Taking cues from the quiet darkness of the winter solstice, a nadir of illumination, I’m at my peak of reflection. Whether it’s the magic of candlelight, holiday lights, or starlight, I curl up to revisit the year as if curling up to a book. And it seems to me that revisiting a good year is like rereading a good book — you can flip back to any page and, before you know it, get lost in the story all over again. That’s how I feel as I sit down to pen this end-of-year newsletter for Wild Alaskan Company, where each chapter feels like the start of another page-turner.
This year, I first return to that divine moment shortly after the winter solstice, a season that often symbolizes an end — but for us brought what was perhaps the beginning of all beginnings: the birth of our daughter, the newest Kallenberg. As she starts to fill in the pages of her own story, I’m keenly aware of how her story is not just a beginning but also a continuation, the newest chapter to a multigenerational family legacy whose North Star is the infinite spirit of stewardship. We could not be more grateful and honored to bring this little one on board as part of our story.
Pictured above: The newest Kallenberg on board.
Flipping back to the spring, I recall how nervous and excited the WAC team was to launch live events, which have since expanded into a weekly online gathering space for anything culinary. Beyond recipe inspiration and seafood cooking tips, I love how these live events have facilitated deeper connections and interactivity between my teammates and those of you who have been tuning in. You can see our upcoming lineup here. The whole team is excited to bring you more recipes, cooking hacks and cooking along with you from wherever you tune in.
Pictured above: A still from one of this year’s live events.
In another springtime expansion, WAC acquired Home Port Seafoods, a family-owned custom seafood processing facility located in Bellingham, Washington. Bellingham is the same town where a young college student, my husband Arron, WAC’s founder + CEO, once held a warehouse job shoveling ice at the very same complex where Home Port is located, so this acquisition was a full-circle moment for Arron, who couldn’t have known that one day he’d be welcoming the Home Port Seafoods team as part of the ever-expanding Wild Alaskan Company fish family.
Home Port Seafoods was a full-circle moment for me, too. You see, much of the plant’s labor force is from countries like El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. As a Colombian-born woman from Miami, I never imagined that I would marry a third-generation fisherman from Alaska. And I certainly never expected that years later, in my mother tongue, I would be welcoming a team of expert Alaska fish processors to the fish “familia” as part of my growing family’s legacy.
Pictured above: The Home Port Seafoods processing team, now part of WAC’s ever-expanding fish family.
Turning the pages to the sun-drenched chapter of summer, I want to celebrate the exciting introduction of custom WAC boxes, whereby as a member you can now choose-your-own-seafood-adventure. With a spirit of exploration, many of you took the opportunity to indulge in endlessly customizable combinations of wild-caught seafood through your boxes. I love how this expansion of offerings allows members to craft new culinary narratives and explore more ways to eat in concert with nature.
As the planet swung past the autumnal equinox into the golden hour of the year, it seemed that this particular year brought more abundance — in wild-caught seafood, in connections, in shared stories — than any before. This fall, we indulged in the arrival of several new wild-caught offerings: yelloweye rockfish, a new cut of Wild Alaska Pollock (fillets!), king salmon, and curated a delectable lineup of gift boxes. All in all, more variety for yourself, and more ways to give the joy of wild-caught seafood to others.
Interspersed throughout the year were in-person WAC team gatherings across the country. As a remote-first team, we cherish these in-person opportunities to connect to each other more deeply, whether to advance the WAC mission at innovative business conferences or to unplug aboard a fishing vessel. This year’s gatherings took us all over Alaska: Ketchikan, Kodiak, Seward, Anchorage, Naknek/King Salmon, Egegik, and Craig. We also met up in Bellingham and the San Juan Islands, Washington; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; and New York City.
While I’m thinking of gatherings, the team recently stitched together a film that will give you a glimpse at what keeps us all inspired through the work we do. The footage in this video is from the WAC team’s previous 2022 gathering in Homer, Alaska, which I like to think was a preface to all of the incredible stories we created and collected in 2023. This newsletter, while an epilogue to 2023, is perhaps merely a preface to what we can all look forward to in 2024 with Wild Alaskan Company.
Happy winter solstice, and Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: A few snaps of the WAC team, gathered in person across the country.
