Kristy Herman is getting the shelves stocked for later this month when she and her husband, Brian, plan to open their Canoe Lagoon Oysters retail shop. In addition to oysters, the shop will carry loose-leaf teas, all-natural cleaning products, coffee and other foods and goods.
For Kristy and Brian Herman of Canoe Lagoon Oysters, operating an oyster business has been an exercise in efficiency. Since buying the farm in 2020, the pair has cut labor costs and oyster growing time, streamlined their cleaning and sorting processes and formed lasting relationships with restaurants in the Lower 48. Now, the company is ready for its next big step - a retail location in Wrangell.
In the past, Canoe Lagoon Oysters has had a minimal presence in town, since the business's primary customers are in Arizona. But once the company's new brick-and-mortar retail store opens on Lynch Street at the end of April, its briny delicacies will be readily available to residents, alongside a selection of health foods, Alaska gifts and Canoe Lagoon-branded products.
The official date of the chamber-sponsored ribbon cutting ceremony is yet to be announced, but when the shop opens its doors, residents will be able to peruse loose-leaf teas, all-natural cleaning products, Alaska-made jewelry, oyster-shaped keychains and butter knives, kelp hot sauces, apparel and packages of the company's unique coffee blend.
Initially, the decision to open an in-person store was a response to tightening state regulations surrounding paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP. The Hermans needed a holding facility in town to store oysters while awaiting test results.
But soon, the whole family got excited about the possibility of expanding into retail. Kristy has extensive experience as a department store manager and her daughters, Anika and Kaylee, would get yet another opportunity to learn valuable lessons about running a business.
When they aren't attending school in Wrangell, Anika and Kaylee are helping out with all aspects of Canoe Lagoon Oysters, from farming, to design, to balancing the books.
Anika, who loves the arts, drew up the company's logo and Kaylee, who loves math, is learning bookkeeping.
Working together has strengthened the family's bond, explained Brian Herman. "That's been the best thing, I think, for our whole family," he said. "Doing this stuff in Alaska has really brought us close together. ... When COVID hit, it wasn't stressful for us to spend a lot of time together because this is what we do. We're already working together."
Since oysters don't naturally reproduce in the cold waters of Alaska, the company sources its larvae from Hawaii. After the larvae mature, they are placed in submerged "float bags" in the lagoon, where they spend two months feeding on the environment's micronutrients. Then, they are sorted by size and resubmerged, to prevent larger oysters from crowding out the smaller ones.
The farm is located about 30 miles south of Wrangell on the Blashke Islands.
Once they mature, the oysters are cleaned and sorted using the conveyor-belt contraption that's visible through an interior window of the Canoe Lagoon retail store.
From smokey to buttery, musky to algal, like citrus or like honeydew melon, the possible flavor profiles for oysters are seemingly infinite. Since oysters are filter feeders, absorbing and expelling over 50 gallons of water per day, their taste is highly dependent on the conditions of the water where they grow.
"There's 10 billion different types of phytoplankton and each one is specific to the water salinity, water temperature, latitudes - I mean it just varies so much," said Herman. "Our oyster is a different flavor profile than any other oyster because most oysters are grown in estuaries - brackish water - not high-salinity water."
The Herman family rears their oysters in cool, clear, salty water, for a taste that is "sweet, clean and bursting with briny sea flavor," according to the company's website.
The oysters that aren't sold in the family's new shop are either smoked or transported to Buck & Rider restaurants in Scottsdale, Arizona. "They've actually branded our oyster ... as the Buck & Rider oyster," said Herman. "They love our oyster and we're consistent with providing a product."
During the pandemic lockdown years, when the Hermans' business was just getting its sea legs, the Alaska oyster industry faltered as restaurants in the Lower 48 closed their doors. Arizona restaurants, however, never shuttered. "I'd bring 20 dozen oysters back with me and I started driving around the state with oysters," recalled Herman, "knocking on people's restaurant doors."
Ultimately, the hard work paid off. He and Kristy wanted to "find something that the whole family can be a part of and have different roles," he said. "The girls love it out there."
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