Transcription of Marine Plant-Based University with Strong Arm Farm:

Alissa Miky: Hello everybody. Thank you so much for watching the Marine Plant-Based University and today I have a wonderful guest. So please introduce a little bit about yourself.

Heidi Herrmann: Hi everyone. I’m Heidi Herman. I live in California and I run a company called Strong Arm Farm, and we. Wildcraft seaweeds Here. Native algae from the Sonoma County coast.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. So could you please tell me about your company more just you’re farming. When did you start your business?

Heidi Herrmann:  I started in, I think it was 2009, so about yeah, 14 years ago. And I, so I live in the county and It’s just north of San Francisco.

Heidi Herrmann: And so, and it’s great soil here, it’s great growing climate and a real foodie culture. And so there’s a lot of restaurants and people are really excited, a lot of chefs and excited about food and their source of food and all the adjectives that can go around it. I do have a land-based farm that, that with soil and, and vegetable and cut flowers.

Heidi Herrmann: But I added on seaweed ’cause it was a hobby of mine. And an interest and curiosity. And so I added some onto my farmer’s market table and it was received so well back in like 15 years ago. And just so excitement from the vendors and chefs and, and personally, I was more excited about it than growing carrots and cilantro.

Heidi Herrmann: And, and so now I don’t grow vegetables anymore, actually. I solely do seaweed. Wow. And I do some cut, cut flowers. There’s a, there’s kind of a, a wedding industry here locally in wine country. So that’s, that works in this space. But yeah, seaweed has been part of, of strong arm farm from the beginning.

Heidi Herrmann: I’m the owner and founder of that business. It’s a sole proprietor, so I, I wear all the hats. And yeah, I’m, I live close to the coast. Maybe it’s like 40 minutes away. So it’s, it’s accessible. And I, I myself wanted more to learn more about our coast and the food and just to interact with the coast.

Heidi Herrmann: I don’t surf and so I, I wanted to, to engage more and had curiosities of all the, the different life forms that are right, right here.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. So you said that you start your business because of the hobby. What? What the hobby is like, but you don’t do surfing. Right? What’s the hobby to start the seaweed.

Heidi Herrmann: A hobby? Not so much. Well, okay. I collected a hobby just like one day a year for the, for the preceding years, maybe 10 years. Before that, I would just go out with friends one day and just to collect enough seaweed for myself and like, oh, that’s interesting but interesting. And then changing it to a business or something I sell was, was the shift.

Heidi Herrmann: And so it went from something I do just for my. Fun and curiosity to, to, okay, let’s add this into my business. Let’s sell this. Let’s make it a something I become more educated about and something that I offer to, to chefs and to my buyers.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. So, so that means you, you really harvest, you don’t harvest you, you actually grow the seaweed on the, the pool, kind of

Heidi Herrmann: that No, no, no.

Heidi Herrmann: It is just the harvesting. So it’s, it’s all wild. Grown algae that grows on our shore here. There’s a real abundance here in this county and in the county, just north of us, Mendocino. So there’s, it’s really thick and the, the coastline is, is slowly declining, so there’s a lot of surface area and rocks.

Heidi Herrmann: So if you go out on those low tide days, you get a lot of access. And there’s not many harvesters here. I’m the only one with a commercial license here in this county. So I never see anybody else out there, especially at those hours. It’s always right at, at dawn and there are a few other companies up in Mendocino, some, some kind of originators of this wild harvest.

Heidi Herrmann: So, no, I don’t farm any. It’s actually illegal to, to farm it in California still. There’s some movement getting made on that. But currently it’s not legal, so we have to, we’re, we only have the option to wild harvest. Okay.

Alissa Miky: And then, so right now you’re harvesting, how many like species do you harvest?

Alissa Miky: About

Heidi Herrmann: five. Out of 640 different kinds are out there. So there’s, there’s a real plethora of diversity happening and so it’s, it’s some very careful identification of what’s what out there. Harvesting just so species that are in the culinary trade that the chefs ask for. Those are kobu being the most common one the most widely used.

Heidi Herrmann: It’s the one I use most, so that sells the most. And luckily that’s the one that’s most abundant on our coast as well. So it’s, it’s at every beach space I go to has kobu. So that one is, is the, in. Highest kind of weight that I harvest on that. Also is nori. The wakame and bladder rack also goes by fucus and a little bit of sea palm.

Heidi Herrmann: So those are species I harvest with my license and will, I’ll sell those to chefs.

Alissa Miky: Oh, I didn’t know that individual. You know, seaweed need a license to harvest or.

Heidi Herrmann: It’s, I need a license. Well, I didn’t know that right? From the department, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, it’s, it’s more of a.

Heidi Herrmann: Legal hurdle. I, it’s just a signature and a check. They actually don’t give you any guidance so much. And so I wish they actually would give some more guidance of, of where people can how to harvest kind of little more technique. But with that license, yeah, I can harvest in volume, I can sell it, it’s a commercial license.

Heidi Herrmann: I can also harvest 2000 pounds a day. Wow, that’s a lot. It’s extreme and excessive. And they ask for my, like, ship number, vessel number. And so no, I don’t have that. I always go walk from the shore. I don’t have a kayak or boat or scuba gear. It’s just like standing in the tide pools. So wow.

Heidi Herrmann: If you go when the tide is receded, you can get access to all those varieties.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. And then you sell to the restaurant chef right

Heidi Herrmann: now? That’s right. Yeah. I, I, so to explain the process, so in the early morning I would go harvest it. The tides usually at its lowest around six or 7:00 AM So I assemble a, a crew of, of helpers.

Heidi Herrmann: To help me harvest about 150 pounds in a morning is, is a, is a, is a lot. If, if that beach allows for it and if it’s an abundance at that site. And so we’ll get that amount, we’ll, I’ll bring it inland into a hotter spot that has a big paved area and it lower humidity and then I’ll rinse and dry it there, and then, so then it dries.

Heidi Herrmann: To, its kind of finished crisp form in that same day. So it goes from being underwater to being crisp and shelf stable by that afternoon. And then I store it until it comes time to make that sale. And then I, yeah, I have some chef buyers established. I work through distributor. A lot of different methods to get it out into the world.

Heidi Herrmann: I don’t have an online store, but I seem to sell out every year with in the Bay Area it’s the San Francisco is just an hour away. So there’s a lot of excellent chefs and restaurants there that. That tend to buy most of it.

Alissa Miky: Wow. Like natural grow and a natural use is perfect. It’s like, you know, it’s a good harmony.

Alissa Miky: So how do you find those, you know, chef with how do you find, how do you top with those chefs? Did you, was it came from the word mouth or what was your first beginning? You said that you start from the farmer’s market, right? Yes.

Heidi Herrmann: Yeah, so local buyers, but yeah, getting to know chefs that would, that bought my produce at the time, and then like, Hey, would you, I have seaweed also on the list.

Heidi Herrmann: They’re like, wow, nobody else has this. We have nori on our coast. And so they, they started to integrate it more into different cuisines. I, I like the chef community ’cause they’re just so excited about flavor and food and the story. And they’ll, they, some have even come and join me on the harvest to, to get that whole experience.

Heidi Herrmann: Or they’ll send their servers or sous chef out. I really enjoy that ’cause they, they come with great recipe ideas, of course, but also just Have a, have a different outlook and their, their life and their mouth is so much about flavor and food and like what ideas they get when they taste it raw out there and, oh, I could do this and it just need to see the, the, the wheels spinning in their head and just how that brain and kind of excitement works for them.

Heidi Herrmann: Yeah, work with a distributor that, that handles other vegetable produce down to the San Francisco, the Berkeley, up to Napa County. So. That distributor called Feed Sonoma helps me with marketing. But yeah, sometimes the chefs call me just called a cold Turkey. Sometimes I’ll be at a restaurant or at a social event and, and chatting with them and be like, Hey, I, you know, here’s my car.

Heidi Herrmann: Just kind of always be in, in marketing mode of like, Hey, would you be interested in seaweed or do you wanna come out harvesting with me? So it’s all angles. Some people will find me just online. So. I’m kind of open to, to any

Alissa Miky: method. I love that. I love that. But what, is there any headache during that process?

Alissa Miky: Because sometime like doing a new business model is, there’s tons of difficulty, but you seems always, you know, fun and excitement. No, but was it any headache during this moment?

Heidi Herrmann: Well, it was a 15 year moment. Okay. Yeah,

Alissa Miky: that’s a long history. I’m sorry that you, you shall not put it in just a short term, but just give me a one, you know, any memorable, you know, something happen on

Heidi Herrmann: you?

Heidi Herrmann: No. It, there’s been bottlenecks and stress points. Sure. I mean, I think that’s every business and there’s staffing challenges, you know, every, yeah. Welcome. Small business. So that’s universal, but weather is actually a big one. I need to dry it or I do dry it in the sun. And one day it was drizzling, like the, the seaweed is not gonna dry in those conditions, of course.

Heidi Herrmann: And it takes up so much space when you dry them individually on screens, it takes like a whole parking lot of space. And so I can’t just pivot that to a dehydrator or an oven to dry it. And so that was a bit of a fiasco.

Alissa Miky: Especially this year was so tough for, you know, because there were so many rains this year.

Alissa Miky: True,

Heidi Herrmann: true. The, the harvesting window from my company is in June and July. Yeah. So in theory it should line up with a hot summer, but of course, you know, there’s, there’s June rains occasionally. It, it generally is dry here in in California for six months of the year. So I can comfortably rely on that.

Heidi Herrmann: But you know, hello exceptions and. And global changes. So yeah, those drizzly days, it, and what ends up happening is that the seaweed stays wet too long longer than than I want it to. And so it might need to lay out for a few days or, or be held in cold storage. And then when it finally does the sun comes out and I am able to dry it or I put it in a room with a dehydrator, that’s what ended up happening.

Heidi Herrmann: And a lot of stacked screens. It was a bit chaotic, but the, a lot of the salts rose to the surface on the seaweed. Totally edible, totally fine. It’s just proof of all the minerals and salts in there. But it looks, unfortunately, it looks like mold that white crust and, oh, Prefer that it’s a, it’s a selling point, I think in some Korean sales of, of Kobu to have this white, you know, crust on it.

Heidi Herrmann: It’s proof of the minerals. But here in California or the US it just looks, our first response is, oh, it looks like mold. So it takes a lot of words to describe, like, no, that’s just the salts. It’s, you know, it’s okay. You can literally l lick it off or just wash it off, or don’t even bother, just cook with it.

Heidi Herrmann: So it takes a lot of words. Sometimes I’ll donate product that, that has all that kinda salter on the surface. Hmm.

Alissa Miky: I understand. Like that’s why we are, our company have a, a unique technology to cont to make a same exact same quality of the seaweed. So if you, especially seaweed, as you know, it’s really sensitive elements.

Alissa Miky: If you harvest on a warm day or the cold day, the characteristic gonna be completely different. Right. So that’s why we focus on that quality issue, but I totally hear you. So I think you talked to so many chefs and hoodie people around you, so me, did you try any, you know, unique recipe by your own seaweed?

Heidi Herrmann: I, I guess I Sure I made, yeah. Like kobu broth heavy. Or stock, you know, with that marinade in it, heavy soups or a different seaweed salads with the toasted sesame oil. But I’ve used another, another Sea. Yum. Yum. Yeah. So it’s really just that oil that makes kind of any of the seaweeds taste delicious.

Heidi Herrmann: But honestly, I just mix it into kind of what I’m already cooking. Like if it’s a lasagna or a chili, Ooh, seaweed into that. And so, It, it’s really that way I generally eat it every day and I can mix it in and make all my food nutrient dense instead of having these specific recipes that I only make certain moments.

Heidi Herrmann: So I put a little I powder some nori and put a little shaker next to my cook stove and add that to most all savory dishes. It’s just easy to incorporate. Oh,

Alissa Miky: interesting. So how do you come up that idea? ’cause like if you just. Put it, put it on your daily meal and then you found this work with a lasagna.

Alissa Miky: ’cause I talk so many, you know, people in this industrial, but honestly I haven’t gotten any idea to combine with the lasagna. How do you came up the

Heidi Herrmann: idea? Well, I honestly, the, the bu kind of looks like lasagna noodles, no, like undulated edge to it. I’m like, this looks like a lasagna noodle. And so I, I tried layering like a whole layer of ko That was a little much, to be honest.

Heidi Herrmann: Yeah. So I scaled it back a little bit and added some narrow, like sliver bits or a, a, a granular form or powdered Yeah. Nori mixed in to the different layers in it. You don’t taste it so much, but I know I’m getting so much more nutrients and and protein in that dish and I may substitute out a meat and use this plant-based protein instead.

Heidi Herrmann: And so that’s, to me, that’s a real mission of sorts, is to encourage or enable and motivate others to have more of a plant-based protein diet.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. So let’s like move on to your business topic again. So right now you’re currently work with the local vendors or, and distributors. So for the Future Plant, what do you want it to do?

Alissa Miky: What do you want it to be?

Heidi Herrmann: Yeah. That’s working well, honestly,

Heidi Herrmann: you know, with wholesale you don’t make the highest dollar, but that’s, It’s also, it’s just one of my jobs. It’s, I do this, the harvest during the summer months, and I actually am, I’m faculty at a, at a university here. And so I do that during the school year. And so to me, this is more my, like the, the work of it, collecting all that seaweed and drying it, and then I slowly dole it out the rest of the year.

Heidi Herrmann: So having wholesale accounts is, makes it low maintenance for my business style and what else I have going on in my life. So it’s just a, a call or a text and a, a delivery to a headquarters at one spot or shipping it. So it’s, it goes, it’s kind of low time consuming the rest of the year and that, that, that works well for me and probably most people’s lives.

Heidi Herrmann: And so I guess that’s why I choose to, to not do farmer’s markets, not do kind of have a brick and mortar or. And, and just, I wholesale it to a lot of grocers as well that represent that. And, and people will call me and I’ll, I’ll do, yeah, email convert, you know question or inquiries and I’ll, I’ve even occasionally shipped it places, but, Like to other states, but it, it’s mostly people that used to live in the San Francisco area, that, that enjoyed it and have moved away.

Heidi Herrmann: As we know, a lot many people were shifting locations during the pandemic, so they, they miss some other food diversity in other cities, and so they want stuff mailed in. So I support that. So yeah, how would I change, I think this.

Heidi Herrmann: Perfect. What has been added the last maybe seven years is that I’m offering educational tours, and so I work with another company called Forage Ssf that they, they do the organizing and they handle the insurance, and they organize signups to a whole group of maybe 10 to 20 people, and I’ll take ’em out as an educational tour.

Heidi Herrmann: So that happens here on the Sonoma coast, maybe 10 to, yeah, 20 times a year or so on these low tides and do educational work around. And, and, and the attendees get to take home some seaweed too. So they get really excited to, to see these, the seaweed in, you know, how it’s grown and then, and how to process it themselves.

Heidi Herrmann: So it’s really empowering for. For their kind of one day a year to do this kind of fun activity. Honestly,

Alissa Miky: I wanted to join the activity. I wanted to bring my fans to your farms, like it’s gonna be so beautiful, and I wanted to eat that right away.

Heidi Herrmann: Yeah, we do eat it raw on the coast and it, it’s, people are hesitant.

Heidi Herrmann: They, they wait for me to eat it first and then they see me just gobbling. I’m like, this one’s really good. This one’s really crunchy. And oh, this one’s a little salty. And and so we try them all out. The texture’s funny on this one. And so we have words, you know, people just des you know, descriptive words and that, that’s fun ’cause you are, some people just close their eyes and really like, Focus on what their mom was experiencing, and I love it.

Heidi Herrmann: It makes me kind of giggle to see people in, you know, adults doing something totally new out of their comfort zone in this space that’s also normally underwater. Like we’re all in this weird space and figuring this out and learning together. I love that.

Alissa Miky: I love that. I definitely wanted to join that.

Heidi Herrmann: So I do that April to August each year. And so that, that’s gonna keep happening. And so that’s, that’s just part of, to me that’s, that’s part of the business is, is sharing the excitement, getting other people on board and, and kind of connecting people to their food. And it, it’s not like building a customer necessarily ’cause I don’t, you don’t control that part, but just getting folks aware that it’s a, a protein, that it’s a local food source, getting them excited, engaged, and, and empowered.

Heidi Herrmann: So all of those are, are really rewarding for me.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. I wish I could ask you more question, but there’s only one question I can like ask right now. So for the last question I please you know, give some comment to the listener, and then also please tell about what about the positive feedback who wanted to join to the seaweed, industrial,

Heidi Herrmann: others?

Heidi Herrmann: Yeah. I think it’s, it’s burgeoning and, and on the cusp of a lot of potential There’s even the people that work with textiles that are, that come on these tours and they handle it and just seeing that they check the stretchability and the, I’m gonna draw, see what happens when it dries and, and just the, the ideas people have, ’cause it’s such a new and it substance kind of to work with.

Heidi Herrmann: And it it is promising in that it, it is so regenerative, it can regrow so quickly. And. And it, every time it regrows it’s consuming more carbon. So it’s really sequestering a lot of carbon from the atmosphere and from the oceans. And so there’s, it’s, that’s pretty exciting. And so it really does have a, a global plus in that regard.

Heidi Herrmann: I think farming it is, is needs to happen. I mean, there’s just a limited amount naturally of what’s naturally occurring. So creating more surface area and, and increasing kind of farmed. Sources is, is wise. But yeah, I think all our different skill sets that we go into this, if you’ve got the engineering mind or textile mind or culinary or plastics, I think all those different brains and skillsets can really just getting it in your hands and kind of practicing and trying.

Heidi Herrmann: I think it, it is pretty exciting how dense it is And in proteins and. Just its malleability and its unique constituents and how that can be applied to each of these different kind of professions and disciplines is, I’m really curious, but it, it’s, it’s opened a lot of doors for me and I, I think it can do that in, in a lot of different industries.

Heidi Herrmann: You bet. For sure.

Alissa Miky: For sure. All right. Thank you so much for the time. I really, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Heidi Herrmann: Welcome, byebye.