Every March we celebrate women-owned local businesses carried at the Co-op. Here are three more awesome small businesses owned and operated by savvy Maine women, one from outside Maine doing great work for women, and one local woman-founded (now family-run) business.
Lynne Rowe
Lynne Rowe started Tortillería Pachanga in Portland, Maine in 2014 bringing together her love for Mexican cuisine and local food. She was gifted a beautiful wooden tortilla press from one of her student’s mothers while teaching in a small town in the state of Michoacán in Mexico and used the press for many years with her students in the United States. Her desire to create a business making delicious, nutritious foods that supported local agriculture led her to found Pachanga. Now located in Scarborough, Lynne continues her adventure with nixtamalization (the ancient alkaline steeping process using slaked lime) cooking a variety of corn varieties and stone grinding it into fresh masa and tortillas. Over the years she has partnered with a host of amazing fellow food producers and farmers that have all helped her to bring her products to stores and restaurants in our region. www.tortilleriapachanga.com
Mellisa Petrik
Alle Weil
Brooksville Maine, a small coastal town renowned for its hidden treasures and local entrepreneurs, is where Autumn Moon Farm and Flowers has unfurled. Mellisa Petrik grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, which gave her a rich and varied background in farming. She specializes in providing fresh locally grown flowers, crafting natural botanical body products, and growing heirloom vegetables. She strives to be a diverse source of agricultural products, while building a connection with community, and supporting local business. You can find her at autumnmoonfarmandflowers.com
Meg Ferrigno is the founder of femtech startup MoonPads— a social enterprise that sells compostable, organic pads on a buy-1, give-1 model to combat period poverty.
She also founded The Pureland Project, a nonprofit working towards environmental and cultural sustainability for Tibetan nomads. She has worked internationally with Tibetan communities since 2001, and has developed programs in India, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand, Kenya, and the U.S.
In the United States, she has experience working with at-risk youth, developmentally challenged, refugee populations, and other marginalized groups. She founded and manages a center for nonviolence and a community garden in Philadelphia.
Meg Ferrigno
Woman-Founded and Family-Run
Sisters Salsa has been in the fridges of many homes since 1995. It began as a homeschool project in Blue Hill, Maine, by Janet Benzel and her two daughters (they created the iconic logo). After it changed hands, purchased by Jim Buddington, the business was temporarily moved to Rockland but moved back to Blue Hill in February of 1998. Fast forward a little over two decades, a Sedgwick, Maine, couple – Brett and Melissa, joined between 2011 and 2019, to continue the next generation of a fresh snack influence for their three children. Brett is the Production Manager and Melissa is the Assistant Manager. They look forward to serving this community with a school-snack approved choice for generations to come. www.sistersalsa.com
