Melanie Jenkinson founded Howl at the Spoon
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Melanie Jenkinson is already an expert when it comes to creating recipes you can make when you’re enjoying the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. But she’s also come up with some packets that can be used for your next campout, hike or even at home.
Jenkinson came up with single-use packets and started her own company, Howl at the Spoon. She’s shared her vast knowledge about making food out in the elements in her blog, Trail Forked, along with a cookbook.
“I started my blog, Trail Forked, about 13 years ago. It’s a pretty popular blog for outdoor referencing of how to cook in the outdoors,” she told KOIN 6 News. “I wrote a cookbook called ‘The Great Outdoors Cookbook’ and as I was traveling around the northwest end of the parks to write these recipes, I decided, like, ‘Why can’t healthy convenient sauce be in condiment-like packs’ because I was hoarding condiments. So I looked into how I could start doing it for myself.”
In 2019, Jenkinson took a course at Portland Community College, “Getting Your Recipe to Market,” and then launched her business the next year.
“Our sauces are all just plant-based and really good organics and fair trade olive oil. So you can just build it with whatever base you like, whether that’s chicken, whether that’s tofu, whatever grains you like or don’t like. You can even use them as salad dressings.”
The sauce flavors are Al Pastor, Chimchurri, Lemon Dill and Marionberry.
“Last year we introduced our savory Marionberry,” she said. “It’s not a sweet sauce. It’s good for pork tenderloin, charcuterie boards, salmon brie, and that one has been a really, like, a love letter to Oregon because it’s a very Oregon-forward chefy sauce.”
Her sauces are available at several stores and at the food festivals she attends. She also runs a “terracycle” program for user to recycle their single-use packets.
She’s also influenced to make her products as healthy as possible. Her husband has a kidney disease, IgA nephropathy, which makes his a low-sodium diet.
Howl at the Spoon products use local ingredients. Jenkinson is excited how far her business has come and what the path forward looks like.
“Coming in 2024, we’re going to switch gears and go into maybe some fruit composts that you could put over your oatmeals and your yogurts,” she said. “So we’re looking into lines of that and they’re going to be a really fun Oregon product that are, you know, an ode also to local farms and what’s being produced here.”