Food
The June evening in Stanford was warm, but Jason McKinley could already feel the cool salt air hissing in his ears and hear the slap and churn of the Egegik River. He had a long list of gear to stow before his flight left the following morning, including a new Garmin inReach—the all-important satellite device that would enable him to continue texting his family from remote reaches of Bristol Bay, Alaska.
June 11, 2018 was the last night he would spend with his wife, Mary Beth, and sons, Asa and Boden, for eight weeks. Separation is the hardest part of an already grueling job, but for the McKinleys, it’s part of a larger mission. Their company, Caught Wild Salmon, sells one of the most unique fresh foods available in the Bluegrass—wild-caught, sustainably harvested sockeye salmon.
After processing and packaging, Caught Wild Salmon is distributed throughout Kentucky through Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions, farmers markets, restaurants and retail stores, including Marksbury Farm Market, Good Foods Co-op, Rainbow Blossom Natural Food Markets and more.
The salmon is deep red, full-flavored and tastes fresher than anything you’ll experience short of catching your own. Caught Wild Salmon isn’t just about the food, though. It’s the culmination of many passions—outdoor adventure, community engagement, and the nonstop undertaking of raising a family while running a business.
“It evolved from adventure, which coincides with lifestyle and spirituality,” Jason said. “Then, it’s moved toward family and providing. And I hope as the kids get older, it cycles back into adventure and spirituality as a family whole.”
Fishing
Salmon fishing was never a deliberate career choice for Jason. He found his way into the business one step at a time. Last year was his 19th season in Alaska. During his first year, he drove to “the end of the road” and found himself at the tip of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, where he lived in a tent and filleted halibut for charter companies.
“I’d wake up in the morning, and there’d be eagles outside the tent and this beautiful snow-capped mountain range and volcanoes in the distance,” Jason said. “That whole life was pretty awesome.”
The life captivated him for reasons that have deepened through the years.
“I just fell into it,” he said of salmon fishing. “It’s exciting. I didn’t know I was going to stay this long. But there is something about being in that unknown and in this cycle of life that’s grander than you; something that’s part of your lifestyle and provides not only financially but spiritually as well. You’re full-on with nature all the time—not controlled by the clock but by the tide and 22 hours of sunlight.”
The salmon season on Bristol Bay is gruelingly unpredictable, potentially deadly and always rewarding. On the edge of the Arctic Circle, the weather changes with protean intensity. The long days are governed by massive semidiurnal tides (two highs and two lows each day). Approximately 1,500 boats jockey for position on Bristol Bay, attempting to predict the movements of salmon that “come when they come, and leave when they leave.”
The first morning on the water is always a nail-biter. For the last eight years, Jason has worked on the Dr. Jack, a boat owned by Capt. Jeff Bowser. Dry-docked through the winter, it’ll be loaded onto a trailer and backed down a ramp. That’s the crucial moment. If there’s an issue with the boat, it won’t launch at all. If the launch goes smoothly, however, the season will have officially begun.
“That’s where everything starts to happen,” Jason said. “There are a lot of emotions—excitement, nervousness, a little bit of dread. You have this huge season in front of you, and what’s going to happen? There’s excitement in that, just the unknown.”
Jason is paid a percentage of the catch, which is bought per pound by the Big Creek processing plant. The fishing season encompasses two separate business endeavors for Jason. One is simply the catch, which is purchased by the plant. The other endeavor, Caught Wild Salmon, is the result of Jason and Mary Beth’s marketing genius at work. Jason saves a portion of his catch, has it processed at the plant (flash-frozen for optimal freshness), and brings it home, selling it through a multitude of local food channels.
The fishing competition is stiff on Bristol Bay, with 1,500 permits spread out among five rivers and encompassing “echelons” of fishermen. In spite of heavy fishing, though, Bristol Bay remains pristine and one of the top sockeye salmon runs in the world.
“[The Alaska Department of] Fish and Game controls everything,” Jason said. “Before the season, they’re testing the rivers, counting fish and doing estimates.”
Scrupulous conservation practices continue paying off for Alaska. Fishing has not harmed the sockeye population in Bristol Bay. Instead, salmon numbers have grown. Jason recognizes that his industry has a serious conservation responsibility—protecting the resources that offer him a livelihood.
“You want to work with all those sustainable acts—whatever is best for the next run,” Jason said. “Alaska has been so great. They have been the leaders of sustainability and management for so long. Last year was the biggest run in 50 years. On average, it’s a 25- or 30-million run, and last year it was pushing 60 million. It goes through big waves over time, but that’s a wild thing to see.”
Family
The books on Jason’s basement shelves provide a few clues to his philosophy of life: Physics: Everyday Science at the Speed of Light, Fifty Favorite Climbs, The Tao of Pooh, The Big Book of Graphic Design, The Journey Is the Destination, The New Dad’s Survival Guide, the Bible. He’s an adventurer at heart and feels the constant pull of the outdoors. At the same time, it’s getting harder to leave the family behind for the fishing season.
In previous years, the whole family has sometimes traveled together. These days, though, as the boys get older, it’s more common for Jason to travel to Alaska alone while Mary Beth runs the business in Kentucky. With the pressures of a growing family, a 9-to-5 job certainly would simplify things, but running a small business allows the McKinleys to pursue their passions—sustainable food, adventure and (summer fishing excluded) family time.
“This is the crux of the year, having to leave,” Jason said before the 2018 season. “It was actually easier when they were younger. When the babies are in the crib, your heart is still with them, but there’s not as much interaction. But over time, as they grow older and can talk, when you know them, and they know you, and there’s that whole friendship built—that’s harder to leave. This will be the hardest year.”
The fishing season is a grueling experience at home in Stanford, too. Mary Beth, who runs the office operations of Caught Wild Salmon, looks after the boys on her own in the run-up to the fishing season and during the season itself. She may not be contending with tides and weather, but she’s performing a balancing act that makes the business possible.
“It’s a big deal,” Jason said, “when you up and leave, and there’s still the whole existence of home life and business life going on. She has to take on a lot more roles, and for her to do that on her own is one thing, but throw in two growing, wild little boys, and it’s another thing. Fishermen’s wives are amazing women.”
The hardest year, Mary Beth said, was when Asa was 2 and Boden was a newborn. Up to that point, she had insisted on continuing to run the business during fishing season as if nothing had changed. With two young ones, though, she realized that she would have to “let some things go,” and, more importantly, ask for some help from parents, family and friends.
“I call in the village,” Mary Beth said. “I’ve had to realize that I can’t be the superwoman. I mean, we are [super women]! But trying to do it all by myself just led to insanity. I started scaling back and doing what I could do as far as running the business, farmers markets, and we have other businesses as well.”
The challenges of running a fishing business while raising a family are greater than the McKinleys could have anticipated. But the rewards are great too, and for Mary Beth, satisfaction comes in providing a uniquely valuable product to her community.
“We’re able to bring back a sustainable, wild-caught product to a landlocked state like Kentucky,” she said. “People appreciate that. There’s an awesome community of people here who really appreciate that product and others like it.”
As Jason looks forward to the season ahead this summer, he feels the familiar anticipation and excitement, mingled with a touch of dread. Changes come for the business as suddenly as foul weather blows up on Bristol Bay, and you can never really tell what’s coming. But somehow, it’s always worth it. Something always draws him back.
“It’s a consuming life,” Jason said. “You leave the sea behind, but it’s always with you. Even when you feel like you’re physically beaten or you’re just done with it, when it comes around, you start hearing the call of the sea.”
Caught Wild at The Bluebird
A farm-to-table restaurant in Stanford, the Bluebird is known for offering local, natural and pure food. No wonder, then, that the menu frequently features Caught Wild Salmon, an outstanding culinary offering, both in terms of flavor and health.
“My first motivation was that it’s wild-caught,” said Bluebird Chef Bill Hawkins, above. “It’s coming from sustainable sources. Fish from industrialized fish farms can be loaded with chemicals, but Jason’s fish comes from a properly maintained ecosystem. There’s an integrity of product.”
As a chef, however, Hawkins knows that it all comes down to taste. Sourcing fresh, healthy, sustainable food isn’t just a virtuous exercise; it’s also an effort to find the best-tasting products available.
“At the end of the day, it’s a business,” Hawkins said. “I’m trying to sell food, and I do that by creating a product that people want to buy, and to do that, it has to taste good. The Caught Wild Salmon has a rich flavor, a gorgeous color, a firm texture. The coloring is from the food that it eats, not dyes and chemicals dumped into the water. It’s wild, and it’s fed from natural sources.”
Hawkins has personal reasons for pursuing the freshest, healthiest products. After being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, he began eating cleaner, healthier foods in an effort to boost his health. His new way of eating began influencing his culinary art as well, as he sought out sustainable and healthy options. That journey led to the creation of the Bluebird and an expanding circle of like-minded friends.
“I met Jason and Mary Beth through a business relationship after we came to town, but on a personal level, our families are now friends,” Hawkins said. “Our children can play with their children, and it’s just been a wonderful relationship. It’s a business relationship that’s grown to a personal relationship and has a lot of depth to it. And they’re just truly wonderful people who care a lot about the people they’re serving.”
Want to catch a taste of Caught Wild Salmon?
Visit caughtwildsalmon.com for a listing of farmers markets, restaurants, Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions and retail stores that carry the product.
Photos by Jason McKinley