The instruction that you should make lemonade if life gives you lemons sort of applies to Matt Castro of Keaau, Hawaii island.

Rather than lemons however, life gave him a stroke in 2011, effectively ending his career as a union carpenter.

He didn’t make lemonade.

Instead, he made even more dried and smoked fish than ever before, and thus, he and his company fishsnax! will debut at the Made in Hawaii Festival this month on the recommendation “of one of my good customers, who goes every year and they said it’s awesome,” he said.

That is the short version of his story, which is a rich tale of befalling hardship and working through the system using available resources to build a business.

More on that in a moment.

Fishsnax! brand dried ahi, chili pepper ahi and dried aku sells in quarter-pound bags for $5, 1-pound bags for $10 and 2-pound bags for $20.

Castro started out with half-pound bags with a zip top, “so as a snack it can be closed and saved for later, but that never happens,” said his wife, Claire. “I don’t know how many people tell me that they cannot eat just one bag,” she said. Clearly, larger packaging was in demand.

Castro also makes smoked marlin in $5 and $10 sizes, as well as marlin sausage and ahi smoked sausage at $10 for 2 pounds.

“When available, he also makes boneless dried opelu,” Claire said.

Castro sources his fish from local fishermen, most of them hobbyists, though he adds, “I catch some of it.”

Sometimes the Hilo fish markets will get flooded with a bountiful catch, and fishermen will contact him to sell some of their surplus.

He has loved dried fish since his youth, when he would impatiently wait for his dad’s dried opelu to finish drying so he could eat it.

As a teenager he bought a dehydrator at a garage sale, recalling that he likely borrowed money from his mother to make the purchase.

Those nascent days of fish drying continued into adulthood, in “1999 or 2000,” when he would share packages of his dried fish with his brother carpenters.

“I would take dried fish to job sites, just for snack … and they would ask me if I wanted to sell,” suggesting that he could earn money on the side.

Then the stroke made him medically unable to continue in his trade.

AT HIS WIFE’S urging, Castro signed up with the state Department of Human Services Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, which helps people with disabilities maintain employment, or perhaps find employment in a different field.

After Castro’s DVR meeting he decided self-employment would be his path.

“He took his idea of the dried fish and turned it into a business,” Claire said.

Castro’s self-employment was reviewed by the DVR counselor and the Small Business Development Center in Hilo, which helped him with a business plan, feasibility study, cash flow and other aspects of running a business.

Working his way through permit applications, state Department of Health policies and County of Hawaii standards, Castro built a certified kitchen.

A long way from waiting for his dad’s dried opelu, or even the results from his garage sale dehydrator, Castro can now produce 50 pounds of dried fish every 24 hours, he said.

ALL THAT PRODUCT doesn’t get sold at retail, however.

“We have made several fundraisers with the Lehua Jaycees, and he makes sure that every month he donates 10 percent (of sales) to a special cause,” Claire said.

Fishsnax! has donated a dryer to a special-education class at Hilo High School, a new stove for the state Adult Mental Health Division’s Hale‘oluea Clubhouse and cash to the FoodBasket of Hawaii; and “one Thanksgiving he purchased 75 turkeys to Under His Wings Ministry and about 125 gift cards to McDonald’s to feed people during the holidays,” she said.

“He gives because he knows how it is to struggle,” Claire said. “He gives with his heart.”

The couple was invited by the Hawaii Cultural and Retail Association to join its exhibitors at the Blaisdell Center for this year’s Made in Hawaii Festival.

Asked whether he felt he was ready, an immediate reply of “no” was followed by laughter. “I am a borderline nervous wreck,” but also excited for the experience, he said.

“We are so honored for this opportunity … and are hoping that this will place fishsnax! on the map,” said Claire.

“There were so many obstacles, and at times we thought that we could not ever make it in such a slow economy, but we had the support we needed from so many different agencies and we could not do it alone.

“I hope they know how grateful we are to have all of these different people in our lives,” she said.

“Buy Local” each Aloha Friday is about made-in-Hawaii products and the people who make them. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.