The Eastern Shore Food Lab (ESFL) at Washington College is joining forces with local start-up sourdough baker Rise, adding product sales to the established ESFL space at 236 Cannon Street and collaborating on programming that meets their shared mission of promoting nourishing foods.
Rise founder Brianna Schindler and Bill Schindler pictured outside of the ESFL/Rise location on Cannon Street.
This innovative partnership is a natural fit with the Eastern Shore Food Lab’s focus on a hands-on approach that uses food to reconnect with what it means to be human. The three pillars of ESFL are research, teaching and production. Augmenting operations so that the cutting-edge facility also serves as a distribution point for Rise’s handmade products brings the third pillar of production to life in a way that adds significant value for Washington College students, faculty and staff alike.
“This exciting collaboration is all about creating the ability to simultaneously inspire, educate and nourish anyone who walks through the doors of the ESFL,” said Dr. Bill Schindler, ESFL Director.
With this new partnership, Rise – a start-up focused on creating nourishing foods for the community — is able to move into a downtown space that makes its high-quality products readily accessible to the community. Subsequently, by basing operations out of the ESFL facility, they are providing real-life opportunities for Washington College students to be a part of an authentic entrepreneurial venture through internships, employment and learning approaches.
Additionally, the joint venture will further enhance the ever-growing culinary landscape of Chestertown while fueling local economic growth and creating new employment opportunities.
Rise got its start a year ago, when the pandemic began. When the shutdown and subsequent food shortages occurred, Schindler and his oldest daughter, Brianna, went to work in the kitchen, baking and then donating hundreds of loaves of sourdough bread to families in need. It was that experience that gave rise to the official formation of a sourdough baking business.
“It’s amazing to see what started as a 16-year-old’s simple idea to bake sourdough is ‘rising’ into a commercial kitchen where we will be able to expand beyond sourdough bread and produce a bunch of new food products to nourish the community,” said Christina Schindler, owner.
Rise is currently delivering orders throughout Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties, only on Fridays. Orders can also be picked up at a few other locations around the area including Unity Nursery in Church Hill, Ten Eyck Brewery in Queenstown and the Kent Island Farmer’s Market at the Cult Classic Brewery (Thursday). Beginning March 12, 236 Cannon Street will officially be added as a pick-up location, operating between 2 and 5 PM on Fridays. Availability is expected to increase to include additional days and products such as nixtamalized tortillas handmade from heirloom Oaxacan maize once the new operation is fully up and running.
For more information and to order products, go here.
About the Eastern Shore Food Lab
The Eastern Shore Food Lab at Washington College optimizes personal and community health by drawing upon the dietary past that built us as a species. We research, reimagine, and share strategies that meet and exceed our biological and cultural needs. We transition culture by strengthening the ties between environment, society, family, and ourselves through food as we address issues of sustainability, food access, and dietary and social health. We provide a model that institutions within any region can emulate, achieving zero waste by conscientious design and a commitment to revitalize human and ecological communities with every action.
About Washington College
Founded in 1782, Washington College is the tenth oldest college in the nation and the first chartered under the new Republic. With an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning in the arts and sciences, and more than 40 multidisciplinary areas of study, the College is home to nationally recognized academic centers in the environment, history, and writing. Learn more at washcoll.edu.
Johnson Fortenbaugh says
“nixtamalized” is a word too hip for any dictionary I’ve got.
I recognize “tamali” in it; but remain curious.
Could you define it please?
John L. Seidel says
You’re on the right track! “Tamal” or “tamali” refers to corn dough, while “nextli” means ashes in Nahuatl (the “x” is pronounced “sh” in the original). The origin is in that Aztec tongue, but it refers to the process of soaking corn in an alkaline solution to unlock nutrients that otherwise cannot be processed by digestive system. It’s one of those crazy, ingenious solutions to food that people have come up with over millennia. The ESFL folks can elaborate.
John L. Seidel says
What a great partnership! Washington College students can now see how a commercial start-up works, while still getting the great educational programs of ESFL and participating in its community outreach. Most people do not realize that ESFL receives no annual operating support from the College. Subleasing space and equipment to Rise when they’re not in use maximizes efficiency, while helping ESFL financially.
Check out the Eastern Shore Food Lab at https://www.washcoll.edu/learn-by-doing/eastern-shore-food-lab/index.php , where you can review their programs and join their mailing list.
Judith Hughes says
Great news! Congratulations! I’ll be visiting to order my sourdough. I wish you all the best success!
Alex Bowles says
Not to put too fine a point on it: do Chestertown residents not named Schindler have the same access to this resource for their startups?
Debra Hanover says
Good point.
Katherine Conley says
I am not sure I understand the correlation between the ESFL and Rise. When I read the ESFL mission statement, I did not see anything about commercial enterprise. I did not see anything about a family using a college building for a business venture. Do the Schindlers pay rent? Do they lease equipment or pay staff? In my opinion, a talented restaurateur sold his building to an individual who then turned it over to the college, depriving the town of both a great restaurant and its tax-derived revenue. So I am perplexed. It seems to me that by operating a for-profit business in a college property, Rise is unfairly competing with other local entities who play-by-the-rules, pay rent, pay taxes and incur significant operating costs.
Pete Buxton says
The property is privately owned, and not college property. Taxes are paid on the property.