Martha’s Vineyard Sea Salt is working to recover after harsh winds destroyed a key component of their business.
In the aftermath, the Island community has pitched in to help, raising approximately $15,000 to help cover losses incurred due to a destroyed evaportor, which houses seawater after it has been collected from the ocean and filtered while drying.
The structure was holding about 200 pounds of salt when wind and rain pulled the plastic cover off the roof during a Dec. 11 storm.
Heidi Feldman cofounded Martha’s Vineyard Sea Salt with her husband Curtis Friedman in 2013. She recalled seeing the damage the day after the storm.
“The next morning I was sitting on the couch having a cup of coffee and something looked strange. I could see the ribs of the building,” Ms. Feldman said on a recent tour of the facility. “It looks as though the forces at play just worked that cover from out from underneath that heavy berm and it peeled back like a soup can.”
The evaporator has a clear roof, allowing the sun to shine through, evaporating the water and leaving behind salt crystals. According to Ms. Feldman, the process takes about three to four weeks in the summer and three to four months in the winter for a full batch.
“We’re just like farmers; we’re completely dependent on the whims of nature. We can protect against it, but we are farming,” said Ms. Feldman.
The destroyed evaporator is the second one owned by the company, located on the couple’s Down Island Farm in West Tisbury. The first one, made with wood and paneling, was not harmed in the storm. Ms. Feldman said that construction costs had climbed so high since they had built the first evaporator they were unable to build a second one in the same style. The new one is similar to a greenhouse.
“We took the chances on this building using the model of another salt farmer. He lost eight out of 10 of his buildings almost a year ago when we were in the planning stages. We were like that will never happen here,” Ms. Feldman said.
The salt had almost been ready for harvest before the rain and wind brought sand, leaves and other detritus into the structure. Ms. Feldman had been holding off on collecting the salt because she was busy preparing for holiday markets.
“I missed my window obviously and now that’s gone. In order to recoup ourselves, we are going to do a winter water collection which we usually don’t do because it’s cold and miserable,” she said. “We’ll hopefully be able to have salt by March, but in the meantime I’ve pulled back from other markets.”
The brine still sits in the evaporator, unusable, frozen and full of leaves. Ms. Feldman estimates that the lost salt would have brought in approximately $20,000. She has not finalized the construction plan for repairing the evaporator, but she estimates it costing between $10,0000 to $15,000.
“I was crying a lot, and my friends were like buck up, buttercup, worse things could happen,” Ms. Feldman said.
To raise money for the construction, Ms. Feldman has reorganized the company’s website to include ways to donate to the recovery efforts in exchange for merchandise, farm tours and products once they are back in production. She is also taking donations through a GoFundMe campaign.
“We were hesitant to do a GoFundMe, we’re not Asheville, but the business community told me to do so,” Ms. Feldman said.
“What we have here is unique and I hope we don’t lose it,” she added.
For more information on how to donate, visit marthasvineyardseasalt.com.
Comments
Comment policy »