Our Story

Earned, not inherited.

Derek didn’t grow up dreaming of being a fisherman — though maybe he should have seen it coming. He split his childhood between Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the high school mascot is literally the Gloucester Fisherman, and Jackson, Wyoming, where the mountains shaped the other half of him.

Then one summer he climbed aboard a beat-up old boat in Bristol Bay, Alaska, hired by a brand-new captain. Forty-eight hours after arriving, he was on wheel watch, steering through sunset-lit water — hooked before he’d pulled a single fish from the net.

That was fifteen seasons ago.

Bristol Bay sockeye has a nickname up there: red gold — the deepest red flesh of any salmon, from the most valuable wild salmon run left on Earth. When it came time to name the business, we didn’t need to think very hard.

A lot of the boats in Bristol Bay carry family names and family histories — permits handed down by four or five generations. Derek had none of that. He spent four years as a deckhand on someone else’s boat, learning from his radio group, from the captains around him generous enough to teach, and — honestly — the hardest way possible: by getting it wrong until he got it right. Eventually he bought his first boat, an old workhorse called the Redrum. (A horror movie joke. Also a fishing joke. We catch a lot of fish.) Since 2023, he’s been the owner and captain of the F/V Dr Jack, fishing the same wild waters with a permit he earned one season at a time.

 

The smoked salmon was an accident. One winter, a broken ankle kept Derek off the mountain, so he started smoking salmon in our barn — just for fun. He gave it away. People kept coming back. Eventually someone said, “You should sell this.”

One smoker turned into two, then a farmers market booth, then a real business — because that’s the part Pip makes happen. Derek is the fisherman with the wild idea; Pip turns wild ideas into a working company. We do this together — husband, wife, and a future deckhand who currently runs quality control at every market.

Where Your Salmon Comes From

We believe you should know exactly where your food comes from, so here’s the whole chain: Derek catches wild sockeye in Bristol Bay and delivers it to a tender boat. The fish is processed at Silver Bay Seafoods, a fisherman-owned co-op that Derek is a member of — fishermen owning their own processing, the way it should be. Then we buy our own catch back and bring it home to you.

Our smoked salmon — the recipe perfected in the barn — is now produced at a commercial smokehouse in the Pacific Northwest so we can keep up with demand. Same recipe. Same fish. Nothing changed but the volume.

Come Find Us

Find us at the farmers market. Even if you say you’re not a salmon person, Derek will bet he can change your mind. Dogs are our best customers — them and the kids who sneak back for just one more bite.

We don’t need fancy packaging or a slick sales pitch. We just need you to taste it. This is the most sustainable, healthy, honest food you can eat — and we hope when you take a bite, you taste the respect we bring to the fish, the water, and the work.

— Derek, Pip, and Primo (future deckhand)