Transcription of Heidi Powell for the show Farms & Food #296
Dr. Lisa Belisle: My next guest is Heidi Powell who is the owner and operator of Dirigo Wholesale, a wholesale distribution company specializing in local and away produce, grocery and specialty ingredients. Thanks for coming in.
Heidi Powell: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Heidi, you grew up in Wiscasset?
Heidi Powell: I did.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: When you were growing up in Wiscasset, did you think you’d be doing this work?
Heidi Powell: Definitely not. A ran away to New York because I wanted to be an artist, and that doesn’t work out so well usually the first time around. I came back, I ran away to Boston, came back and then it was just that food industry, I guess, that’s where my creative energy ended up going and this is the perfect place for that.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Tell me what Dirigo Wholesale does.
Heidi Powell: I source local and away produce and distribute it to local businesses, mostly local restaurants and small markets. Usually in the summertime, most of my produce is local and that’s what I want to push obviously, but we can’t have lemons and limes and avocados from Maine unfortunately so those things come from elsewhere which I get from Boston. I also purchase those from a distributor that goes down their local distributor that goes down there and grab stuff for me, so we’re still keeping it into Maine.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: A lot of people are interested in the food industry but you’re take on it is different, doing the wholesale side.
Heidi Powell: Yeah. Well, I worked in restaurant kitchens before so I know that side of it in a sense of I know how people go about sourcing things. I feel the conversations that I have between restaurants and between farmers, I can translate those different languages back and forth to whether it’d be the farmer or the producer.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: When you are growing up, what were your interests? What was it like growing up in Wiscasset?
Heidi Powell: Wiscasset is a strange little town. I mean, it has been in the news lately, but it was very different when I was there. It was a really lovely place, but it wasn’t a place where there was lot of food, there weren’t a lot of restaurants, that wasn’t something that’s a main concern to me and in school or what have you, but my mother was a crazy gardener. Those were my interests then, with family it was like in summer you gardened and spent time outside and then, what I wanted to do was to be an artist. Honestly, that was what I wanted to do as a kid. I don’t know how I ended up with food, but I think it was, you go to art school and you work in a restaurant.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: What was your art?
Heidi Powell: Photography.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Do you still do that?
Heidi Powell: No, I don’t really do that. My iPhone does that for me though.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Well, so you still do it. You just don’t use a camera per se.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, no.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Is there anything about food itself that, I guess, called you in some way? Just the visual of it?
Heidi Powell: Yeah, definitely. That was it. I ended up working in a restaurant because that was the easiest thing to do and then I realized, “This is actually a really creative environment to be in.” Plating things and just creating different recipes and things like that, but the actual plating of things was definitely or probably the draw, visually, for me.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Did you start working in restaurants when you are in Maine or when you moved to New York?
Heidi Powell: In Maine. I worked at the Porthole years and years and years ago and then I worked at Sonny’s and then I worked at Figo when Figo was open. That was a lot of fun. I mean, I always had fun, I worked in those places because I had a nice time.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: It does seem like there is a parallel between people who are artists and people who work in the food industry.
Heidi Powell: For sure.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: For awhile, it seemed like well, maybe it’s just the flexibility, maybe it’s money, not really sure, but it really seems like there are people who continue to make conscious decisions to both be artists and work in the food industry for a long, long time.
Heidi Powell: Definitely. I mean, I think that’s how Los Angeles actually runs in general. If you didn’t have all of those actors and actresses, then the restaurants probably wouldn’t run either.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: That’s true and I’m also am thinking of our audio producer, Spencer, who’s obviously, he is a musician and he also has links to….
Heidi Powell: Obviously.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Obviously. Has links to the food industry and has been working within it for quite some time. It seems like if it’s something that if you didn’t like doing it, you would just stop.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, well they do work altogether and it’s fun here. I mean, we all know each other here too. It is such a small city, the community is wonderful. I mean, the amount of connections, I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for Spencer, and I’ve known Spencer through restaurants and all those things for years and years.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: As part of Dirigo Wholesale, I would imagine that a lot of what you’re doing is creating and maintaining relationships with both producers and buyers of product.
Heidi Powell: Definitely.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: You’ve been doing this now, although you began your organization back in November, you’ve did this for two years prior to that with Rosemont.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, I did. That’s the part of it that’s so wonderful. It’s being able to have those relationships and communicate with those people back and forth. I wouldn’t have been able to do what I’m doing right now if I hadn’t done it with Rosemont and created those relationships. I feel like they’re really solid because of that.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: What are some of the things that you see as interesting opportunities for both producers and buyers right now in the state of Maine?
Heidi Powell: We’re trying to get product from farther up north and move it down. Actually, we really try and help sustain those farms up there. The transportation issue is an issue. The transportation problem is an issue like moving everything around the state is on my radar and something that I really want to try to focus on in the next couple of years. If we can do that, just moving product around the state and making it available to so many more people would be awesome. It would be incredible, it would be so great for even those small restaurants that try to keep costs down so they buy things from away, from Boston but if it’s more readily available and the cost can be less and it can be local. If we can make those things available to the smaller mom-and-pop diners and things like that, there’s no reason why we all can’t be using Maine product.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: How can we keep costs down for people? It seems as though some of the larger distribution organizations have done as well as they have because they’re able to offer things in bulk. If you’re a smaller organization, then how can you, I guess, equalize that?
Heidi Powell: That’s something that I’m definitely working on. I feel like there doesn’t necessarily need to be a big warehouse holding all those things. We need to just be helping each other move product around. If I go pick up 100 pounds of potatoes, maybe those 100 pounds of potatoes go directly to who they need to go to that day and there’s no middle man, there’s no sitting in a warehouse overnight or things like that. Cutting down on transportation and keeping things for a long period of time are going to cut down on cost too if they can just go to where they’re going and have there be some organization in that transportation, then, I think that would keep things sound. I mean, there’s so many producers right now, there’s so many young farmers, everything is available to us at this point in the summertime.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Are you working or currently working on systems that would enable you to more efficiently get something from point A to point B without any middle place?
Heidi Powell: Yeah, that’s top priority really at this point.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Tell me about that.
Heidi Powell: I wish that I had more to tell you about it. It’s something that I think I’ve figured it out some days and then I realize there’s a whole other aspect to it that I need to consider. I think really when it’s going to take eventually is many people working together, doing the same thing in different parts of the state like an umbrella. Just moving quantities from here to there from person-to-person who are all doing the same thing in different areas. That’s what I’ve come up with so far. I want to try to work with smaller farmers to just help them move product themselves so they don’t need to be delivering as often as they do. I want them to be farming and producing, taking care of their crops and such, and I’m happy to be there to move their products around for them.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: It’s really identifying who’s best able to play whatever roles are needed.
Heidi Powell: For sure, for sure. Definitely. It’s going to be certainly a game of delegation if you will.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: It sounds like maybe some of the stuff that you’re learning is stuff that you didn’t realize was going to be the case when you started.
Heidi Powell: Definitely. I thought I was going to be moving 25 pound bags of carrots to restaurants here and there but it’s a huge issue. It’s so much bigger than that. The state is big; we forget how big it is until you get to drive around it and pick up 25 pound bags of carrots. People who are working on a tight budget, they need some help, and definitely up in the county and such.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Well, yeah. If you’re talking about driving from say the Portland area up to Fort Kent, you’re talking about a six-hour drive, and you have to have somebody who’s willing to do that and do that whenever the product is available.
Heidi Powell: Yeah and the schedule is really the big issue. That’s the part that seems up in the air.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: There’s a networking piece, there’s a scheduling piece, it sounds very logistical.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, it will be. Just talking to everybody about those things now, setting up those meetings to talk to those people that could help you, that all by itself, is a crazy logistical nightmare sometimes especially with so much snow. I can’t even imagine, it’s going to be great when we can work it out, but it’s definitely going to be quite a job.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: One of the things that I’ve noticed is that there are more and more products that I wouldn’t have thought we could actually maybe grow in our state are now being grown in our state.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, definitely.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: I mean there’s now Maine-grown grain that wasn’t being produced a decade ago.
Heidi Powell: Yeah. Didn’t they just get a grant? Maine Grains just got that great grant, so hopefully that takes them far. I know they were getting busier and busier and couldn’t really keep up with it so hopefully, that helps. Yeah, there are people doing local ginger and turmeric. The fact that there’s a need for those things is the great part, I guess.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: That is actually interesting because if you think about it, for example, ginger, that was something that was mostly from the Far East.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, in Hawaii, we use to bring a lot of Hawaiian ginger.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Even the idea that we would think, “Let’s try growing this here,” which is a completely different climate, that’s fascinating.
Heidi Powell: Yeah and the ginger, that the people that I’m thinking of who are growing it, is so delicious. So good. It’s fresh and it’s really good.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Are you seeing more people doing stuff with greenhouses?
Heidi Powell: Yeah, actually and the greenhouses like big hoop houses and aquaponics spring works. They do all the greens at this point are all year round which is awesome. Fresh greens all year round. It’s a cool thing.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Yeah, especially when we used to have to truck things in from California. By the time we got these greens, how fresh could they actually be?
Heidi Powell: Not so fresh. My partner works at Peaks Island at the elementary school and they’re focusing on doing food systems through teaching their kids food systems and she asked me what is available locally, and she made up this tiny little list like potatoes and onions like, “What’s available right now?” I went back through and looked at the availability list for me right now and it’s so long, you can get so much right now still, local.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Well, run through that for me.
Heidi Powell: I wish I had the list in front of me. It’s crazy. Daikon radishes, obviously potatoes, onions, greens, tomatoes, cucumbers. I wish I had the list, beets. Gosh, I mean you can get those greens, Maine greens all year round. What am I forgetting? Sunchokes, so many things, so many things.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Do you find that people are more accepting of trying to eat within the season than they once were?
Heidi Powell: Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if my answer is a reasonable answer. The people that I’m selling to are people who push those kinds of things anyway. That’s their thing is that they’re selling local whenever they can, so I would have to say yes, and the people that I know, they certainly do. I’m not sure, that would be a interesting statistic to find out.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Who are your main clients? Who do you work with mostly?
Heidi Powell: The small restaurants downtown here. I have Blue Spoon, Hugo’s, Eventide, Honeypaw, East Ender, the juice bars, Blake Orchard, Flying Fox, Drifter’s Wife. Like the people who buy smaller quantities of things, not necessarily large cases of things, but they buy what they need like everyday or every other day.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: How does that work? Do you let people know what is available and they say, “Yeah, I’ll take so many of these or so many of these,” or do they come to you and say, “We’re looking for this?”
Heidi Powell: A little bit of both. I have an availability list that I try to keep updated. That includes local and away items. I also definitely search things out for people if they need something specific.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: I’m seeing, when I’m out and about eating, I’m seeing that there’s generally a set menu that people will offer and they’ll offer it for a long time but then, the ones that I really enjoy, going to a lot of the restaurants, are people that will create these very interesting seasonal specials or even daily specials. They’ll bring in something that I didn’t know, maybe a sunchoke this time of year, but that requires some flexibility, and it requires a little bit of trust on the part of the restaurant goer because if you don’t know what a sunchoke is, then you’re probably not going to want to have that special.
Heidi Powell: Sure, sure. I think that I’m lucky to work with the people that I do because they have a specific clientele that is a little more daring perhaps. Yeah, I think that those are the places that I generally work with, they want to try some new things.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Are you able to say, “I have this, whatever it is, Jerusalem artichoke and I think that you could use this in this way.” Are you able to help make that translation for them?
Heidi Powell: Most of the places I work for, I wouldn’t even need to say the last part of that. What I have to say is, “Hey, I got these really beautiful purple sunchokes in from Ironwood Farm. Do you want to try some out?” Most of the time everybody will say, “Yes, definitely,” even if it’s just a pound or two.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Does it make a difference when you say they’re from such and such farm?
Heidi Powell: At this point, I don’t think it does. I mean, most of the farmers that are working in Maine or in this area, at this point, they all have pretty good reputations and are nice people. There are so many young people that are farming too which is really cool.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: I’ve also found that interesting because it seems like it would hard job to jump into farming and yet, the willingness to go out there and do this. Many of them, they have young families and they work a lot of hours.
Heidi Powell: Yeah and it’s not just men farming anymore either, there are so many women that they’re all about it right now. Really out there doing a lot of the hard work which is cool to see too especially now.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Yeah, we had people for a piece that we wrote for the Eat Guide from Six River Farm in Bowdoinham and this is a couple. It’s a man and a woman and their child, I don’t think the child is doing a ton of farming right now….
Heidi Powell: Not yet.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: It seemed like a very equal partnership. They both did things that they were good at and they both worked very hard and they had this great relationship with Royal River Natural Foods, and there’s a place for their produce to go and it was very symbiotic.
Heidi Powell: Bowdoinham too, there’s so many great places up in Bowdoinham. It’s a big, young farming town.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Yeah, there is something about the soil up there and the rivers that all come in.
Heidi Powell: Exactly, they’re all in that general area.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Maine used to be one of the bread baskets and from what I understand, Bethel specifically, used to be a bread basket, I believe, during the Civil War and I’m surprised by that because it seems cold. We’re bringing people who are able to create enough food to send elsewhere, but we’re not a warm state.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, no, we’re not. There’s so many ways around that though. Greenhouses and digging down into the earth and building your hoop houses that way. I mean, there’s a million different ways. I guess everybody was getting around it for years before we were around.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Yeah, they didn’t have all this technology, but somehow they still knew how to have winter kale.
Heidi Powell: There are still people living in Maine.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Yeah, that’s right. We’ve always had people who’ve decided to brave the cold.
Heidi Powell: We weren’t wiped out.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Is there something about the healthiness of the produce, or not even just produce, but whatever products that appeals to you, this idea that it’s so fresh, it just came from the farm that’s somehow impacting their health and well-being?
Heidi Powell: For sure. I mean, doing something that you love is great, doing something that you love that can positively impact other people feels so good, for sure. I tried to keep everything on a really quick turn around so if I purchase something from someone, I try to send it out that day, if not within the next day or two, so it is. It’s like it comes from who it comes from and then it goes to where it’s supposed to go.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: What do you personally like to make for food when you are not delivering all of these nice times to the restaurants?
Heidi Powell: We make a lot of noodle-y Asian-inspired vegetarian dishes at our house. Also, the farm fresh meat that’s available to us here is like nothing I’ve ever tasted anywhere else, it’s so good. I feel like if you want a steak, buy it in Maine. Those sorts of things.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Given that you have been an artist and probably, at heart, still are an artist, but you’re now in wholesale distribution. If there are other people who are listening to this conversation who are thinking to themselves, “What’s something interesting that I could do with my life?” What kind of advice would you give them?
Heidi Powell: I think that I realized that the creativity in me was something that I have to honor and I have to always do. I think that the only advice that I could give anybody else would be to actually pay attention to what you’re actually doing at the time. If you’re working in retail or if you’re working in a restaurant and you’re doing that out of necessity, what is it about that that you like? Just be present and pay attention to what you’re enjoying even if you’re doing something out of necessity. I don’t think I would have ever known that this was something that I wanted to do if I didn’t do that. Why was I enjoying myself so much selling vegetables? Because I love vegetables. I really love vegetables. That’s it.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: Well, I’ve enjoyed this conversation and I encourage people to, I guess, go to eat at those restaurants that you talked about.
Heidi Powell: Yeah, there are so many more. I’m sorry I didn’t say all of them.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: I encourage people too, as they’re eating at some of these local restaurants, that you’ve talked about or really any local restaurant, to think about how the food got from there to here and what we’re all putting in our mouths. This idea of food systems, it’s an interesting one. I’m glad that you’re a part of this, Heidi.
Heidi Powell: Thank you, thank you. It’s a good time.
Dr. Lisa Belisle: I’ve been speaking with Heidi Powell who is the owner and operator of Dirigo Wholesale, a wholesale distribution company specializing in local and away produce, grocery and specialty ingredients. Good luck with figuring out that whole network thing. I bet you’ll do it.
Heidi Powell: Thank you, I need it.