Our Fall 2024 Newsletter!

First two photos: Three generations of Ryan boys pressing cider, and salt fam at our BBQ (both from Leah)

Middle three photos: Cal's pumpkin crops (photo from Jonna), apples in the orchard (photo from Anna), June and Lydia after picking pumpkins and pressing cider (photo from Leah)

Last two photos: Salt farm sunrise (photo from Ian) and Brady's last time grabbing water for the season! (photo from Brady)

 

Hi y'all! How ya feeling this fall?

Here at the salt farm, autumn is such a gift! The apples in our baby orchard are crisp and there’s so many kinds to try; Brady lets us grab as many as we want. It’s also one of the slow seasons of the year, where greenhouses get buttoned up and are no longer in use until the spring, and operations take on a sweet pace. Plus the sunrises on the island are to-die-for!

This fall…

We finished our salt-making season with a record-breaking salt harvest this year… 680 buckets of salt, and 30,000 lbs of sea salt this season. Brady just told us the other day that we've harvested 3,467 buckets of salt since the beginning of the company in 2012! Luckily, this year, we had some help from summer staff, like Jupiter, and our jack-of-all-salt-trades, Maddy. Plus, our newest team member Izak gave a big helping hand in closing down all the greenhouses this fall. But we have to give a huge shoutout to Brady and Ian for the pure amount of muscle they use to harvest and maintain our greenhouses. They’ve been breaking their own records every year, just the two of them managing all 14 greenhouses!

We added three (count ‘em, three!) new members to our crew! Please welcome Howard, Izak, and Sky! All three of them have been a huge help in getting us on track for the holidays. We’ve only had somewhere under 10 part-time or full-time hires at the warehouse since I began as the first employee beyond Brady’s fam in 2016, and we love how close knit our teams are– it’s an honor to bring more people into our day to day lives here.

Autumn is also when we get to have our annual SJISS BBQ! Caramel wrappers and warehouse folks, all the Ryan fam, and some family friends get together to celebrate the end of the summer in the orchard. Ty grills up the best burgers with his secret recipe– all we know is it involves hand-made patties mixed with loads of our Steak & Burger Blend (hence the name change!) and we get to gorge on the best potluck fare. Thanks to Beth for bringing the Blueberry Habanero deviled eggs… I personally ate about 6 of them…

One of the biggest October highlights is Brady's family makes a ton of cider with apples from the little orchard here! Family friends and our coworker's kids get to run around and pick out some of the pumpkins Cal, Brady’s Dad, grew this autumn. It’s the family moments like that that make working out here feel extra special… and the fresh cider is a pretty big perk, too.

For local folks, we also wanted to let you know to keep checking out our baked goods as we get deeper into fall and winter! Leah has been experimenting with lots of limited edition flavors, from her “Monster Mash” Halloween-themed cookies, to the “Urban Cowboy cookie”, and we've got a surprise coming in for November! And, we have 2 new products (one sweet, one smoky!) we have been working on for forever, slated to release online and in our store just before the holidays! Seriously, you guys are gonna be so excited, so keep your eyes peeled!

Finally, a tip from Sky, who joined the team in September… try our Smoked Sugar while frying up bacon and onions to caramelize them, and add a little smoky sweetness. Give it a try!

Have a gorgeous rest of your autumn, y'all! We can't wait to see you so soon for the holidays!

Essine