Our story

Two people, one harvester license and a lot of wet boots.

Saltmoss started in 2021 in a rented kitchen on Munjoy Hill, with a stockpot of Irish moss and a friend whose eczema wouldn't quit.

Wren Albee spent eight years studying intertidal algae at the Darling Marine Center before deciding she would rather work with seaweed than count it. Tomás Ruiz cooked with it, first at a seafood restaurant in Rockland and then running the kitchen at an inn in Bar Harbor, where he started making a carrageen gel for a friend's cracked hands on the side.

The gel worked. Friends asked for more, then friends of friends, and by the summer of 2022 we had a commercial workshop on Commercial Street, an independent lab running our safety tests and a harvester license from the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

How we work

• We harvest it ourselves. Bladderwrack, dulse and Irish moss are cut by hand at low tide off Mount Desert Island, above the holdfast so they regrow. Our two kelps come from a family farm in Casco Bay.
• We make it in small batches. 300 units at a time, poured and labeled by the four of us. Every jar has its batch date written on the bottom.
• We tell you everything. Full ingredient lists on every product page, with what each one does. See ingredients.

The team

Wren runs formulation and the harvest calendar. Tomás runs production and answers most of your emails. Jess Kimura handles fulfillment and wholesale, and Abe Lindqvist joins us every summer as our second harvester.

Visit us at the workshop on Saturdays, 10 to 2, at 61 Commercial Street, or get in touch.