MEET THE TEAM: ALLYSON BLAKE
Allyson Blake joins us for her second season at Glidden Point as a recent graduate from North Carolina State University, where she graduated with a B.S. in Science, Technology, and Society, which is an interdisciplinary degree with four major science disciplines.
Allyson is the retail store Team Leader, and her studies have prepared her to excel at running the Farm Store at Glidden Point. While in University, she focused on environmental sciences and food systems, and wrote her capstone on the benefits of Agritourism. As a result, she is interested in exploring the connections and relationships between people and their food, a great fit for our store, where people come from all over to try Glidden Points at the source.
Having worked as a farm hand last year, Allyson has an understanding of the day-to-day operations of what it takes to grow a great oyster. She is motivated to help create an experience at our Farm Store that leads people to think more critically about their relationships to food— in our case, how it’s grown, why our oysters look and taste different from our neighbor’s on the river, the people that are responsible for growing it, why the health of the river is integral to our premium product. Of course, she wants people to have a good time doing it, too, so have a beer while you’re at it (she curates our selection).
In the way that the post-college years are a time for many to question what is next, and what one’s place is in a newly unorganized world, moving from North Carolina, and working on the farm last year exposed Allyson to small-town living in this rural corner of Maine. Seeing and living the collaboration between oyster farms, its people, and the interconnectedness of the River, the livelihoods that depend on it, and the community that grows from it all has been very instrumental to her growth as a person, and as a member of our team, whose perspective we are very grateful to have.
In her off time, Allyson likes to do yoga, rock climb, and cook new recipes. She is currently reading Into Thin Air, and is bracing herself for her first real winter in Maine.
