Back in 1971, as their Downeast neighbors hung out laundry, Shep and Linette Erhart were hanging out seaweed to dry. Crazy? Not at all. It was the start of their Maine Coast Sea Vegetables business, now a fixture in quiet town of Franklin.
The couple — she’s from Connecticut, he’s a college English major from Vermont — tried living in California, then settled at the head of Frenchman’s Bay hoping to become organic farmers and sail the coast. They did both, but instead of tilling the soil, they harvest the sea — seaweed, actually. The veggies they sell run from Sea Chips, made with dulse, kelp, corn, onion and garlic, to Sea Seasonings and Kelp Crunch, a “candy” bar. Natural foods restaurants buy the firm’s Kelp and Garlic Sea Pickles, made with fresh, undried seaweed.
Products have been certified organic since 1992, and the company last year picked up a Socially Responsible Business award at Natural Products Expo East in Washington, D.C. The company mission is to produce quality food, and build good relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and the environment.
The Erharts first discovered their prime ingredients while on a family picnic at Schoodic Point. They saw some seaweed that looked interesting, so they gathered it and added it to miso soup — part of their macrobiotic diet. It turned out to be mineral-rich alaria, now a staple in the company’s sea veggies.
“One thing led to another,” Shep Erhart says. When they first moved to Maine, “We were dreaming. We never would have made it as farmers.” But they did make it as seaweed harvesters, selling through some of the original natural foods distributors such as Erewhon and Stow Mills. A company called United Natural Foods of Chesterfield, New Hampshire has since swallowed regional co-operatives such as Northeast in Brattleboro, Vermont. United is not a co-op.
Erhart said that some years ago, his wife needed a break from the business, and she is no longer involved in it. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables now employs 15 people at a 9,500-square-foot building, processing 50,000 pounds of product annually. That’s up from 200 pounds, 34 years ago, when the business took over the Erharts’ house and barn.
What about the sailing? Shep Erhart has a 35-foot sloop. He wanted to try some offshore sailing, so he arranged time off from work and cruised to the Caribbean. He took another man with him as crew since Linette wasn’t keen on the offshore aspect. They sailed to Cuba, where he thought he would be safe buying a hat and T-shirt, despite a U.S. ban on American tourists spending any money in Cuba. When he declared his purchases to U.S. authorities, he was fined $1,100. His crew, Terry, was hit even harder with a fine because he bought a hat, T-shirt and papier-mâché statue. Erhart can laugh about it now. It’s a good thing he and Linette are no longer living on $3,000 a year, as they did when they first homesteaded in Franklin. He has no regrets about settling in Maine where, on “full moon tides, there are amazing moments of beauty.”