Diversifying Downeast
Kelly Hinkle, known as the Downeast Cowboy by hundreds of thousands of social media followers, is a second-generation lobsterman and one of only two second-generation kelp farmers in Maine. When the small kelp processing business he runs with his father, Ronnie, lost access to their sea salt supply, they did what lobstermen do best: they adapted. This industrious father-son duo set out to make their own, launching Eastern Edge Sea Salt.
This winter, Kelly and Ronnie will sell their first batches of sea salt, cultivated from seawater sourced from a Downeast cove and evaporated in their greenhouses. With support from Island Institute, they bought a moisture meter—an essential piece of equipment for salt production— and purchased packaging to bring their Maine-made sea salt to market. By building on their deep connection to the ocean, the Hinkles are proving that innovation and tradition go hand in hand along Maine’s working coast.
“If you drive into Downeast Maine, the first question that probably comes to mind is, ‘What do these people do down here?’ We have to make up our own jobs. We are fishermen, but we don’t just lobster fish. We do a bunch of different jobs.”
— Ronnie Hinkle, Eastern Edge Sea Salt
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