Low Low Tides Seaweed Harvest Workshop: April

Greenhorns and Smithereen Farm partner to offer educational seaweed harvest events. This is our seventh year of offering Low Low Tides Seaweed Programming.

These events are multi-day educational and social experiences; at dawn we teach you to harvest responsibly and process wild algae for culinary use. In the afternoon we host teachers for lectures, and there are delightful shared group meals for those who stay on.

Our purpose with this programming is to share our love of the seaweed and wild ecology of the inter-tide, to keep learning and to learn and work in an embodied community of practice. The teachers join us in the water. Kacie Loparto has been learning / teaching seaweed for more than 12 years. The teachers we have chosen reflect some of the areas we feel are important for seaweed stewardship- read on for the afternoon workshop descriptions.

For more information on our theory of change, please read the Seaweed Commons position paper and articles www.seaweedcommons.org. Our goal is to grow a vibrant community of care to protect our access, our coastal ecology and our beloved ocean. 

Harvesters must register with the Low Low Tides 2025 — Registration Form, and must obtain proper licensing. (We’ll help!)

We hand-harvest from Cobscook Bay and the nearby Bold Coast. We dry in our greenhouses, for Smithereen Farm to process in for commercial, value-added products like seaweed sprinkle, salt, broth mix, bath soak, and newly added this year… kelp soap! We think that the beautiful and intense physical practice of seaweed wild harvest is a great time for those who are passionate and/or curious on this subject to come, in person, and expose their thinking to the cold water and extreme tides. We offer simple indoor lodging for those interested in joining, and for committed harvesters who can join for the duration, we guide you in obtaining the appropriate licensing and pay for your harvest.

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SCHEDULE

April 27: Arrival

April 27: Trey Angera and Sarah Redmond (Springtide Seaweed and Maine Seaweed Exchange)

Reversing Hall, 1pm
4 Leighton Point Road, Pembroke ME 04666
Springtide Seaweed is a fully integrated organic seaweed aquaculture company, including a seaweed nursery that provides USDA organic seed to commercial and hobby farmers throughout Maine and New England. Founder Sarah Redmond is a dedicated seaweed farmer, tending the wild ocean garden and inspiring others about all things Maine seaweed. Sarah has been a leader in seaweed aquaculture since 2010 through the development of new nurseries and educational programs, crops and products, sea farmer training programs, the first organic certification program for seaweed crops, and through major facilitation of the industry. The Maine Seaweed Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the success of seaweed professionals of any experience level, providing education, advocacy, and access to a network of thoughtful and dedicated members from around the world.

April 29: What do the West Coast Kelp Watchers See off their Shore?
Digital Access, 3pm
Arms-length from the resource turns out to be a good distance from which to view the health of the seaweed ecosystem, particularly over time. Elinor Ostrum, MacArthur-winning economist who studied Commons-based natural resource economies around the world, identified and names a set of governance principles which characterized systems able to sustain themselves (see list below, and there’s a great video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr5Q3VvpI7w) ) This digital panel features longtime wild harvesters and conservation minded aquaculturists speaking from their own experience observing Pacific species, particularly in the last years impacted by ocean heating events that have caused cascading impacts in the coastal kelp forests. Each will talk about her own lifeworld in seaweed, observations about changes in the ocean, reflections on the territoriality, customary practices and regulatory structures that inform their harvest. They will bring up some of the misconceptions and 101 thinking that they bring to their work as educators and naturalists, ‘docents to the wild world of seaweed,’ as well as some points that are relevant for those who wish to see more careful state regulation, and where/how to approach a life in seaweed learning….
Panelists: 

• Amanda Swinimer of Dakini Tidal Wilds has been harvesting seaweed in British Columbia for more than twenty years. Trained as a marine biologist, she is the author of “The Science and Spirit of Seaweed” and “The Science and Superpowers of Seaweed: A Guide for Kids.” She is a primary author of the Seaweed Commons white paper and a longtime participant in Slow Fish International.
• Julie Drucker (Yemaya Seaweed) and Heidi Herrmann (Strong Arm Farm) have been wild harvesting along the Mendocino/Sonoma coast in California for the past twenty years.

April 28-May 1: Harvesting, drying, processing, learning!

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Registration required: Low Low Tides 2025 — Registration Form