500 --> 00:32:17.600
to deal with

631
00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:23.900
and go ahead and jump in there and then we'll move on. That's right.

632
00:32:25.300 --> 00:32:28.300
So I kind of fall under the I'm gonna plant as much kelp as

633
00:32:28.300 --> 00:32:29.000
I possibly can.

634
00:32:31.100 --> 00:32:34.200
Um way of thinking but I I think the way that you can

635
00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:37.100
mitigate that is as Sam was just saying you need to have a

636
00:32:37.100 --> 00:32:40.500
plan for it. So I know that one of

637
00:32:40.500 --> 00:32:43.300
the people that I sell to is me so I'm gonna I'm

638
00:32:43.300 --> 00:32:46.500
gonna take some of that kelp and I'm gonna dry it and process it.

639
00:32:46.500 --> 00:32:49.800
I know that I need some of that kelp myself. I also

640
00:32:49.800 --> 00:32:52.500
have a couple of buyers here locally that I

641
00:32:52.500 --> 00:32:55.500
work with that are happy if I can give them five pounds

642
00:32:55.500 --> 00:32:58.300
or if I can give them 5,000 pounds. So those

643
00:32:58.300 --> 00:33:01.500
guys are chicken Farmers love this stuff.

644
00:33:02.300 --> 00:33:05.400
Okay, anybody that's making compost is

645
00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:08.300
thrilled to have it. They're not gonna they're not

646
00:33:08.300 --> 00:33:11.400
gonna make you rich you can't sell them kelp at

647
00:33:11.700 --> 00:33:14.200
$20 a pound. But if you have enough of those people in

648
00:33:14.200 --> 00:33:18.000
your in your back pocket that can take over whatever extra

649
00:33:17.300 --> 00:33:20.600
help you have at the end after you've sold your

650
00:33:20.600 --> 00:33:24.200
restaurants and you sold direct to Consumer and you've

651
00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:25.400
taken what you need for yourself.

652
00:33:26.300 --> 00:33:29.800
If they have if you have those people out there that can recoup

653
00:33:29.800 --> 00:33:32.600
your costs for your line and your seed

654
00:33:32.600 --> 00:33:33.600
and your time.

655
00:33:34.600 --> 00:33:37.200
Then you can grow as much as you want. So, you know, you need

656
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.500
to have some of those some of those customers as well. Don't just concentrate on

657
00:33:40.500 --> 00:33:43.700
the $20 a pound customers. If you want to be a bigger grower

658
00:33:43.700 --> 00:33:46.500
and Ken let me ask where you at. I'm in

659
00:33:46.500 --> 00:33:47.400
Freeport, Maine cool.

660
00:33:49.900 --> 00:33:52.200
Awesome. Thank you Ken and thanks to Sean and

661
00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:55.500
everyone for the questions and Clint and like I am logging

662
00:33:55.500 --> 00:33:58.200
your questions for next break, but let's go ahead and and Scoot on

663
00:33:58.200 --> 00:33:59.100
over to Grace.

664
00:34:00.500 --> 00:34:01.900
Awesome. Thanks, Lindsey.

665
00:34:02.600 --> 00:34:05.500
So I'm going to dive into selling wholesale or

666
00:34:05.500 --> 00:34:08.200
business to business. So some of the markets that

667
00:34:08.200 --> 00:34:11.300
Sam touched on earlier. I'll first focus

668
00:34:11.300 --> 00:34:14.600
on food. So restaurants cpg companies and

669
00:34:14.600 --> 00:34:17.600
aggregators and food is

670
00:34:17.600 --> 00:34:20.800
still the primary market for kelp while touch on a

671
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.600
couple of non-food markets specifically AG

672
00:34:23.600 --> 00:34:25.400
materials and cosmetics.

673
00:34:29.900 --> 00:34:32.400
So similar to when selling retail, it's super

674
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:35.400
super important that you understand who your customer is.

675
00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:38.500
You have to sell to someone rather than selling to

676
00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:39.000
everyone.

677
00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:43.200
In one way to do this is through personas. So

678
00:34:42.200 --> 00:34:45.400
you can do research to make sure you understand

679
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:48.200
your customers background their business

680
00:34:48.200 --> 00:34:51.800
model their purchasing Behavior sourcing priorities

681
00:34:51.800 --> 00:34:54.600
goals and their pain points. Here's a

682
00:34:54.600 --> 00:34:57.400
buyer Persona created from interviews with real

683
00:34:57.400 --> 00:35:00.900
buyers purchasing minimally process so fresh

684
00:35:00.900 --> 00:35:02.200
or frozen seaweed,

685
00:35:03.200 --> 00:35:06.900
It dives into some of the needs and preferences of buyers

686
00:35:06.900 --> 00:35:09.300
like this. For example, they're looking to

687
00:35:09.300 --> 00:35:13.000
work with farmers who have consistent high-volume

688
00:35:12.300 --> 00:35:16.000
yields as well as farmers who can provide food safety

689
00:35:15.500 --> 00:35:18.900
documentation and results from heavy metals

690
00:35:18.900 --> 00:35:19.200
testing.

691
00:35:20.300 --> 00:35:23.300
Creating buyer personas enables you to empathize with

692
00:35:23.300 --> 00:35:26.400
your customer and also identify who your Target

693
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:29.200
customer is based on whether or not you can meet

694
00:35:29.200 --> 00:35:29.700
their needs.

695
00:35:33.900 --> 00:35:36.500
So let's dive into what food business is

696
00:35:36.500 --> 00:35:39.400
want similar to eaters. They want

697
00:35:39.400 --> 00:35:42.400
a good story, but they also need some more

698
00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:45.300
practical elements like a sell sheet. They need

699
00:35:45.300 --> 00:35:48.300
samples. They're looking for consistency and

700
00:35:48.300 --> 00:35:51.900
food safety documentation, and they're

701
00:35:51.900 --> 00:35:54.400
also looking for you to be reliable in

702
00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:57.300
terms of shipment and have a streamlined process

703
00:35:57.300 --> 00:36:00.100
for ordering and billing and generally they want you to

704
00:36:00.100 --> 00:36:01.800
be responsive in professional.

705
00:36:06.200 --> 00:36:09.100
As I just mentioned food businesses are looking for

706
00:36:09.100 --> 00:36:12.500
a sell sheet. A selfie is a physical piece of

707
00:36:12.500 --> 00:36:15.400
paper or a PDF attachment that provides a summary

708
00:36:15.400 --> 00:36:18.200
of what you're offering at a minimum. You should

709
00:36:18.200 --> 00:36:21.500
include product descriptions size price and

710
00:36:21.500 --> 00:36:24.500
contact information. But the more information you can

711
00:36:24.500 --> 00:36:28.000
provide the better, especially for a product like seaweed

712
00:36:27.300 --> 00:36:30.700
that the buyer might not be familiar with handling

713
00:36:30.700 --> 00:36:34.100
things like recipe and product development inspiration

714
00:36:33.100 --> 00:36:35.200
can be really helpful.

715
00:36:36.100 --> 00:36:39.500
On the left, you'll see an example cell sheet from Thimble Island

716
00:36:39.500 --> 00:36:42.300
Ocean Farm, which you can download on the

717
00:36:42.300 --> 00:36:44.500
market your business Hub course on green waves hub.

718
00:36:50.200 --> 00:36:53.200
So let's take a look at our sales funnel and

719
00:36:53.200 --> 00:36:55.600
apply it on a practical level to wholesale customers.

720
00:36:56.300 --> 00:36:59.900
Make sure you're talking to the right person when you reach out for

721
00:36:59.900 --> 00:37:02.300
restaurant. You'd want to ask for this Chef

722
00:37:02.300 --> 00:37:05.900
for cpg companies or aggregators. See if

723
00:37:05.900 --> 00:37:08.300
you can identify someone involved in purchasing or

724
00:37:08.300 --> 00:37:11.400
procurement smaller companies may not have this role

725
00:37:11.400 --> 00:37:14.800
clearly defined so you can look for operations or for

726
00:37:14.800 --> 00:37:17.800
an early stage company even reach out to the founder directly.

727
00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:20.300
Once there's any indication of

728
00:37:20.300 --> 00:37:23.300
Interest make sure you schedule an appointment for a

729
00:37:23.300 --> 00:37:26.100
specific date and time and when you show up to that

730
00:37:26.100 --> 00:37:29.400
meeting comes super prepared with samples and Point

731
00:37:29.400 --> 00:37:31.100
of Sales materials like we just touched on

732
00:37:31.900 --> 00:37:34.500
If you're scheduling a call send that

733
00:37:34.500 --> 00:37:37.400
via email ahead of time and follow up the call immediately

734
00:37:37.400 --> 00:37:40.400
with samples. The more prepared. You are the more

735
00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:43.500
likely they are to decide after the meeting follow

736
00:37:43.500 --> 00:37:46.200
up within 24 hours to see if they're ready

737
00:37:46.200 --> 00:37:49.700
to take action. That's probably pretty rare and

738
00:37:49.700 --> 00:37:52.200
it's more likely the case that you're going to have to follow up

739
00:37:52.200 --> 00:37:55.100
again in a week or two. Don't feel like you're

740
00:37:55.100 --> 00:37:58.500
bothering them. This is just part of the sales process. So you'll

741
00:37:58.500 --> 00:38:01.700
want to build a sales pipeline track your leads and continuously

742
00:38:01.700 --> 00:38:02.300
follow up.

743
00:38:04.700 --> 00:38:07.700
After you've made the sale you need to keep nurturing this

744
00:38:07.700 --> 00:38:11.000
relationship. So they continue making purchases some

745
00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:13.800
reasons to check in include getting feedback or

746
00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:16.100
sales reports asking about

747
00:38:16.100 --> 00:38:20.100
their needs generally or seeing if they need more product answering any

748
00:38:19.100 --> 00:38:22.300
questions and learn about what they've got going

749
00:38:22.300 --> 00:38:25.000
on like product launches you'll want to

750
00:38:25.100 --> 00:38:28.300
use whatever form of communication is most natural for them.

751
00:38:29.800 --> 00:38:33.200
In our experience with chefs. This is typically text message cpg

752
00:38:32.200 --> 00:38:35.300
companies may prefer email but you

753
00:38:35.300 --> 00:38:38.300
can only see how they tend to communicate with you or ask their

754
00:38:38.300 --> 00:38:39.600
preferred method of communication.

755
00:38:40.700 --> 00:38:43.500
And just remember that we're focusing on sales and marketing

756
00:38:43.500 --> 00:38:46.700
here how you'll handle customer service and distribution

757
00:38:46.700 --> 00:38:49.800
Logistics are other pieces. You'll want to consider prior

758
00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:50.600
to making the sale.

759
00:38:53.300 --> 00:38:56.900
So let's dive a bit more into restaurants. You might

760
00:38:56.900 --> 00:38:59.000
be thinking. Why would you bother given the

761
00:38:59.300 --> 00:39:02.300
amount of work involved in the fact that volumes might be

762
00:39:02.300 --> 00:39:06.000
lower than working with cpg companies or aggregators? That's a

763
00:39:05.200 --> 00:39:08.800
really great question and it goes back to what

764
00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:11.300
Sam was talking about with right sizing your business.

765
00:39:11.300 --> 00:39:14.300
So you might decide that a restaurant with a couple

766
00:39:14.300 --> 00:39:18.500
of locations is right size for your current production and processing

767
00:39:17.500 --> 00:39:20.200
capacity since they typically work with

768
00:39:20.200 --> 00:39:22.000
minimally processed or fresh help.

769
00:39:22.600 --> 00:39:25.400
Restaurant chains on other hand can provide a

770
00:39:25.400 --> 00:39:26.500
high volume opportunity.

771
00:39:27.600 --> 00:39:30.200
Also having restaurants as customers can have

772
00:39:30.200 --> 00:39:33.300
benefits beyond the sales themselves so you can think

773
00:39:33.300 --> 00:39:37.100
about leveraging them for marketing Partnerships Network

774
00:39:36.100 --> 00:39:39.500
building or leveraging their space

775
00:39:39.500 --> 00:39:43.300
for processing or the restaurant for specialty dinners

776
00:39:42.300 --> 00:39:45.400
or events. This is a really great way

777
00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:47.100
to build relationships as well.

778
00:39:50.200 --> 00:39:54.800
So cpg companies or consumer package Goods. These

779
00:39:53.800 --> 00:39:56.700
are products like snack bars

780
00:39:56.700 --> 00:39:59.200
or frozen burger patties, like the one from

781
00:39:59.200 --> 00:40:02.200
akua shown here and they're different from

782
00:40:02.200 --> 00:40:05.900
restaurants in that they're typically larger in scale. So they'll

783
00:40:05.900 --> 00:40:09.200
need larger volumes less frequently. They also

784
00:40:08.200 --> 00:40:11.400
really value consistency above all

785
00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:14.500
else because they're not easily able to change their

786
00:40:14.500 --> 00:40:17.400
recipes or formulas. It might be working with a

787
00:40:17.400 --> 00:40:20.400
co-packer. They also often prefer to

788
00:40:20.400 --> 00:40:24.000
purchase ingredients that are already partially processed or stabilized.

789
00:40:23.100 --> 00:40:26.600
So maybe dried and many

790
00:40:26.600 --> 00:40:29.800
times. They have non-negotiable audit or documentation requirements.

791
00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:32.500
For example, they're required to have a

792
00:40:32.500 --> 00:40:33.600
nutrition label on their products.

793
00:40:36.600 --> 00:40:39.300
Here are a couple of examples of cpg companies

794
00:40:39.300 --> 00:40:42.400
who have purchased kelp one is 12

795
00:40:42.400 --> 00:40:46.100
tides and they make a puffed. Kelp snack. And

796
00:40:45.100 --> 00:40:48.200
another is graysail brewing and

797
00:40:48.200 --> 00:40:51.400
they partnered with Stonington kelpco to make a limited

798
00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:55.200
release sour ale utilizing seaweed. These

799
00:40:54.200 --> 00:40:57.100
limited releases are a great opportunity for

800
00:40:57.100 --> 00:41:00.800
press that they might not be as high volume. We're seeing

801
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:03.100
that cpg companies are becoming more aware of

802
00:41:03.100 --> 00:41:06.400
the benefits of seaweed and Whole Foods even added kelp to

803
00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:08.400
their list of trends for 2023.

804
00:41:11.600 --> 00:41:14.900
Aggregators are another wholesale opportunity many times.

805
00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:17.600
They sell to Food Markets. So they might have similar

806
00:41:17.600 --> 00:41:20.900
requirements but not always an aggregator

807
00:41:20.900 --> 00:41:24.200
purchases from multiple farmers and processes to

808
00:41:23.200 --> 00:41:26.800
sell wholesale or retail one example

809
00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:29.500
is the crop project and they buy raw kelp

810
00:41:29.500 --> 00:41:32.500
from the dock do processing to create a dried product

811
00:41:32.500 --> 00:41:36.100
and pass that on to other companies making value-added

812
00:41:35.100 --> 00:41:38.800
Goods. Another is the sugar cup Cooperative,

813
00:41:38.800 --> 00:41:41.800
which is a group of five Farmers working collectively

814
00:41:41.800 --> 00:41:44.500
to coordinate marketing product development and sales.

815
00:41:47.500 --> 00:41:50.800
There are a bunch of applications for seaweed aside

816
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:53.100
from food and I'll touch on just a few

817
00:41:53.100 --> 00:41:56.200
today but opportunities are by no means limited to these

818
00:41:56.200 --> 00:41:56.700
markets.

819
00:41:59.100 --> 00:42:02.500
So the first is agriculture as Sam

820
00:42:02.500 --> 00:42:05.600
mentioned before so land-based Farms or animal

821
00:42:05.600 --> 00:42:08.600
feed like Ken was talking about we recently

822
00:42:08.600 --> 00:42:11.400
talked to a company that wanted to feed kelp to

823
00:42:11.400 --> 00:42:14.700
goats and despite the lower price. These

824
00:42:14.700 --> 00:42:17.100
customers will likely require fewer tests

825
00:42:17.100 --> 00:42:21.400
and documentation protocols, which could be really beneficial. They

826
00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:24.100
also may not have as many Logistics

827
00:42:23.100 --> 00:42:26.400
or processing requirements. And so it

828
00:42:26.400 --> 00:42:29.800
may be a more easily achievable sales opportunity. Some are

829
00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:32.200
even willing to, you know, come to your farm and pick up

830
00:42:32.200 --> 00:42:36.000
fresh kelp and bring it back since they already have distribution infrastructure.

831
00:42:36.900 --> 00:42:40.000
It can also be a really important part of your holy strategy

832
00:42:39.100 --> 00:42:42.700
if your kelp is biofiled. That's

833
00:42:42.700 --> 00:42:45.100
a great opportunity or maybe there's a portion of

834
00:42:45.100 --> 00:42:48.400
your kelp that food markets aren't interested in so you can

835
00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:49.700
think about agriculture.

836
00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:56.000
The last two markets I want to touch on are materials

837
00:42:55.300 --> 00:42:58.500
and cosmetics. We're seeing

838
00:42:58.500 --> 00:43:02.400
a lot of early stage companies in the materials space specifically

839
00:43:01.400 --> 00:43:05.400
a lot of activity in bioplastics as

840
00:43:04.400 --> 00:43:07.300
Sam said they're probably

841
00:43:07.300 --> 00:43:10.400
looking for extracted product but not always and

842
00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:13.700
some of them are experimenting with purchasing a

843
00:43:13.700 --> 00:43:16.400
fresh product since there's a lot of supply and

844
00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:19.900
it's available unless expensive they'll probably

845
00:43:19.900 --> 00:43:22.800
have fewer testing and documentation requirements as

846
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:25.800
well and ultimately materials companies

847
00:43:25.800 --> 00:43:29.100
might be looking to purchase really large volumes, but

848
00:43:28.100 --> 00:43:32.000
you can get creative and suggest small supply

849
00:43:31.200 --> 00:43:34.400
chain commitments such as getting buyers to

850
00:43:34.400 --> 00:43:37.300
purchase one percent from domestic cultivated sources.

851
00:43:38.600 --> 00:43:41.400
Cosmetics companies on the other hand have been

852
00:43:41.400 --> 00:43:44.400
buying seaweed for quite some time. Although it's not

853
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:47.800
always domestic cultivated. Kelp with consumer Trends

854
00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:50.800
around sustainability and supply chain transparency.

855
00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:53.300
Some are gaining awareness and looking to

856
00:43:53.300 --> 00:43:54.300
shift their supply.

857
00:43:58.200 --> 00:44:01.600
Here are a few examples of companies working in these right

858
00:44:01.600 --> 00:44:05.100
size. Non-food markets. So sway is

859
00:44:04.100 --> 00:44:07.300
developing seaweed-based packaging to replace

860
00:44:07.300 --> 00:44:10.100
harmful Plastics Captain Blankenship is

861
00:44:10.100 --> 00:44:13.600
a plant-based hair company and they function on the functional

862
00:44:13.600 --> 00:44:16.600
ingredients of kelp and then Pacific Northwest

863
00:44:16.600 --> 00:44:19.300
Organics makes a product called

864
00:44:19.300 --> 00:44:22.200
kelp help which serves as a microbial food source.

865
00:44:22.800 --> 00:44:25.600
While these markets are less developed we encourage

866
00:44:25.600 --> 00:44:28.400
you to keep your eyes open for opportunities and think

867
00:44:28.400 --> 00:44:31.200
about creative ways to partner with buyers from different sectors.

868
00:44:37.100 --> 00:44:40.200
Awesome. Thank you Grace. We are kind of

869
00:44:40.200 --> 00:44:43.700
running a little bit behind on time. So I get a hold. Um Clint had

870
00:44:43.700 --> 00:44:46.200
a great question about aggregators being gonna hold it till the

871
00:44:46.200 --> 00:44:49.500
end and we can kind of combine all the questions. They want to make sure we hear from Ken.

872
00:44:49.500 --> 00:44:52.200
So let's skip on over to Kent

873
00:44:59.700 --> 00:45:03.100
Hey, you guys know I can actually be heard. So, my

874
00:45:02.100 --> 00:45:07.700
name is Ken Sparta. I'm up in Freeport, Maine and I've

875
00:45:07.700 --> 00:45:08.600
been growing kelp for.

876
00:45:09.600 --> 00:45:12.400
I don't know I think four or five years now and started

877
00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:15.300
out really small a friend of mine who was on his

878
00:45:15.300 --> 00:45:18.600
second year had a bunch of leftover chunks

879
00:45:18.600 --> 00:45:21.900
of seed, you know, when you have like that last three inches

880
00:45:21.900 --> 00:45:24.900
left on the school and you don't want to throw it away and

881
00:45:24.900 --> 00:45:27.500
I had just started a an oyster

882
00:45:27.500 --> 00:45:30.500
firm that year and he gave me all these partial spools

883
00:45:30.500 --> 00:45:33.300
and I planted my kelp right above

884
00:45:33.300 --> 00:45:37.200
it and lo and behold I had a ton of kelp by the

885
00:45:37.200 --> 00:45:40.200
time that season was over and I am right in love with kelp now.

886
00:45:41.800 --> 00:45:44.200
And I'm not even sure what my next slide is, but we

887
00:45:44.200 --> 00:45:45.200
might as well pop through them.

888
00:45:47.500 --> 00:45:50.700
Yeah, so you can see this over

889
00:45:50.700 --> 00:45:53.100
on the left that's working on our Co-op boat

890
00:45:53.100 --> 00:45:56.700
owned by Stuart hunt. I'm proudly part of the main family sea

891
00:45:56.700 --> 00:45:59.300
farm Cooperative that has been one of

892
00:45:59.300 --> 00:46:02.800
my strengths from a marketing perspective certainly and helps

893
00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:05.400
us as far as you know, not wanting

894
00:46:05.400 --> 00:46:08.500
to disappoint a customer we're able to shift from Farm to

895
00:46:08.500 --> 00:46:12.000
farm and and make our deliveries that we need to make you can

896
00:46:11.200 --> 00:46:14.100
see some beautiful skinny. Kelp there

897
00:46:14.100 --> 00:46:14.700
and

898
00:46:16.500 --> 00:46:18.100
on my boat over there at the right.

899
00:46:19.700 --> 00:46:22.200
Just working through some of that biophiled stuff

900
00:46:22.200 --> 00:46:24.900
that we talked about earlier you clip over the next one.

901
00:46:26.800 --> 00:46:29.800
So one of my strengths

902
00:46:29.800 --> 00:46:32.800
that I have from a marketing perspective is on

903
00:46:32.800 --> 00:46:36.200
the far left-hand side. You can see that's Freeport

904
00:46:35.200 --> 00:46:38.800
Oyster Bar, which I own with my my partner

905
00:46:38.800 --> 00:46:41.600
Thomas and we actually use

906
00:46:41.600 --> 00:46:43.300
a lot of our help there at the bar and

907
00:46:44.900 --> 00:46:47.500
Have plans to use much much more. We started

908
00:46:47.500 --> 00:46:50.500
that bar in June and we're actually putting

909
00:46:50.500 --> 00:46:54.400
freezers down in the basement to hold kelp because we

910
00:46:54.400 --> 00:46:57.800
know it's gonna be an important part of what we serve there. We already

911
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:00.900
have a great kelp infused.

912
00:47:00.900 --> 00:47:02.700
Gin. That is very very popular.

913
00:47:03.500 --> 00:47:06.500
In the middle, there is a picture from something that

914
00:47:06.500 --> 00:47:10.400
developed my first year of selling kelp

915
00:47:09.400 --> 00:47:12.700
and we're selling direct to Consumer. And of

916
00:47:12.700 --> 00:47:15.800
course the first question that you hear from everybody is what

917
00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:18.300
am I gonna do with the kelp so we started our

918
00:47:18.300 --> 00:47:22.600
own recipe book on my website and that

919
00:47:21.600 --> 00:47:24.300
picture is actually from one of my customers

920
00:47:24.300 --> 00:47:27.400
because one of the things that we did that year is we challenged our

921
00:47:27.400 --> 00:47:30.900
customers to come up with new recipes and send us those recipes and

922
00:47:30.900 --> 00:47:33.300
pictures of their food and that worked

923
00:47:33.300 --> 00:47:36.900
out tremendously. Well, I also grow oysters

924
00:47:36.900 --> 00:47:38.400
which we see over there on the right.

925
00:47:43.300 --> 00:47:46.800
yep, so you can see we talked earlier about I

926
00:47:48.200 --> 00:47:51.900
we talked about yet. You have you have to have a website and that's definitely true.

927
00:47:51.900 --> 00:47:54.300
It's an easy way to tell your story but it's

928
00:47:54.300 --> 00:47:57.600
also a place where you can have people contact you and

929
00:47:57.600 --> 00:48:00.500
you can see one of the two links up on the top. There is is

930
00:48:00.500 --> 00:48:03.200
actually more visited than any of the rest of that

931
00:48:03.200 --> 00:48:06.600
website. It doesn't matter what I put up the kelp

932
00:48:06.600 --> 00:48:10.100
cookbook just gets ridiculous hits almost every

933
00:48:09.100 --> 00:48:10.400
day.

934
00:48:12.400 --> 00:48:16.100
And then in our Instagram people are really excited

935
00:48:15.100 --> 00:48:18.800
about the idea of growing kelp. And as

936
00:48:18.800 --> 00:48:21.000
soon as you have a few celt pictures in your Instagram, I find

937
00:48:21.200 --> 00:48:22.000
that all the sudden.

938
00:48:22.700 --> 00:48:24.000
You'll have all kinds of followers.

939
00:48:26.400 --> 00:48:29.300
It also gives you an opportunity to get out there and say hey

940
00:48:29.300 --> 00:48:32.400
I'm gonna have extra help this week. We were talking earlier

941
00:48:32.400 --> 00:48:35.400
about sampling. Our Co-op goes

942
00:48:35.400 --> 00:48:38.300
out as a group weekly and once we

943
00:48:38.300 --> 00:48:41.700
start getting to a point where we have kelp that's harvestable, which

944
00:48:41.700 --> 00:48:44.700
honestly we start seeing near

945
00:48:44.700 --> 00:48:47.500
the end of February. We'll start selling direct to

946
00:48:47.500 --> 00:48:48.000
Consumer because

947
00:48:49.100 --> 00:48:52.800
you know, you can sell eight ounce packages. I I

948
00:48:52.800 --> 00:48:55.300
have those go right around 14 to 20

949
00:48:55.300 --> 00:48:58.500
dollars delivered and I I'm

950
00:48:58.500 --> 00:48:59.600
very fortunate to have a

951
00:49:00.500 --> 00:49:03.200
16 year old partner my son

952
00:49:03.200 --> 00:49:06.500
Leo who is very happy to be driving his

953
00:49:06.500 --> 00:49:09.300
car around delivering that product this year. We're actually going

954
00:49:09.300 --> 00:49:12.200
to be setting up a we have a

955
00:49:12.200 --> 00:49:14.000
trailer at the bar. That's a

956
00:49:15.400 --> 00:49:19.000
mobile food unit and we'll be serving both cooked

957
00:49:18.600 --> 00:49:21.400
kelp, but also kelp to go out of

958
00:49:21.400 --> 00:49:24.500
their once we start harvesting which will

959
00:49:24.500 --> 00:49:26.100
be fun right there and downtown Freeport.

960
00:49:27.900 --> 00:49:27.900
um

961
00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:31.700
One of the things that I wanted to talk about is is my customer

962
00:49:31.700 --> 00:49:34.400
base. So when I first started my my first

963
00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:35.200
year selling

964
00:49:36.700 --> 00:49:39.700
It went great. We found all kinds of people that wanted to buy kelp.

965
00:49:39.700 --> 00:49:41.100
I didn't have a lot I had.

966
00:49:42.200 --> 00:49:45.300
Like 1500 pounds which really in the

967
00:49:45.300 --> 00:49:48.000
grand scheme of things, you know isn't a dent in the market

968
00:49:48.300 --> 00:49:51.600
and we found lots of local places to

969
00:49:51.600 --> 00:49:52.100
get rid of that.

970
00:49:53.100 --> 00:49:56.600
My next year was 2020 and in

971
00:49:56.600 --> 00:50:00.100
2020 we proudly

972
00:49:59.100 --> 00:50:02.500
went out and we did exactly what Sam said

973
00:50:02.500 --> 00:50:05.200
and we got all of our sales all lined up for the year

974
00:50:05.200 --> 00:50:09.600
and I worked with all kinds

975
00:50:09.600 --> 00:50:12.600
of local restaurants to provide kelp for seaweed

976
00:50:12.600 --> 00:50:15.400
week, which is an amazing thing that happens up here in Maine

977
00:50:15.400 --> 00:50:18.200
and the chefs were

978
00:50:18.200 --> 00:50:21.700
all very excited about working with, you know, a fresh local product and I

979
00:50:21.700 --> 00:50:24.200
was all set to deliver in my five gallon buckets and

980
00:50:24.200 --> 00:50:26.800
then covid hit and we

981
00:50:27.800 --> 00:50:30.300
Literally, we're sitting out on the boat eating kelp because

982
00:50:30.300 --> 00:50:33.700
what else do you do with? Kelp if you can't sell it you have to eat it and

983
00:50:33.700 --> 00:50:36.600
we decided that we'd go just totally direct

984
00:50:36.600 --> 00:50:40.400
to Consumer and we got

985
00:50:39.400 --> 00:50:42.700
some great compostable clam shells

986
00:50:42.700 --> 00:50:45.700
and we went out and we had these great paper bags

987
00:50:45.700 --> 00:50:48.200
that said fresh help on them and we thought

988
00:50:48.200 --> 00:50:51.500
maybe this will work and it worked too. Well, we had more demand than

989
00:50:51.500 --> 00:50:54.300
we we could sell that year. So we've kept that as

990
00:50:54.300 --> 00:50:55.000
part of what we do.

991
00:50:56.300 --> 00:50:59.200
The other thing that has worked really well for us

992
00:50:59.200 --> 00:51:03.100
is working with an aggregator. So as a co-op, we

993
00:51:02.100 --> 00:51:05.500
work with a couple of different aggregators, we

994
00:51:05.500 --> 00:51:08.200
work with Atlantic Sea farms and

995
00:51:08.200 --> 00:51:11.500
and they're fantastic. They've been in the market for for a fair

996
00:51:11.500 --> 00:51:15.700
bit now and we love working with the crop project. If

997
00:51:14.700 --> 00:51:17.200
if you've met KC, you

998
00:51:17.200 --> 00:51:21.200
know how wonderful he is and he's very easy to work with and has

999
00:51:20.200 --> 00:51:24.500
been out on our boat helping Harvest having

1000
00:51:23.500 --> 00:51:26.300
those aggregators to to take

1001
00:51:26.300 --> 00:51:29.800
the bulk of what we have allows us to concentrate on

1002
00:51:29.800 --> 00:51:33.400
some some higher-end customers where

1003
00:51:33.400 --> 00:51:37.100
where we're going to get more bang for our buck or more

1004
00:51:36.100 --> 00:51:40.400
Buck for our help, I guess and then the

1005
00:51:39.400 --> 00:51:42.400
last part of that whole piece is

1006
00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:46.000
being able to get rid of all the stuff that people three years

1007
00:51:45.100 --> 00:51:48.200
ago. We're kicking overboard the you know,

1008
00:51:48.200 --> 00:51:51.800
the tips that are burnt the the stipes the

1009
00:51:51.800 --> 00:51:52.600
whole fast.

1010
00:51:53.300 --> 00:51:56.200
Don't throw anything away. You can use

1011
00:51:56.200 --> 00:51:57.800
all that to recover your cost.

1012
00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:03.200
Stapes and hold fasts. There isn't a

1013
00:52:03.200 --> 00:52:06.200
bar that wouldn't want to work with that. That's that's on the on the

1014
00:52:06.200 --> 00:52:09.200
coast of any part of this country. You just have to show

1015
00:52:09.200 --> 00:52:12.700
them that they want it and there's certainly

1016
00:52:12.700 --> 00:52:15.600
anybody that's doing pickling would be interested in

1017
00:52:15.600 --> 00:52:18.400
that product and if it's if it's

1018
00:52:19.500 --> 00:52:22.500
Crowd that has hit your deck that you can't sell his food, you

1019
00:52:22.500 --> 00:52:25.300
know, go back to those chicken farmers and folks that

1020
00:52:25.300 --> 00:52:26.700
are making fertilizer. That's great.

1021
00:52:28.300 --> 00:52:31.900
The last thing that our Co-op does which is awesome is we freeze

1022
00:52:31.900 --> 00:52:34.300
and dry a bunch of our kelp so

1023
00:52:34.300 --> 00:52:37.800
that we have something throughout the year because we

1024
00:52:37.800 --> 00:52:40.400
will have people that will come to us and say I really

1025
00:52:40.400 --> 00:52:41.300
want to make some beer.

1026
00:52:43.300 --> 00:52:46.400
Or geez. I've got this great idea for you know

1027
00:52:46.400 --> 00:52:49.500
compost tea and I you know,

1028
00:52:49.500 --> 00:52:52.300
I'd like to be a buyer later on and being able

1029
00:52:52.300 --> 00:52:55.300
to have those samples so that you can develop those markets for a

1030
00:52:55.300 --> 00:52:58.200
couple years down the road because sometimes it takes a couple of years for these

1031
00:52:58.200 --> 00:53:01.600
people to to work out their process being able

1032
00:53:01.600 --> 00:53:04.200
to do that is just gonna make your business stronger. So make sure

1033
00:53:04.200 --> 00:53:07.300
you you do something with with your extra and have a place to put

1034
00:53:07.300 --> 00:53:07.500
some

1035
00:53:10.300 --> 00:53:12.000
It's kind of kind of my feel.

1036
00:53:12.700 --> 00:53:13.800
Anything else awesome?

1037
00:53:14.500 --> 00:53:17.000
Thank you candle there have been some questions that have come

1038
00:53:17.200 --> 00:53:20.400
in while you have been speaking and I know

1039
00:53:20.400 --> 00:53:23.500
Clint asked some good questions before you came on. So I think

1040
00:53:23.500 --> 00:53:26.500
at this point we'll just turn it over to kind of farmer Q&amp;A for

1041
00:53:26.500 --> 00:53:27.200
the last couple of minutes.

1042
00:53:29.300 --> 00:53:32.700
My Gordon asked if you were comfortable sharing what

1043
00:53:32.700 --> 00:53:35.200
the crop project pays per pound in a Range.

1044
00:53:37.600 --> 00:53:40.100
Um, so it's been dependent upon the year.

1045
00:53:41.800 --> 00:53:42.000
I

1046
00:53:43.900 --> 00:53:46.300
I don't know how Casey would feel about me sharing that

1047
00:53:46.300 --> 00:53:49.300
but let's say it's definitely more than a dollar

1048
00:53:49.300 --> 00:53:52.200
25 a pound and it's definitely less than two bucks

1049
00:53:52.200 --> 00:53:52.900
a pound. How about that?

1050
00:53:55.200 --> 00:53:58.100
Like arranged to me, but if you if you ask

1051
00:53:58.100 --> 00:53:59.300
Casey he just tell you.

1052
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:05.300
Awesome. Thanks. Ken Clint. You

1053
00:54:05.300 --> 00:54:08.100
had a couple great questions. I see that Sam is answering one in the chat,

1054
00:54:08.100 --> 00:54:11.600
but you're asking about the difference between

1055
00:54:11.600 --> 00:54:14.800
egg graders Distributors that that sell

1056
00:54:14.800 --> 00:54:17.200
that you can sell to to kind

1057
00:54:17.200 --> 00:54:20.900
of get feedback on the quality of your help as in relation

1058
00:54:20.900 --> 00:54:23.600
to other farms. And you were

1059
00:54:23.600 --> 00:54:26.900
asking about what FDA USDA that a documentation need

1060
00:54:26.900 --> 00:54:28.300
to be customers generally want to see

1061
00:54:29.500 --> 00:54:31.500
Sam do you want to just voice over some what you're saying?

1062
00:54:32.900 --> 00:54:33.800
Sure. Yeah, so

1063
00:54:35.300 --> 00:54:38.100
we were talking about that sales sheet which is which is good for the

1064
00:54:38.100 --> 00:54:41.400
smaller scale smaller scale customers,

1065
00:54:41.400 --> 00:54:44.500
but for the really big like B2B cpg companies

1066
00:54:44.500 --> 00:54:47.100
they were on they're gonna want to see yes spec sheet like

1067
00:54:47.100 --> 00:54:48.500
a proper specification.

1068
00:54:50.600 --> 00:54:53.700
Angle so that's a lot more detailed information. So

1069
00:54:53.700 --> 00:54:56.400
usually includes chemical physical

1070
00:54:56.400 --> 00:54:59.700
and sensory properties microbiological activities.

1071
00:54:59.700 --> 00:55:02.500
So showing that there isn't any salmonella or

1072
00:55:02.500 --> 00:55:05.200
E. Coli label claims. So

1073
00:55:05.200 --> 00:55:08.100
they'll want to know like, you know, is it certified or again?

1074
00:55:08.100 --> 00:55:11.300
Is it vegetarian those things?

1075
00:55:11.300 --> 00:55:14.600
They'll want to know any allergens. They'll

1076
00:55:14.600 --> 00:55:17.500
want to know storage and shelf life information and the kind

1077
00:55:17.500 --> 00:55:20.000
of Holy Grail is a third party audit of

1078
00:55:21.500 --> 00:55:24.200
Either the facility that you're where you are processing it. If you are doing

1079
00:55:24.200 --> 00:55:27.100
processing or of the end product itself, which just means

1080
00:55:27.100 --> 00:55:30.600
like, you know, they're not just trusting you. They're trusting someone

1081
00:55:30.600 --> 00:55:33.600
else who's who's come in and who's qualified to to

1082
00:55:33.600 --> 00:55:36.000
validate that everything you're doing is food safe.

1083
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:40.900
awesome

1084
00:55:42.200 --> 00:55:45.600
Are there other questions fans to both Grace

1085
00:55:45.600 --> 00:55:46.400
Ken or Sam?

1086
00:55:51.700 --> 00:55:54.100
Did anyone noodle on a question that they

1087
00:55:54.100 --> 00:55:57.600
want to pose to the group that they're having in their

1088
00:55:57.600 --> 00:55:58.700
own? Kelp sales planning?

1089
00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:05.200
one

1090
00:56:07.700 --> 00:56:09.000
I think I should pick on someone.

1091
00:56:12.200 --> 00:56:13.900
Oh somebody raise a hand Sean. Go ahead.

1092
00:56:15.300 --> 00:56:18.100
Um, yes, I I think somebody said on the side

1093
00:56:18.100 --> 00:56:21.800
something about the USDA and you

1094
00:56:21.800 --> 00:56:22.100
know, what?

1095
00:56:23.500 --> 00:56:26.800
Regulations that would be don't I

1096
00:56:26.800 --> 00:56:29.200
I'm starting this and I'm in

1097
00:56:29.200 --> 00:56:32.200
I'm in Texas and I sugar kelp doesn't come

1098
00:56:32.200 --> 00:56:35.200
in to it. But I have talked to the health department of

1099
00:56:35.200 --> 00:56:39.200
the state and they said that I would have to have a you

1100
00:56:38.200 --> 00:56:41.200
know, basically regulation if I was ever

1101
00:56:41.200 --> 00:56:45.400
trying to sell food grade I stuff to

1102
00:56:44.400 --> 00:56:46.600
them. Um,

1103
00:56:48.200 --> 00:56:51.500
The the farmers I

1104
00:56:51.500 --> 00:56:54.200
know basically when they grow something they say

1105
00:56:54.200 --> 00:56:57.600
this is carrots and you know, they they turn around and sell

1106
00:56:57.600 --> 00:56:57.600
it.

1107
00:56:58.700 --> 00:57:01.900
Um, so is this kind of where everybody's

1108
00:57:01.900 --> 00:57:05.000
at, you know regulated as produce or

1109
00:57:04.300 --> 00:57:07.600
is this like a that in

1110
00:57:07.600 --> 00:57:11.000
the Food Service parlance a potentially hazardous ingredients?

1111
00:57:10.300 --> 00:57:14.100
And so therefore is more regulated

1112
00:57:13.100 --> 00:57:15.400
than than produce.

1113
00:57:17.400 --> 00:57:21.500
Great question Sean. It's very much TBD. Officially.

1114
00:57:20.500 --> 00:57:23.900
The only the only input

1115
00:57:23.900 --> 00:57:26.200
we've gotten from the federal government is that it is

1116
00:57:26.200 --> 00:57:29.700
considered a raw agricultural commodity here

1117
00:57:29.700 --> 00:57:32.400
raw. Yeah agriculture commodity exactly so

1118
00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:35.300
it when it comes out of the water that means

1119
00:57:35.300 --> 00:57:38.600
it could either go to food uses or not food

1120
00:57:38.600 --> 00:57:40.200
uses and so until

1121
00:57:42.300 --> 00:57:45.000
You know, there is a liminal moment when when it can go

1122
00:57:45.200 --> 00:57:45.400
either way.

1123
00:57:47.200 --> 00:57:51.300
How you handle it in that immediate post-harvest World

1124
00:57:50.300 --> 00:57:54.000
sort of determines a

1125
00:57:53.300 --> 00:57:56.200
determines a lot and there are

1126
00:57:56.200 --> 00:57:59.500
certain activities which are considered on Farm

1127
00:57:59.500 --> 00:58:02.900
activities and which are not considered processing.

1128
00:58:02.900 --> 00:58:06.100
And so where you get into food safety regulations.

1129
00:58:05.100 --> 00:58:08.600
It's kind of confusing like the agricultural

1130
00:58:08.600 --> 00:58:11.600
commodity part puts it under USDA. But then

1131
00:58:11.600 --> 00:58:14.700
once you decide it's food, it moves into FDA

1132
00:58:14.700 --> 00:58:17.400
and the thing that determines whether it

1133
00:58:17.400 --> 00:58:17.600
is

1134
00:58:18.600 --> 00:58:21.600
An agricultural commodity or or whether or

1135
00:58:21.600 --> 00:58:24.400
sorry whether it's like a raw product like those carrots that

1136
00:58:24.400 --> 00:58:27.900
you're talking about or whether it is a like food product is

1137
00:58:27.900 --> 00:58:30.900
the processing and so they are

1138
00:58:30.900 --> 00:58:33.500
starting to think about well what

1139
00:58:33.500 --> 00:58:35.200
activities constitute?

1140
00:58:36.700 --> 00:58:39.900
Processing versus not processing anything that is processing has

1141
00:58:39.900 --> 00:58:42.800
to has to has to be done in a food safe environment in

1142
00:58:42.800 --> 00:58:45.800
a food production facility that has all the right paperwork and

1143
00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:48.400
all of that but there is sort of this gray area

1144
00:58:48.400 --> 00:58:51.200
that is becoming you know sorted out

1145
00:58:51.200 --> 00:58:54.500
which is like, well what if you're on the boat and you

1146
00:58:54.500 --> 00:58:57.500
trim the tips off your the kelp before

1147
00:58:57.500 --> 00:58:58.700
you cut it off the line?

1148
00:58:59.700 --> 00:59:02.400
That shouldn't be considered processing that's just

1149
00:59:02.400 --> 00:59:05.300
considered a farming activity. And so

1150
00:59:05.300 --> 00:59:08.100
that should just you should just be able to take that and sell it

1151
00:59:08.100 --> 00:59:12.400
to someone and say well it's kelp the same way. You say well, it's carrots. But you

1152
00:59:12.400 --> 00:59:15.900
know, if you put it in a bag and then you feel the bag that

1153
00:59:15.900 --> 00:59:18.600
could be considered processing. So that's all I am

1154
00:59:18.600 --> 00:59:21.600
sort of rambling at this point, but it is very much evolving.

1155
00:59:21.600 --> 00:59:24.800
And the best thing you can do is to work collaboratively

1156
00:59:24.800 --> 00:59:27.100
with your local Regulators at a state

1157
00:59:27.100 --> 00:59:30.300
and local level because nobody has the answers so

1158
00:59:30.300 --> 00:59:33.200
you just want to see ya and make sure they are

1159
00:59:33.200 --> 00:59:36.900
aware of everything you're doing and ideally get written sign

1160
00:59:36.900 --> 00:59:38.800
off that they think that that's cool for now.

1161
00:59:40.500 --> 00:59:43.700
Thank you. No, absolutely. When I

1162
00:59:43.700 --> 00:59:46.300
talked to the Texas Regulators about starting a seaweed Farm,

1163
00:59:46.300 --> 00:59:49.900
they said sure and just kind

1164
00:59:49.900 --> 00:59:52.900
of sounds about right do it

1165
00:59:52.900 --> 00:59:55.400
I guess and I'm like, you know going from one Department to

1166
00:59:55.400 --> 00:59:56.000
the next and

1167
00:59:56.900 --> 00:59:59.600
So far, there's zero regulation which

1168
00:59:59.600 --> 01:00:03.000
sounds awesome versus the the West

1169
01:00:02.200 --> 01:00:05.500
Coast but at the same time very different

1170
01:00:05.500 --> 01:00:08.500
species here. So all y'all's research. I gotta

1171
01:00:08.500 --> 01:00:11.500
like I gotta like throw it out and go find the native plants.

1172
01:00:11.500 --> 01:00:13.900
Yeah, totally.

1173
01:00:15.600 --> 01:00:16.000
awesome

1174
01:00:16.600 --> 01:00:20.400
Which you all for a wonderful conversation and I

1175
01:00:19.400 --> 01:00:22.600
think us speakers can stick around for

1176
01:00:22.600 --> 01:00:25.500
a second if folks have more questions that didn't get answered. But

1177
01:00:25.500 --> 01:00:28.300
I do want to respect everyone's time that we are over by a couple minutes. So

1178
01:00:28.300 --> 01:00:33.200
just a plug join us for the next farmer Forum.

1179
01:00:32.200 --> 01:00:35.800
We are it the

1180
01:00:35.800 --> 01:00:38.200
next conversation will be January 26th and

1181
01:00:38.200 --> 01:00:41.700
Sam and Grace Lee back again talking about post Harvest

1182
01:00:41.700 --> 01:00:45.300
handling and storage. So kind of sharing out

1183
01:00:45.300 --> 01:00:49.200
some results of the best ways to properly store

1184
01:00:48.200 --> 01:00:50.700
and handle health after cuts out of the water.

1185
01:00:51.600 --> 01:00:54.200
And yeah, thanks everyone for joining

1186
01:00:54.200 --> 01:00:57.200
and feel free to be in touch. We will send out the recording of

1187
01:00:57.200 --> 01:01:00.200
this conversation as well as the PDF of the slides.

1188
01:01:02.300 --> 01:01:05.500
Thank you so much all from New

1189
01:01:05.500 --> 01:01:07.200
Zealand. It was really informative.

1190
01:01:08.900 --> 01:01:09.800
Thanks, Becca.

1191
01:01:11.100 --> 01:01:14.100
Yeah, and if you are if there are questions, please feel free

1192
01:01:14.100 --> 01:01:17.000
to stay on and salmon reason I can hang

1193
01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:17.000
out.

1194
01:01:21.800 --> 01:01:23.200
but the reason why shared one

1195
01:01:24.900 --> 01:01:28.100
I might go if yeah noises and

1196
01:01:27.100 --> 01:01:30.400
that was really cool. I'm

1197
01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:33.400
sorry. I was late and you may

1198
01:01:33.400 --> 01:01:37.400
have spoken a little bit about this. But what

1199
01:01:36.400 --> 01:01:41.900
kind of preprocessing are

1200
01:01:40.900 --> 01:01:43.500
you doing right now near

1201
01:01:43.500 --> 01:01:44.300
your Farms?

1202
01:01:48.100 --> 01:01:52.500
or is it is it too broad a question because

1203
01:01:51.500 --> 01:01:54.800
we're you know, we're in that pilot phase

1204
01:01:54.800 --> 01:01:57.000
and I've just seen if we can

1205
01:01:57.300 --> 01:02:00.200
grow help right now and in our

1206
01:02:00.200 --> 01:02:00.900
operations

1207
01:02:02.600 --> 01:02:05.200
Manager he is looking at

1208
01:02:05.200 --> 01:02:09.200
Milling drying freeze drying

1209
01:02:08.200 --> 01:02:12.400
or air drying. Are

1210
01:02:11.400 --> 01:02:13.200
there any other?

1211
01:02:15.100 --> 01:02:18.200
Kind of mechanisms that you use right now that we

1212
01:02:18.200 --> 01:02:21.400
could start investigating. I suppose it's really dependent on

1213
01:02:21.400 --> 01:02:23.500
the market, isn't it? What what they need?

1214
01:02:25.200 --> 01:02:27.900
Yes, so I can speak for my farm.

1215
01:02:29.700 --> 01:02:33.600
The bulk of what I sell is just wet.

1216
01:02:32.600 --> 01:02:35.300
Kelp just cut off the line

1217
01:02:35.300 --> 01:02:39.100
to an aggregator, but I do dry

1218
01:02:38.100 --> 01:02:41.800
a fair amount and I

1219
01:02:41.800 --> 01:02:44.200
would say half of that is blanched before it's

1220
01:02:44.200 --> 01:02:44.800
dried.

1221
01:02:45.400 --> 01:02:48.900
Because I people that want both blanched

1222
01:02:48.900 --> 01:02:51.300
and dried or people that want just stride depending

1223
01:02:51.300 --> 01:02:52.500
on what they're using it for.

1224
01:02:53.200 --> 01:02:57.700
And it has very different flavors and we

1225
01:02:57.700 --> 01:03:02.100
started Milling last year and we

1226
01:03:00.100 --> 01:03:03.400
actually have had

1227
01:03:03.400 --> 01:03:06.300
a lot of luck with

1228
01:03:06.300 --> 01:03:10.300
that milled product especially for Bakers. They're

1229
01:03:09.300 --> 01:03:12.000
very excited to have that I also have

1230
01:03:12.200 --> 01:03:15.300
a lot of restaurants that will take that and throw

1231
01:03:15.300 --> 01:03:18.500
that into their their water when they're boiling anything

1232
01:03:18.500 --> 01:03:22.200
instead of throwing salt in because it

1233
01:03:22.200 --> 01:03:26.700
adds that mommy flavor as well as my iodine. So yes, yeah

1234
01:03:25.700 --> 01:03:28.900
so both both

1235
01:03:28.900 --> 01:03:32.500
drying in and milling and then watching

1236
01:03:31.500 --> 01:03:34.600
we're fair amount of people that that want

1237
01:03:36.500 --> 01:03:39.000
product is close to fresh as they can

1238
01:03:39.300 --> 01:03:42.500
get but they wanted in August because in Maine,

1239
01:03:42.500 --> 01:03:45.600
you know, that's when our tourists are here and they're buying

1240
01:03:45.600 --> 01:03:48.800
a fair amount of Frozen kelp and we

1241
01:03:48.800 --> 01:03:52.100
really just pack it up and put

1242
01:03:51.100 --> 01:03:54.400
it into air sealed bags and and

1243
01:03:54.400 --> 01:03:57.200
freeze it and then and then sell it when the

1244
01:03:57.200 --> 01:04:00.700
people are ready for it and it it's very resilient.

1245
01:04:00.700 --> 01:04:02.000
It holds up pretty well to freezing.

1246
01:04:02.900 --> 01:04:06.800
Yes, yeah. Yeah, okay and whenever

1247
01:04:05.800 --> 01:04:09.400
the freeze dries and it's

1248
01:04:08.400 --> 01:04:11.400
it's awesome. But once you freeze dry

1249
01:04:11.400 --> 01:04:14.400
it it's a completely different texture. You know, it breaks it

1250
01:04:14.400 --> 01:04:17.200
breaks down when it is reconstituted. So

1251
01:04:17.200 --> 01:04:21.500
and and how do they actually do that? They have

1252
01:04:20.500 --> 01:04:23.500
a freeze dryer, right? Okay,

1253
01:04:23.500 --> 01:04:24.300
you know they

1254
01:04:25.600 --> 01:04:28.500
I've been over there house and and I've snacked on

1255
01:04:28.500 --> 01:04:31.400
you know, freeze-dried lasagna. So they freeze dry

1256
01:04:31.400 --> 01:04:35.200
just about everything over the over there at that house. But the

1257
01:04:35.200 --> 01:04:38.300
freeze dried kelp is is fantastic. It adds tremendous

1258
01:04:38.300 --> 01:04:41.300
flavor. It's great for smoothies things like that, but it

1259
01:04:41.300 --> 01:04:44.600
has a very different texture. So if you're looking for that texture of

1260
01:04:44.600 --> 01:04:47.400
kelp like for a seaweed salad freeze drying

1261
01:04:47.400 --> 01:04:47.800
it doesn't work.

1262
01:04:49.300 --> 01:04:52.600
Doesn't work. Okay, right. It holds all

1263
01:04:52.600 --> 01:04:55.100
the nutrients and though doesn't really dry in it.

1264
01:04:55.100 --> 01:04:58.200
Yeah, okay, we've tested all of them from a

1265
01:04:58.200 --> 01:05:01.800
nutrient standpoint and blanching it

1266
01:05:01.800 --> 01:05:04.800
definitely removes a lot of the iodine and

1267
01:05:04.800 --> 01:05:07.300
there's less it also

1268
01:05:07.300 --> 01:05:11.400
seems to have less metal content once it's

1269
01:05:11.400 --> 01:05:12.000
been blanched.

1270
01:05:13.700 --> 01:05:16.400
But you know the the product

1271
01:05:16.400 --> 01:05:20.900
itself, you know that Umami flavor comes through regardless, which

1272
01:05:19.900 --> 01:05:21.500
is fantastic.

1273
01:05:22.300 --> 01:05:25.400
Yeah, yeah, and we've got an off-take

1274
01:05:25.400 --> 01:05:28.100
agreement for our pilot with agracy and they make

1275
01:05:28.100 --> 01:05:31.300
biased soil biostimulants. So, you know

1276
01:05:31.300 --> 01:05:34.500
what you were saying beforehand that you know,

1277
01:05:34.500 --> 01:05:37.000
yes, it's a lower value, but at least we're going to

1278
01:05:37.200 --> 01:05:40.300
make hopefully some money on it,

1279
01:05:40.300 --> 01:05:43.400
but we're starting to look into

1280
01:05:43.400 --> 01:05:46.600
those higher value products and working with local ships

1281
01:05:46.600 --> 01:05:49.700
and and the neutral

1282
01:05:49.700 --> 01:05:52.900
Market as well. So yeah, we

1283
01:05:52.900 --> 01:05:55.300
just getting into all of

1284
01:05:55.300 --> 01:05:58.200
this and looking at other species of what what

1285
01:05:58.200 --> 01:06:01.200
are the Kelps and or read seaweeds. Could we

1286
01:06:01.200 --> 01:06:01.700
grow as well?

1287
01:06:03.700 --> 01:06:06.600
Definitely and that Discovery phase. Yeah. Yeah.

1288
01:06:06.600 --> 01:06:09.400
I was just looking up your website kin. It's awesome

1289
01:06:09.400 --> 01:06:12.600
and checked you out on Insta while you're talking I'm gonna

1290
01:06:12.600 --> 01:06:15.200
follow you and if you're

1291
01:06:15.200 --> 01:06:19.200
ever in Freeport, let me know so we can we'll grab a some. Kelp

1292
01:06:18.200 --> 01:06:19.800
Jenn up at the bar.

1293
01:06:20.300 --> 01:06:23.500
I know I was like I was actually good going to send you

1294
01:06:23.500 --> 01:06:26.400
ours because we make two forms of it here and it's

1295
01:06:26.400 --> 01:06:29.800
delicious. Yeah, excellent. Yeah, I'm

1296
01:06:29.800 --> 01:06:30.200
Kane.

1297
01:06:33.500 --> 01:06:36.200
Awesome. Thanks Rebecca, Gigi. If

1298
01:06:36.200 --> 01:06:39.500
you're online, could you switch us over to you? Stop screenshare

1299
01:06:39.500 --> 01:06:43.400
so you can see everyone in case folks have fakes. So

1300
01:06:42.400 --> 01:06:44.000
you guys have any

1301
01:06:44.800 --> 01:06:47.000
last questions for the group or just kind of

1302
01:06:47.500 --> 01:06:48.000
a topic they've been

1303
01:06:49.600 --> 01:06:51.900
They've been kind of mulling over they want to talk.

1304
01:06:53.600 --> 01:06:54.100
talk through

1305
01:07:02.900 --> 01:07:05.600
All right, nothing. I

1306
01:07:05.600 --> 01:07:11.900
won't say anybody might okay. Anybody tried

1307
01:07:11.900 --> 01:07:14.400
blast freezing? Kelp? I imagine

1308
01:07:14.400 --> 01:07:17.300
it would have a similar effect to freeze drying but

1309
01:07:17.300 --> 01:07:20.900
I think there's there's existing blast freezing infrastructure

1310
01:07:20.900 --> 01:07:23.200
for the commercial fishing here in in my

1311
01:07:23.200 --> 01:07:26.300
neck of the woods. So I was wondering if what effect that would

1312
01:07:26.300 --> 01:07:27.000
have on kelp.

1313
01:07:30.300 --> 01:07:33.500
Um, I I don't know if officially if

1314
01:07:33.500 --> 01:07:36.000
anyone who's done that but I it is different for freeze drying and

1315
01:07:36.200 --> 01:07:39.300
that no moisters being removed It's Just Happening very quickly.

1316
01:07:39.300 --> 01:07:42.200
So I would imagine that it is actually great for the

1317
01:07:42.200 --> 01:07:45.300
kelp because in general you want things this is

1318
01:07:45.300 --> 01:07:48.600
sort of more from my prior of other flavors

1319
01:07:48.600 --> 01:07:51.200
of food days, but you know, the faster you can

1320
01:07:51.200 --> 01:07:54.200
get something Frozen the better in terms of quality, so I

1321
01:07:54.200 --> 01:07:54.700
would say

1322
01:07:55.700 --> 01:07:58.600
If you're going to freeze it two thumbs up to last freezing

1323
01:07:58.600 --> 01:07:59.700
if you have access to it.

1324
01:08:01.400 --> 01:08:01.500
Okay.

1325
01:08:02.500 --> 01:08:05.900
Ken does that line up with you your understanding. I agree

1326
01:08:05.900 --> 01:08:08.600
and anything that I've seen Frozen.

1327
01:08:09.300 --> 01:08:12.400
The the more commercial the unit

1328
01:08:12.400 --> 01:08:16.600
tends to give you a better a better product, you

1329
01:08:15.600 --> 01:08:18.500
know, I've done it like here at

1330
01:08:18.500 --> 01:08:22.700
home and I've done it in like fish fish freezing

1331
01:08:21.700 --> 01:08:24.700
facilities down in Portland and

1332
01:08:24.700 --> 01:08:27.100
the stuff that we do down in Portland definitely comes out better.

1333
01:08:27.700 --> 01:08:28.100
Okay.

1334
01:08:32.400 --> 01:08:36.000
Thanks Gail for the question. Yes. Thanks Anja or enter.

1335
01:08:35.400 --> 01:08:37.500
I'm sorry if I mispronouncing.

1336
01:08:42.800 --> 01:08:46.000
Hi everyone. Hi. My name is Anga Anga.

1337
01:08:46.400 --> 01:08:49.600
And I am nice to meet everyone. I am currently

1338
01:08:49.600 --> 01:08:52.200
midnight in South Africa. So I'm

1339
01:08:52.200 --> 01:08:56.100
joining pretty late. So sorry for my if I'm

1340
01:08:55.100 --> 01:08:58.200
a bit late. But yeah, I just want

1341
01:08:58.200 --> 01:09:01.400
you to introduce myself more than anything. I'm the founder of Olay blue.

1342
01:09:01.400 --> 01:09:04.500
I'm currently working with an American company. I'm called take

1343
01:09:04.500 --> 01:09:07.500
up BFA Global and I've won my first seed of

1344
01:09:07.500 --> 01:09:10.000
funding and I'm pasting I'll be moving

1345
01:09:10.100 --> 01:09:13.700
to Kenya and we'll be doing some seaweed farming there with the

1346
01:09:13.700 --> 01:09:16.400
indigenous Coastal communities. So when I

1347
01:09:16.400 --> 01:09:19.500
saw this on LinkedIn, I thought they mean yeah join the community in

1348
01:09:19.500 --> 01:09:22.800
here the conversation. So I just wanted to yeah introduce myself

1349
01:09:22.800 --> 01:09:25.600
and hopefully they'll be future synergies with

1350
01:09:25.600 --> 01:09:29.000
a few people here in the school. I will

1351
01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:29.200
maybe

1352
01:09:29.900 --> 01:09:32.400
I'll add my website and my LinkedIn to

1353
01:09:32.400 --> 01:09:35.400
the chat. Maybe any if you guys want to connect with me later on

1354
01:09:35.400 --> 01:09:36.100
that would be great.

1355
01:09:36.600 --> 01:09:37.600
So yeah. Hello everyone.

1356
01:09:39.700 --> 01:09:40.700
Purple, thank you.

1357
01:09:43.800 --> 01:09:45.600
awesome, Catherine

1358
01:09:47.900 --> 01:09:50.100
Yeah. Hi. Um, I just wanted to

1359
01:09:50.100 --> 01:09:50.800
respond to the

1360
01:09:51.900 --> 01:09:54.700
Blast freezing question we did blast free

1361
01:09:54.700 --> 01:09:56.800
some sugar help and ribbon kelp last.

1362
01:09:57.500 --> 01:10:00.900
Summer in Homer Alaska, and then

1363
01:10:00.900 --> 01:10:03.700
we thought it overnight in saltwater and

1364
01:10:03.700 --> 01:10:05.700
it just came out fine then we dried it.

1365
01:10:06.300 --> 01:10:09.400
So it seemed like it did hold up. Well with that

1366
01:10:09.400 --> 01:10:12.200
high like you say high quality freezer.

1367
01:10:14.400 --> 01:10:14.600
Thank you.

1368
01:10:17.500 --> 01:10:18.300
Thanks, Catherine.

1369
01:10:26.800 --> 01:10:27.300
All right.

1370
01:10:28.800 --> 01:10:31.100
Any other final question like we're down to

1371
01:10:31.100 --> 01:10:34.700
the oh throw down with one more since processing here

1372
01:10:34.700 --> 01:10:37.700
coming up which is the idea of especially in

1373
01:10:37.700 --> 01:10:40.800
the idea of making biostimulants fertilizer.

1374
01:10:40.800 --> 01:10:43.100
I washing, you know,

1375
01:10:43.100 --> 01:10:46.500
washing the salt side of it to a degree in the

1376
01:10:46.500 --> 01:10:49.400
interest of saving water. My thoughts are you

1377
01:10:49.400 --> 01:10:52.500
know, like trying to find a body of water to watch

1378
01:10:52.500 --> 01:10:55.500
it in. Oh, but you guys have any recommendations

1379
01:10:55.500 --> 01:10:58.900
on I you know, I how

1380
01:10:58.900 --> 01:11:01.300
to do that without spending a bunch of money on

1381
01:11:01.300 --> 01:11:04.500
water or using all my a bunch

1382
01:11:04.500 --> 01:11:07.500
of you know, basically people grade water.

1383
01:11:10.600 --> 01:11:13.600
Yeah, I mean if it's going to a food product, you can't

1384
01:11:13.600 --> 01:11:17.200
really get away from the from the food grade

1385
01:11:16.200 --> 01:11:19.800
water, but you just said you were doing it for biostimulants.

1386
01:11:19.800 --> 01:11:20.200
So

1387
01:11:22.700 --> 01:11:25.300
I don't actually know about what I

1388
01:11:25.300 --> 01:11:28.200
mean. I would think you would want to do some experiments which you could

1389
01:11:28.200 --> 01:11:31.600
probably do on a smaller scale to figure out like, you

1390
01:11:31.600 --> 01:11:34.300
know, you're washing it in the fresh water to

1391
01:11:34.300 --> 01:11:37.400
dissolve the salt. But at some point there's gonna be an awful lot of salt in

1392
01:11:37.400 --> 01:11:40.100
that water and it's not gonna dissolve any more salt. And so I

1393
01:11:40.100 --> 01:11:43.400
would think you would want to test, you know, before and

1394
01:11:43.400 --> 01:11:46.900
after salt content from various saturations of

1395
01:11:46.900 --> 01:11:48.000
salt in freshwater.

1396
01:11:49.500 --> 01:11:52.400
Whether or not you could use some sort of gray water. I

1397
01:11:52.400 --> 01:11:56.800
don't have a great answer for that. But

1398
01:11:55.800 --> 01:11:57.900
I will say that that

1399
01:12:00.300 --> 01:12:02.700
Ocean salt is not.

1400
01:12:04.700 --> 01:12:08.000
necessarily as problematic as like road

1401
01:12:07.200 --> 01:12:10.700
salt or other forms of salt for

1402
01:12:11.900 --> 01:12:13.500
the the land so

1403
01:12:15.200 --> 01:12:18.200
I I don't I I would think you would want

1404
01:12:18.200 --> 01:12:21.600
to do some more research into that and see how like actually problematic it

1405
01:12:21.600 --> 01:12:24.300
is or whether you could even like precipitate it out later or like

1406
01:12:24.300 --> 01:12:27.600
does it does it have to be washed out at the beginning is my

1407
01:12:27.600 --> 01:12:28.700
initial thoughts on that?

1408
01:12:29.700 --> 01:12:32.700
Yeah, I know. I know the folks that we've worked

1409
01:12:32.700 --> 01:12:35.300
with that use it for fertilizer. Actually. Don't wash it

1410
01:12:35.300 --> 01:12:35.600
ahead of time.

1411
01:12:36.300 --> 01:12:39.200
But I will share a tip because I sell everything that I

1412
01:12:39.200 --> 01:12:42.300
possibly can when we blanch we saved

1413
01:12:42.300 --> 01:12:45.200
the Blanche water and we have somebody who makes soap that

1414
01:12:45.200 --> 01:12:45.800
uses it.

1415
01:12:46.400 --> 01:12:49.100
So we sell that too all the Kara Jean in

1416
01:12:49.100 --> 01:12:51.200
there. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's amazing.

1417
01:12:52.100 --> 01:12:57.200
So we have a nice 55 gallon drum of of blanch water

1418
01:12:57.200 --> 01:12:58.800
that we have to deliver every year but

1419
01:13:00.400 --> 01:13:01.700
I get free soap for it. So.

1420
01:13:04.500 --> 01:13:07.200
I've heard bathing and it's good for your skin as

1421
01:13:07.200 --> 01:13:10.300
well Sean. I can I can find out

1422
01:13:10.300 --> 01:13:13.500
because we are we're selling

1423
01:13:13.500 --> 01:13:16.200
ours to agricee and they make

1424
01:13:16.200 --> 01:13:20.900
by a stimulant. So I know that we have to we just

1425
01:13:20.900 --> 01:13:23.700
air dry it to 20% of

1426
01:13:23.700 --> 01:13:26.600
the water content and and really that's

1427
01:13:26.600 --> 01:13:29.800
mainly around the the cost

1428
01:13:29.800 --> 01:13:32.300
of careering it,

1429
01:13:32.300 --> 01:13:35.200
you know, so we just take as much water as we

1430
01:13:35.200 --> 01:13:38.300
can out of it and that's all we do

1431
01:13:38.300 --> 01:13:41.600
and then they they put it in their fermentation process, but

1432
01:13:41.600 --> 01:13:44.400
I can find out if there is any other

1433
01:13:44.400 --> 01:13:47.600
requirements for you and get back to you if you want. Yeah, there's

1434
01:13:47.600 --> 01:13:50.400
an answer about I you know, like do

1435
01:13:50.400 --> 01:13:53.600
you not need to wash it? That's great. Yeah, as a

1436
01:13:53.600 --> 01:13:56.500
farmer Gardener whatever you want to say have always

1437
01:13:56.500 --> 01:14:00.500
known, you know, watch out with salts and you know salt will

1438
01:13:59.500 --> 01:14:02.600
absolutely ruin soil on

1439
01:14:02.600 --> 01:14:03.800
but if it is.

1440
01:14:04.600 --> 01:14:07.600
Know just kind of a compost tea

1441
01:14:07.600 --> 01:14:10.200
or a dried product Alma. I

1442
01:14:10.200 --> 01:14:14.400
might be cause you know creating a problem. That doesn't exist. Okay. I

1443
01:14:13.400 --> 01:14:16.200
know for Generations here in Maine. They've

1444
01:14:16.200 --> 01:14:19.000
been just telling seaweed into the soil. Yeah.

1445
01:14:19.800 --> 01:14:22.200
It's just what that's what we do here.

1446
01:14:22.900 --> 01:14:25.900
And you know, certainly the native

1447
01:14:25.900 --> 01:14:28.300
meters did it for thousands of years before that

1448
01:14:28.300 --> 01:14:28.500
so.

1449
01:14:30.700 --> 01:14:33.600
Yeah, and feeding to animals too, you know, don't let

1450
01:14:33.600 --> 01:14:37.400
your don't let your cows eat see weed all day, but every once

1451
01:14:37.400 --> 01:14:40.200
in a while or as part of a mix, you know, like has never been

1452
01:14:40.200 --> 01:14:43.000
a problem. Yeah. Yeah. That's why there's so many

1453
01:14:43.400 --> 01:14:47.100
sheep islands and cow islands off the coast of Maine remember Farmers

1454
01:14:46.100 --> 01:14:48.700
would bring their animals out there and leave them.

1455
01:14:49.800 --> 01:14:50.400
for the summer

1456
01:14:54.900 --> 01:14:55.600
All right. Well

1457
01:14:56.700 --> 01:14:59.100
I think if there are no final questions, we should go ahead

1458
01:14:59.100 --> 01:15:02.400
and wrap and let let can be

1459
01:15:02.400 --> 01:15:05.800
but thank you so much for what such a wonderful conversation and

1460
01:15:05.800 --> 01:15:08.400
really vibrant discussion really nice to hear everyone

1461
01:15:08.400 --> 01:15:11.500
making these connections. And yeah, please come back to

1462
01:15:11.500 --> 01:15:14.100
the next summer forum. And yeah again, we'll follow up with

1463
01:15:14.100 --> 01:15:17.200
the email and PDF slides.

1464
01:15:18.800 --> 01:15:21.100
Awesome, if anybody makes it to me, please come out to

1465
01:15:21.100 --> 01:15:21.400
the farm.

1466
01:15:24.100 --> 01:15:24.800
Thank you, everyone.

1467
01:15:26.300 --> 01:15:28.100
Bye. Thank you everyone and thank you.

1468
01:15:29.200 --> 01:15:29.700
Thank you.
Topics:
Farming Processing + Markets
Featured Speakers:

Ken Sparta
Owner/Farmer, Spartan Sea Farms
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