🔒On the Record: Maine Salt Farm seeks to ‘make the story of salt exciting again’

Chris Cary, chief operating and marketing officer at the New England Ocean Cluster, is a partner in Maine Salt Farm, along with his wife, Billie Cary, and another couple, Eliza and Chris Rauscher. Mainebiz caught up with him to find out more about the Cape Elizabeth-based startup.

Mainebiz: What sparked the idea for Maine Salt Farm?

Chris Cary: Chris and Eliza Rauscher came up with the idea for Maine Salt Farm while living in D.C., missing home. Chris was working for U.S. Sen. Angus King at the time, and they would make small batches of sea salt when visiting Maine to bring back to D.C. Aside from tasting great, it gave them the sense of connection to Maine they longed for. When they moved back to Cape Elizabeth in 2015, they established their first evaporation house at Jordan’s Farm and launched the company.

MB: Where do you get your salt from?

CC: Historically, we have produced salt in greenhouses in Cape Elizabeth, but as the company grows, we’re excited to involve production partners that are willing and able to meet our product specifications. Our quality standards are incredibly high, so we don’t take this growth step lightly, but we’re also committed to working with the community to meet our goals. In 2022 we’re excited to officially engage in our first production partnership with a highly experienced salt maker out of Machias.

MB: Given that the ocean and sun are bountiful resources, what are your production costs?

CC: Yes, the resources are abundant and pure, and very little has to be done to get the sea and the sun to our production sites, but they do have to be managed by the skilled hands of a solar evaporation salt works expert. Like many farming and food production operations, having access to an experienced and dedicated workforce is critical, and it’s no different for us. Because solar-evaporated salt production is niche, we intend to grow Maine Salt Farm by realizing operational economic efficiencies and investing in our team.

MB: How is salt harvested and processed?

CC: It’s a bit of art and a bit of science that follows the principles of ancient production methods. We pump and filter sea water at high tide when there have been no recent storms. The water then goes into a phased evaporation process that allows for certain dissolved minerals to precipitate out before the desired sea salt begins to crystalize. Once ready, the salt is then removed from the greenhouses, dried further and meticulously prepared for packing.

MB: Salt is one of the world’s oldest products. What is Maine Salt Farm doing that’s new?

CC: Salt has been highly valued in every major civilization throughout the history of humankind — the word salary, in fact, originated because people were paid in salt — but today it has been overly commoditized and lost its magnificent story. Much of the salt eaten presently yields a huge carbon footprint, is thrown into plastic packaging, and no one seems to care. This needs to change, and we think making the story of salt exciting again is a step in the right direction.

MB: Who and where are your customers?

CC: Our goal is to make solar-evaporated Maine sea salt ubiquitous nationally by appealing to the quickly growing base of conscious and informed consumers. This includes green buyers, healthy eaters, home chefs, purpose-driven food manufacturers and retailers, and pretty much anyone who makes purchase decisions on more than just price alone. We stock retailers throughout Maine and New England and have an ambitious near-term national growth plan.

MB: What’s next for Maine Salt Farm, and what’s the longer-term vision?

CC: In the short term, we’re finishing up a rebrand project with Pulp+Wire [a Portland consumer packaging, branding and marketing agency], finalizing new products and improving our packaging by removing plastic. Our three-year vision is to significantly enhance our national footprint and invest in technologies that will modernize our production operations.