Snacks · Maine
Ocean's Balance
Maine seaweed company turning farmed kelp and dulse into everyday foods.
- Founded
- 2016
- Founded by
- Mitchell Lench
- Based in
- Maine
Making it since
2016
Their story
Ocean's Balance was founded in 2016 by Mitchell Lench, a Maine native who previously ran an impact investment fund. He saw seaweed as a way to build a food business that is good for coastal communities and the water itself.
The company started with its own nursery and farms and now works mostly with outside growers in Maine, New Brunswick and Central America, including Indigenous farmers it has trained in Panama. It runs what is described as the largest seaweed processing hub in New England.
How it's made
Ocean's Balance sources farmed and wild-harvested seaweeds such as sugar kelp, dulse, alaria and Irish moss. Fresh seaweed is dried in a custom-built dryer that can handle about 1,000 pounds an hour, then turned into foods and ingredients. The company aims to move fully to farmed seaweed.
Our goal is to move as quickly as we can to 100 percent farmed.
Why we carry them
We like Ocean's Balance as an easy entry into cooking with seaweed. A sprinkle adds savory, briny depth to soups, grains and eggs.
Find more makers like this in Provisions Club, our curated subscription.
Explore Provisions Club