Alex Johnstone and David Rothstein
Salmonberry Goods | Seattle, WA
December 2025
Lifelong friends David Rothstein and Alex Johnstone started brainstorming about food systems as Seattle high schoolers and started a bike-cart coffee shop together after graduating college. The project connected them with local markets and sparked an early understanding of how food systems work—from the farmers they bought produce from to the roasters who supplied their beans. When they began baking for their own café, they discovered a gap in the landscape: plenty of roasters and restaurants, but no infrastructure to move small-farm grain and produce directly into everyday kitchens.
That realization became the foundation for a model they built from the ground up. Salmonberry Goods is a bakery that mills and ferments local grains, a neighborhood pantry where bread and produce share the same shelf, and a twice-weekly home-delivery program that connects hundreds of Seattle households with nearby farms. Operating out of a small production bakery and produce distribution warehouse as well as a storefront that was formerly Johnstone’s childhood greengrocer, the duo are bridging the gap between grower, baker, and eater. Their setup allows them to buy flexibly, absorb seasonal surpluses, and turn what farmers have into food people actually want to eat.
Johnstone is the grain nerd: long-fermented sourdoughs, malted bagels, high-hydration focaccia, and simple formulas built on Washington wheat. They both keep their stall at the Ballard Farmers Market, and treat “yes to farms” as an operating rule—buy what growers have, make it desirable, and pay quickly. As farm buyer, Rothstein brings sourcing to the table while managing bakery production and logistics that move hundreds of deliveries across the city. Together, they run a lean, utilitarian operation that distributes good bread and peak-season Washington produce while strengthening the region’s small-farm economy via grassroots connections.
