"I'd never heard of Smith Island, I'd always heard of Tangier Island. And when my kids were little, my husband said let's take the kids to Smith Island. And I was like, well, where's that? So he brought me here and I fell in love with the place," said Kathey Jones, owner and baker at the Smith Island Bakery. 

Kathey Jones grew up in Baltimore and always had a passion for baking. She didn't think she would venture out to this tiny island located in the Chesapeake Bay but it is now her home and her bakery is the popular tourist spot as the Maryland state cake is baked their everyday. 

"When I moved to the island, the women of the island were the hardest working bunch of women I've ever met and they taught me how to bake these cakes. My first two attempts were complete disasters, and I always bought them from one of the women. But once they showed me all the little tips and tricks and secrets that they knew it, it kind of became very easy for me with my baking experience already," said Kathey.

Prior to Kathey taking over the facility she bakes in today, another company was baking Smith Island cakes there but they decided it was easier to bake and ship cakes on the mainland. When Kristan decided she wanted to go out to Smith Island she wanted to make sure she interviewed a baker who was baking her favorite cake on the island. 

"I opened it in hopes that I could create more jobs so that more people can move here full time and stay living here," said Kathey.

Kathey ships out tons of cakes per week and it isn't the easiest job. She delivers the cakes to the mail boat and then the mail boat takes them to the post office to get shipped. While its a challenge, it keeps things authentic and many of her customers keep coming back for more knowing that the cakes are being handmade on the island the recipe originated from.

To learn more about Smith Island and the Maryland state cake, tune into the episode and visit their website at, https://smithislandbakeryllc.com/. Also, for more information on the Smith Island Inn, the inn Kristan stayed at, visit https://www.smithislandinn.com/. You can find more information on the coffee roaster and local restaurants on the island here.

Lastly, here is more information on the featured musician, The Dangerous Summer. Kristan went to high school with the lead singer.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"My Dad took it to the commercial level. He grew up doing a more fun way to crab which is called trout lining. My Dad worked for the gas company, Baltimore Gas and Electric for years, and then he started taking into commercial with the pots. He’s being crabbing since the 90s. But growing up, he took both myself and my sister out. He used to supply other crab houses as we have now. We always talked about coming back and starting our own crab house. Then around 2008 - 2009, when the economy started crashing, the sales weren't doing great, because I was based in construction, the real estate side of it. So sales were being impacted significantly. So my Dad and I talked and we just said, if we're going to do this, now's the time,” said Barry, one of the owners and founders of Cravin Crabs.

Barry and his family are true Marylanders who are all about blue crabs. They know how to find them, catch them, steam them and eat them. It’s quite the Maryland tradition and growing up it was a part of Kristan’s family traditions.

“It's a year-round sport pretty much the legal season is April 1 through December 15. Depending on how far down south you want to go you can start right out the gate in April but we choose to stay local. My dad usually starts crabbing, in May so that we don't really mess with it too much in April unless it's really hot and warm out. The further south we go is the Bay Bridge,” said Barry.

Even though crabs are delicious and it’s a big part of the Maryland lifestyle, the craft or the process of finding them and catching them can be quite challenging.

“You have your ups and downs. This is definitely a very down year. For crab meat, you see a lot of it being brought in from overseas for all the restaurants. With all the COVID restrictions you can't get the crab meat on the shipping containers, and then there are no local crabs that are cheap enough to pick. So it is an inconvenient combination. There's just nothing around. It just drives the cost up and even more,” said Barry.

But Barry has hopes for his business as he believes the crabbing industry will continue to grow and succeed even with restrictions in place. As long as continue to work hard, the crabbing lifestyle will always remain a Maryland commodity.

“For us, it's just a lifestyle. Our families get together. When somebody comes from out of state on a summer night, it's tough because this time of year we do work a lot. In our world, Mondays are a down day because typically the commercial crabbers have to pick a Sunday or a Monday as their off day and we have always gone with Monday. That’s the day when out-of-town guests would come in we would typically have crabs dinner, a nice sit-down. The people in my family from out of state they've grown up eating crabs so they absolutely want them right. We don't have to teach them how to eat them. They know what they want. It's just a matter of finding the time and getting together right?” said Barry.

Tune in to the podcast episode to learn more about how crabs are caught, how to eat them, and about Barry’s family and how they got into crabbing. Also, stay until the end to hear the featured musician, John Patti, and to hear a special announcement.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"We were actually founded by two folks out of the engineering department of Digital Equipment. They were phenomenally big in computers early on, and had a very large manufacturing facility in Augusta just 10 miles from here. Throughout our history, we have had one big event that really moved us along, and early on at AMI was Stanley Toolworks. They're the Stanley tools that we still hear about and they were moving into electronics, and they had an electronic stapler. That couldn't just have a manual switch, because if it did, you'd click the switch and it would shoot off 15 staples all at once. So it needed a little electronic switch to just allow that to fire once and AMI landed that contract. At some point they decided to do a reverse auction, which was in effect, how low will you go to build our product and they took quotes to Asia, this was just starting to happen then and people were moving products offshore. Sure enough on something like 15 cents, we lost the product line to a manufacturer in Asia. So we had to start working again and we happen to be working with a smaller company in Massachusetts called Software House and they were designing devices that would control access to buildings. So instead of having a key, you'd go up and slide a wave a car would let you in," said Kim Vandermeulen, CFO of Alternative Manufacturing Inc. (AMI).

AMI has been building chipboards for various tech companies across the globe for decades. Today they have helped companies with the transportation of COVID vaccines by tracking the temperature and other important factors within the crate that the vaccines are being transported in. But the one important thing AMI cares about is supporting start-up companies.

"What's unique about AMI, is that we're not afraid of the small guy, we're not afraid of a startup. We'll build one [chip], I'll build 10 [chips]. A lot of the bigger companies, they don't want that in their process. Our process is set up uniquely where we have modeled call 11. Many lines, most companies want volume, so they can set up their line run one pot, 10,000 to 100,000 parts, that's not us, we're the little train that could so we have the ability to use those small guys and we have the ability to take it to the next level of pre-production and production when it gets to the super-high volumes, I want to buy 100,000 or a million of something, it tends to fall out of our hands, we try to hand it off to a local partner try. But a lot of times they'll take it offshore to Asia, basically, for cost-driving purposes to drive as much of the cost out of it. I will say that I think the number is 85% of the clients who have started down the path with us are still with us," said Jim Barry, VP of Sales & Marketing.

One start-up that is mentioned in the interview is called iTell which gives seniors the ability to not forget their walkers when traveling about their day. This gadget provides a solution to reducing falls and medical issues in the senior community.

Tune in to learn more about AMI's history, how they have helped not only start-ups but international companies with their tech needs, and how Kim is not only a maker focused on tech but of delicious beverages.

To learn more about AMI please visit their website.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“First off I love that you're using that word, craft because it has to do with both the art and creativity, but also the intention and the precision behind it as well. So kudos to you for using that word. So I am a chef cook and I alternate back and forth between those two. But sometimes say I'm a cook that just makes good food. I'm also a writer and I write cookbooks. I also write my blog and I used to write a column for the Portland Press Herald for a long time,” said Annie Mahle.

As you all know Kristan start’s off each of her episodes with the question, “what is your craft and what inspired you to start it?”. Annie’s answer was a bit of a surprise as Kristan only knew about her amazing cooking on the J. & E. Riggin but Annie brings a lot more than just cooking, she elevates the mealtime experience. Mealtime in any environment she is in whether it be on a schooner or at home creates memories with friends and family and that’s what mealtime is all about. While it may seem the process of going into a beautiful mealtime experience is fun and rewarding, there are many challenges along the way.

Annie has shifted her career as she is no longer the owner of the J. & E. Riggin and now focuses on her writing, traveling to fun places with her family, and horseback riding. Tune in to learn more about Annie and her career as a maker of all sorts. Also, stay until the end of the episode to hear a new song by Becca Biggs who is a fabulous musician located in Belfast, Maine.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"Whether you're a writer, a runner, a gardener, whatever it is, you have to have somewhere to put those things so that they don't stay inside of you and for me, whether I want it or not, it was music. It just saved me along the way and it still does. I find it really interesting and then I was trying to do other things, which were fine, but then other things kept coming from me musically. Even if I wasn't prepared, or I didn't think I was worthy of it. I would have to stop and say, Well, I respect that person. So should I believe them? Or believe me, and it was scary. So you have to fly above the fear and say, okay, I'll give it a go and, and it just never stopped," said Deanna Bogart, a nationally known musician who built the majority of her music career in Maryland.

Deanna Bogart found her true calling in music by expressing her emotions, and memories through song, and instrument, particularly with the saxophone and keys. Her music career grew tremendously when she resided in Maryland. She joined many bands and soon created one of her own.

"I was 25 when I decided to buy a saxophone because when I was 11 my friends and colleagues went around to ask who wants to be in the band? and I said, me, and they said, What do you want to play? And I said I want to play the saxophone. And all I got was, girls don't play the saxophone," said Deanna. 

She has proven to the world that girls can play the saxophone and be good at it. She has performed with national artists such as Jimmy Buffett and B.B. King. She also has a unique way to go about her performances. She has no setlist, she lets her soul and the flow of the performance speak to her and the rest of her bandmates follow her lead.

"As a bandleader with my guys, it's you know, how did I put it to them? Don't think -- feel more. Because I'm going to arrange kind of on the spot. The songs are a blueprint. The bridge, the verse, the intro, after that, guys, girl, whoever's there. Don't even think because I'll cue you when something else is going to happen. So you don't have to go okay, wait a minute, I have to wait for 12 measures before I do this. No, I don't want that world and I'm happy doing it, you know, with other people's gigs. If I'm like a special guest artist, you know, I will always respect the bandleader and do what they want. But on mine, it's going to be a little bit different every time because either I have no memory, or it just feels different that day. I don't know...there's live music and then there's alive music, and I like it to be alive. And sometimes it doesn't work, but it's worth it when it does," said Deanna.

Deanna is on tour and you can find her tour calendar here. Also, stay until the end of the episode to listen to one of her singles.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"So my craft is something that I call the contemplative process of candle making. The process of getting here or the route to getting to this place is a bit long and winded so I'll try to make it as brief as possible. I was an artsy kid, I was born in the bustling metropolis of Danville, Virginia. That's a huge laugh line for your listeners. It's not a bustling metropolis, but it's Southern Virginia right on the North Carolina border, and had a wonderful childhood. However, there wasn't an affirming environment for an artsy kind of kid growing up in rural Virginia in the south. So I kind of left those longings except for music and those desires kind of along the way as I grew older and couldn't imagine a life for myself as an artist or as a maker. But still had this longing. I would literally be driving in my car as an adult and I would look at my hands and say, I'm supposed to be doing something with my hands. I would have just kind of this inner knowing and you know, I used to play piano for churches, I used to draw and make paintings and do all kinds of artsy stuff, but just got older and just got farther and farther away from that. Long story short, about six years ago, I was in a department store and the candle section is always the first section that I go to because candles have been a part of my content. My writing process, my meditation process, my unwinding process for as long as I can remember. So went to the candle section picked up a candle and I don't tell everyone this because some folks may turn their heads a little bit. But I literally heard a voice that said, you can make this, and making a candle was nowhere on my radar. But as clear as I can hear my voice, I heard that voice and I went home like a madman and got on Google and "googled" -- how to make a candle. And, you know, watch tons of videos, I went to Barnes and Noble and scrounged around for books and got a few candle making supplies and ordered some things online and made some things for myself and friends and family and said, hey, you know, what do you think about this, and didn't know what I was going to do with it, but knew that I wanted to be a maker and knew that I wanted to do something with my hands. So just it was just itching to come out of me.," said Kendal Brown, owner and founder of 228 Grant Street Candle Co.

Kendal was continually searching for something to do with his hands and stumbled upon the craft of candlemaking. His studio and storefront are in the heart of Baltimore off of 228 Grant Street. The scents within his collection remind him of memories with his grandmother, she was quite the baker and canner. There was always something on the stove or in the freezer that could be magically put together for sustaining nourishment at his grandmother's. Her front porch served as a neighborhood therapy office. Candlemaking was quite the fit for Kendal with his upbringing in mind.

Tune in to learn more about Kendal's journey building 228 Grant Street Candle Co. You can learn more about his business by heading over to their website and visiting their Facebook and Instagram.

Also, tune in to the end to listen to Deanna Bogart, the featured musician of the episode. Her single Still A Girl In The Band is one you don't want to miss.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I am a photographer. I have been doing it at this point, for about 14 years and it's kind of evolved over those years. Right now I'm focusing on interior and architectural photography. But in the beginning, what inspired me, was to take it from a hobby to a more professional level. I just really fell in love with the digital world and I had been using film so everything just kind of opened up and seemed much more accessible in terms of what you could really do with the craft, it just seemed easier, it was less expensive upfront. It was just more feasible and my daughter at that point was a baby and I started kind of like a blog, which became really popular back in the blogging days, and that really kind of launched my career very quickly. So within six months, I was already shooting gigs and getting hired and you know, it was just all very serendipitous and worked out well," said Erin Little.

Prior to Erin's photography career, her focus was raising her beautiful daughter and crafting children's clothing. She had an online shop and blog to help her promote her pieces. She handled her own photography and people grew to love her photography work when visiting her online shop.

I had kind of an interesting college path. I was a musician growing up so that was kind of my focus. I play classical piano and jazz trumpet and classical trumpet. So I actually auditioned to get into Berklee School of Music and like, just kind of passed it up. I was in this really defiant, kind of like, everybody just assumes that I'm going to do music because I've been doing it my whole life. But what if I don't want to go to a music school, it was really scary for me to think about going to a school where you went for one thing, and it was music, you know, you didn't have any other options. If you got to, like the junior year, and you're like, well, I don't know if this is what I want to do. So I gave that up. I ended up at Simmons down in Boston and really didn't enjoy it. So I kind of went my own way and then ended up at Goddard, which is a kind of a school, this hippie school in Vermont, and did that for two years. And like kind of, it's like a home, school-based kind of you do it yourself, but you meet your advisors once a semester and all that stuff. I really love that it allowed me to work full time and go to school. Then I found my way back to music. So I ended up at USM School of Music in the jazz program for jazz trumpet performance. So absolutely no photography in any of that. But I was always taking pictures during that whole time," said Erin.

To learn more about Erin Little and her journey behind the lens, listen to the episode or visit his website.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I asked for a tape recorder when I was seven years old, and I got a camera instead. I'm like, this is a tape recorder...my grandmother gave it to me and said you can record with that too. At the time, my parents had gotten divorced, and my parents were from DC and then we moved to Cambridge. The camera was a way for me to stay connected. I take photographs, I only use the camera when I went to DC. I never took photographs in Cambridge. I take all of these photographs and for some reason, I get back and I process them. I would put them up on the wall and kind of paginate them and map out my summer or holiday or whatever it was. So I was like creating this stuff. I just kept on doing and as time went on, I started to take more photographs. It was just something that clicked with me and then I saw some stuff in the darkroom and I was, mind blown. Then by the time I was nine years old, I had a Pentax K 1000. I just understood, it was something about it. I just could see." said Séan Alonzo Harris.

Séan currently lives in Maine but before venturing up north he attended the Art Institute of Boston, which now is the Lesley School of Art Design and he also had an incredible opportunity to intern with photographer John Hewitt.

"I ended up working with him and so my last semester in college... John was a little bit ruffled because I became part of his team. I went off, and I photo assist a lot. What I learned in grad school with photography, it all applied, and then put it into practice. So I did that for many years. I did that in New York City, to establish myself, and it took a really long time for me to establish myself, but I was always producing and creating work and, either personal projects, they call it commercial world, fine art that I've created over the years and got into a lot of shows. You know, grinding and just doing what I do waking up every morning, like, how can I attack this problem? You know, what's going on? Who can I get in front of? said Séan.

To learn more about Séan Alonzo Harris and his journey behind the lens, listen to the episode or visit his website.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"When we took over it was a nice I guess disco. It was just a poor excuse for a disco I guess but that's what it was. But I was always into music. I loved music and that's what I wanted to do. So I started booking bands and you know, we went from local bands to regional bands to everybody. From Smashing Pumpkins to David Cassidy," said Ron Furman, owner and founder of Max's Tap House. 

Ron and his family are originally from Baltimore  and at the age of twelve got into the Max's business. From taking artifacts from historic buildings and repurposing them for his facility, Max's Tap House has a unique character and a top place to have a good time in the heart of Baltimore.

"If we can find use from something we used it.  If you look at the first floor in the back that's all bowling alley that came out of the Old Southway Bowling Alley in Federal Hill. The second floor, the floor, and the walls all came out of the Secrets Distillery, the warehouse that was over in Dundalk before they tore it down. What was really neat when we cut the wood, you could actually smell the whiskey in it. It had a great aroma," said Ron.

Today Max's is the largest tap house in Baltimore as it holds over 68 taps and they even built the largest bar, over 55 feet.

Tune in to learn more about Ron's journey building Max's. You can learn more about Max's Tap House by heading over to their website and visiting their Facebook and Instagram.

Also, tune in to the end to listen to Freddie Long, the featured musician of the episode. His single Blanket is one you don't want to miss.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I would say my craft is the preservation of traditional sailing. And I think the thing that inspired me to start it was just a lot of my connection to nature as a kid and how sailing and doing it in a sort of, I guess I for lack of a better term, say more organic way, with less plastic and less technology and sort of just, you know, more wherewithal, and that sort of inspired me to go the route of traditional sail, it also sort of fell in my lap to a degree, like a lot of things that, you know, you end up being lucky with. But I would say that that's one of the things that has kept me inspired to keep doing it over the years. I'm sure it's that connection that you can have to the natural world through having to work through you can't go around it, you can't go over it, you have to just work through it and figure it out and do it with you know, all of these traditional materials," says Captain Sam Sikkema.

Captain Sam grew up in Michigan sailing on the great lakes. His father introduced him to sailing which at first Sam didn't really care for and enjoyed the speed of powerboats instead but then over time he grew a passion for sailing.

"There is not a school for being a Merchant Mariner. There certainly is a Maritime Academy which is an excellent way to go. I certainly considered that getting out of high school, though, I have to say, when I was getting out of high school, the idea of doing any more school period ever was not really on my radar. So one of the things that I think is really cool about sailing, and especially traditional sailing is that it is in a lot of ways an oral tradition and the best way to learn is through experience. So it's pretty much all on-the-job training. I was fortunate that I was able to kind of, you know, get into it right out of school and be put to sea and just start going and getting that experience and learning and seeing the world and yeah, you know, went on from there," said Captain Sam.

Captain Sam continues the conversation with Kristan on the foredeck of the Victory Chimes discussing the history of the vessel, his past career leading up to being the captain of the Victory Chimes, the experience of Windjamming, and so much more. 

To view, the Maine Windjammer Association fleet visit their website, Instagram and Facebook.

To view, the Victory Chimes visit their website, Instagram and Facebook.

Photo Credit: Quinton Donleavy

Thanks to sponsors Berlin City Auto Group and Cliff House Maine.

For more information on the Cliff House Maine event with the Windjammers, click here.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.