Eat, Drink & Be Merry
United Airlines in-flight coast-to-coast guide to the delicious regional American foods and drinks that should be on every holiday wishlist!
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You Probably Weren't Expecting Kelp to Taste Like This
Would you swap out your favorite salsa for one made with kelp? An Alaska couple thinks you really should consider it.
Matt Kern and Lia Heifetz are the masterminds behind Barnacle Foods, a new company based out of the state capital, Juneau. Both dedicated foragers and lovers of eating local, their passion led them to begin working with one of the more bountiful crops in a state known for its short, land-based growing season—kelp, pulled straight from the ocean, and widely available across the tens of thousands of miles of largely-pristine Alaskan coastline.
Juneau Offers a Foodie’s Paradise Amid Alaska’s Cloistered Capital City
The city of Juneau, Alaska’s capital, may be the most cloistered town in America. Conceived as a port for gold mining in the 1880s, the small enclave of Russian and American newcomers, plus the natives of the region, was built upon the sands along Gastineau Channel between the new town and Douglas Island — a foothold of modernity in the primeval of the Inside Passage.
A can-do spirit and a fierce self-reliance are needed to live in Juneau, a city that, due to nearby topography, is entirely cut off by land from the rest of the state — impossible to reach by road, even by the Jack Kerouacs of the world. Thus, the only way in or out is via boat or airplane.
Will Americans Ever Become Ethical Buyers? This State is Betting on it.
Nestled among the remote, mountainous islands surrounding Juneau, Lia Heifetz and Matt Kern have created a “coast-to-kitchen” company called Barnacle that creates pickles and salsa blends out of Alaskan kelp. And from the waters of Silver Bay in remote Sitka, Northline Seafoods plans to launch a mobile fish-freezing barge intended to restore profits to local fisheries while upending a corporatizing industry where quality becomes a race to the bottom.
These two companies are far from the only ones entering the conversation around ethical consumerism, broadly defined as goods and services that appeal to our better natures.
Harvesting Alaska: Southeast couple turns kelp into cash
The shores of southeast Alaska are full of food. Fishing is a major industry in the state capital, but when Matt Kern and Lia Heifetz, of Barnacle foods, go out on the water, it’s for a different kind of catch.
The company sells seafood, but not in the traditional sense. Kelp is their craft.
Startup Week 2017: Alaska Ocean Cluster Initiative
With the highest unemployment rate in the country, four consecutive years of declining Gross Domestic Product, and a downgraded credit rating, Alaska’s economy is clearly in trouble.
Ocean Tuesday is the first step toward a solution — a long-term transition from a simple raw material exporter to a dynamic economy based on the sustainable development of the oceans.
Farming Alaska’s seas
COSMOS COVE — It's 4:30 a.m. and the wake-up alarm screams. There is no escape. There's barely enough room to roll over. Lia Heifetz, Matthew Kern and Clayton Hamilton stumble to their feet in the dank belly of the F/V Dial West. Time to go kelping.
"Kelp has always been a guaranteed catch for us when the fish weren't biting," laughs Heifetz. The crew pulls the anchor and leaves the quiet safety of Cosmos Cove, east of Baranof Island. They scan the opalescent horizon for beds of bullwhip kelp to harvest.
Alaska's Growing Kelp Industry Helps Drive Sea-To-Table Movement
In February of last year, Alaskan Gov. Bill Walker signed an administrative order to help jumpstart mariculture, or sea farming, in the state. One Juneau couple is whipping up a recipe to make local kelp an enticing business and snack. They're part of a growing number of startups that see Alaska seaweed as a marketable food.
Kelp has become a big part of Matt Kern and Lia Heifetz's relationship.
"It's basically all we talk about it," Heifetz says with a laugh.