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Dear Readers,
For 20 years, Remain has invested in people with good ideas — entrepreneurs working to build businesses that strengthen Nantucket's year-round community, celebrate local food, and create places where neighbors can gather. At the heart of that work is a simple belief: A resilient island begins with a healthy local food system.
The pages ahead tell that story.
You'll meet the chefs, bakers, farmers, chocolatiers, and caterers who wake before sunrise to knead dough, temper chocolate, harvest herbs, roll dumplings, and prepare meals that nourish our community. You'll discover businesses rooted in craftsmanship and creativity, each shaped by the people behind them and the island they call home.
Many of those stories begin at The Hive at 5 Amelia Drive, a place first envisioned by Remain founder Wendy Schmidt as a shared home for Nantucket's food entrepreneurs. From the outside, The Hive is a beautiful building in the heart of Nantucket's mid-island community. Step inside, however, and you'll find something even more remarkable. Behind its doors, six shared-use commercial kitchens hum with activity from sun up until sun down. One kitchen may be filled with the aroma of fresh pasta being hand-cut. Around the corner, chocolate is transformed from bean-to-bar. Cakes are carefully decorated, dumplings folded by hand, sauces simmered and recipes tested for the next product destined for a local market shelf.
This summer, a record 20 food businesses call The Hive home. While each maker is building a unique business, they are also building something together. They share knowledge, equipment, encouragement and often ingredients, creating an environment where collaboration is just as important as entrepreneurship. That spirit carries throughout these pages, where you'll learn how a shared kitchen has become a launchpad for locally owned businesses that are helping shape Nantucket's culinary future.
The Hive is only one chapter in a much larger story.
As you continue reading, you'll visit the cafés, bakeries, farms, shops and gathering places that make up Remain's broader food ecosystem. You'll see how Born & Bread continues to redefine what a neighborhood bakery can be. You'll learn how Eat Fire Farm has expanded from the fields into its first brick-and-mortar home. You'll meet the people behind Café 22, Pip & Anchor, and many of the island's most innovative food businesses. Along the way, you'll also find recipes to bring into your own kitchen, practical ideas for reducing food waste, and stories about the farmers, fishers, and producers whose work begins long before a meal reaches the table.
Throughout this publication, you'll notice another thread connecting these stories: sustainability. Whether it's solar investments across our properties, partnerships that reduce food waste, or the relationships between local growers and food businesses, we believe caring for Nantucket's environment and supporting its economy go hand in hand. Every investment we make is guided by the idea that thriving local businesses and a healthy island are inseparable.
What makes us most optimistic, however, aren’t the buildings we've renovated or the programs we've created. It's the people you'll meet in these pages. They are neighbors raising families here, hiring locally, mentoring one another, supporting fellow small businesses and contributing to the year-round character that makes Nantucket such a special place.
We hope this issue inspires you to experience that community for yourself.
Visit The Hive. Stop into a neighborhood café. Meet the Makers at a Sunday market. Pick up a loaf of bread, a handcrafted chocolate bar or ingredients for tonight's dinner. Behind every product is a story and behind every story is someone investing their talent and heart into this island.
We are grateful to Bluedot Living for helping share these stories and we're delighted to welcome you into this vibrant community of people who are growing and imagining a more sustainable future for Nantucket; one meal, one business, and one connection at a time.
– Cecil Barron Jensen,
Executive Director, Remain
