Carter Newall says several mussel growers who joined together in April to form Pemaquid Mussel Farms, an owner-operated business that focuses on selling its mussels locally, like to call themselves “the survivors.”
He is alluding to the demise of New Harbor-based Great Eastern Mussel Farms, which closed its doors in June after almost 30 years of business. Newall, a biologist with a PhD, worked with Great Eastern from the beginning, developing its quality control standards among other jobs. Several members of the newly formed Pemaquid Mussel Farms got their start in mussel raft culture (as opposed to bottom-cultured mussels) with help from Great Eastern.
In 2000, Great Eastern began a partnership with fishermen who wanted to try their hand with mussel culture on ropes suspended from rafts, a technique that was developed in Spain to make it possible to grow large amounts of mussels in a small area. The company helped finance rafts and other equipment and bought mussels from the growers. Great Eastern also provided support with Mumbles, the 60- by 24-foot, thirty-ton harvest barge built by Vic Levesque in Bar Harbor, for various tasks on the rafts from socking mussel seed to harvesting and processing mussels.
Newall says that as Great Eastern expanded and diversified, it reduced the amount of support for owners of rafts. Several months before the company announced it was closing its doors, the group that formed Pemaquid Mussel Farms decided to go out on their own.
They bought out Great Eastern’s interest in their rafts and purchased the barge Mumbles.
The company has a total of 10 rafts on four different farms located on the Damariscotta River, in Belfast Bay and off Stonington and Lamoine. (There are about four other Maine mussel growers using rope culture.)
Pemaquid Mussels Farms is completely owner-operated, says Newall, observing, “There’s a lot of value to employees owning the company. You put in that extra twenty percent effort because it’s your company.” The group, he says, is multi-talented, giving it the advantage of being able to deal with just about any situation that comes up without paying for outside support.
While Levesque is working another job cutting granite, Newall, Greg Anderson and Joe Larrabee run Mumbles and tend the rafts. John Richardson, a hydraulics engineer in Blue Hill, deals with any problems of that nature on the barge, which has several hydraulic motors. Peter Fischer, who has worked in the Maine seafood industry for 30 years, handles the company’s bookkeeping and marketing. These owners have a varied number of shares in the company; Pemaquid Oyster Farms, located in Damariscotta, also owns shares.
Typically, Newall, Anderson and Larrabee board Mumbles once a week for maintenance at raft sites, twice a week to harvest. When harvesting, they take out 1,000 pound totes filled with ice and make up the 10-pound shellfish bags as they motor to the site.
Once at the raft, they use a winch on Mumbles to bring up mussel-covered ropes in a 9-foot basket that can hold 800 pounds of mussels. The mussels are shaken off and shoveled onto a conveyor belt, which carries them through a machine that separates the clumps. Then they are put in another machine that washes, grades and debysses the mussels and sends them into totes of sea water where they purge for a couple of hours. Seed mussels are graded out and wrapped onto new ropes. Finally, the crew switches to bagging, weighing and tagging.
At the day’s end, the men make deliveries along the way home: Newall to the Damariscotta area, Anderson to customers around Camden and Larrabee, Belfast. Regular deliveries are made to over 40 restaurants in MidCoast Maine, including Primo in Rockland, 3 Tides in Bristol, Francine’s in Camden, Damariscotta River Grill in Damariscotta, and also to several Maine wholesalers. The mussels have been available retail at Fishermen’s Catch in Damariscotta since the business was started; recently, the Yellow Front Grocery started to carry them.
Rick Hirsch, owner of the Damariscotta River Grill and the Anchor Inn Restaurant in Damariscotta, says that with deliveries from Pemaquid twice a week, the product’s freshness has made all the difference to him. “I’m getting them five to seven days fresher than PEI mussels,” he says. “They have a much better shelf life, a lot less spoilage.” He adds that the Pemaquid mussels are larger and sweeter, not very strong flavored, that he is “thrilled with them. I think you can’t find a better mussel. We’re very lucky to have a local product.”
Newall says owners believe that being able to deliver their mussels as soon as four hours after they are harvested, and additionally, having a product that is a native species raised in an environmentally sustainable manner, are Pemaquid’s strongest selling points. The company uses local materials for its operation: rafts and anchors from Newport, Maine; ropes and pegs from Warren, wood from Waldo County, vessels from Hancock County.
Now that the owners of Pemaquid Mussel Farms have figured out a way to reorganize and thus survive Great Eastern’s shutdown, the next challenge is to survive the flagging economy. Fischer says they have been selling approximately 3,000 pounds a week; he would like to increase that to 5,000 pounds. The company also has a value-added product: larger mussels that are shucked by Oceanville Seafood in Stonington are hickory and cherry wood smoked by Stonington Seafood Products. These are available in half-pound bags at Farmer’s Markets and some local stores.
Further markets are opening. Recently, Hannaford Supermarket, which allows its seafood managers to purchase local products independently, expressed interest. Fischer would also like to explore selling to CSA’s or CSF’s and additional inland restaurants.
In October, the company co-sponsored a Mussel Festival with 3 Tides waterfront brew pub in Belfast, featuring mussels, home brews and shellfish tunes by Old Grey Goose. The pub, owned by David and Sarah Carlson, served about 150 pounds of Pemaquid mussels in different forms: smoked, steamed with Chardonnay and garlic, deep fried (a first!) and baked on the shell with red butter and Pernod sauce. Over 200 people attended; the enthusiastic response reinforced plans to make this an annual event.
Fischer says Pemaquid Mussel Farms plans to continue its focus on local markets. “We want to sell as close to home as we can,” he says. “That way, we can be sure we provide people with an outstanding product, plus we’re paying attention to food miles and energy costs.”
For further information, call Fischer at 207-563-8085 or e-mail Newall at musselsandoysters@gmail.com.