We (Xa Milne and Fiona Houston) met in our children’s school playground moaning about our children’s addiction to the X-box and their lack of willingness to walk the dog. This desire to reconnect our young families with the seasons and the outdoor world turned into our book 'Seaweed and Eat It, a Family Foraging and Cooking Adventure' (2008). This in turn led us to discovering the enriching powers of Scotland’s native seaweeds, their role in our past, and their extraordinary potential to enrich and nourish our future. Three years later Mara was born.

Mara ® meaning ‘the sea’ in Gaelic, produces an innovative range of award-winning, shake-on seaweed flakes – “healthy salts” - the Flavours of Scotland. Mara’s seaweed is carefully selected and hand harvested from the pure, cold waters of Scotland. Mara is reviving an ancient tradition of harvesting in an ethical way under a Crown Estate License, using protocols approved by Scottish Natural Heritage.

We’ve won a cabinet full of awards for innovation and excellence over the last 2 years. BQ magazine selected Mara Sea-EO Fiona Houston as Scotland's 'Emerging Entrepreneur'. The company has consistently won Gold Taste Awards for their product range since 2012 and was shortlisted (out of thousands of nominees) as a finalist for this year’s Best Food Producer in the BBC Food and Farming Awards