{"id":8917,"date":"2013-09-27T12:09:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T16:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=8917"},"modified":"2013-09-27T12:09:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T16:09:14","slug":"sea-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/sea-greens\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea Greens"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 2013 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

An ingenious new business provides Maine\u2019s lobster crews with a self-kelp manual for their downtime in winter.<\/h3>\n

By Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n

\"kelp\"<\/a>A multi-billion-dollar industry is making a big splash on Maine\u2019s shores. \u201cWe\u2019re going global in the spring,\u201d says Tollef K. Olson (pictured right), CEO and founder of Ocean Approved at 188 Presumpscot Street in Portland, an innovative firm that\u2019s creating a lucrative market for Maine\u2019s kelp beds overnight.<\/p>\n

In kelp slaw and bright green salads across the world, particularly. Kelp stars in new-cuisine inventions such as \u201cMussels over Kelp Noodles, Vegetarian Kelp Noodle Soup, and even Piccalilli\/Kelpalilly, served with French bread and hummus,\u201d Olson says.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s trademarked kelp\u2019s tag: \u201cthe virtuous vegetable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting down to brass tacks, \u201cKelp is mineral rich and delicious. For example, it has four times as much calcium as whole milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to mention, \u201cKelps are a good source of calcium, potassium,\u00a0 magnesium, sodium, copper, iron, and iodine.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no problem making all of this virtuosity desirable, because \u201cit\u2019s incredibly tasty. In coastal regions of Asia, up to 10 percent of the average\u2019s diner\u2019s total food intake can be seaweed. It\u2019s a huge component of their diet. It\u2019s used in everything from soups to sushi. It crosses the borders of all the food groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn South Korea, pregnant women are highly encouraged by a government program to eat kelp, because it\u2019s loaded with trace elements of minerals that the ocean mixes and remixes constantly, not unlike the way the human body mixes them. So kelp is an unmatched source of micro-nutrients. It\u2019s very tough to pull these out of a terrestrial plant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does that make kelp extra-terrestrial?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s subaqueous, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s France. \u201cEvery spring, there\u2019s a crop, sacharina lattisima<\/em>. It\u2019s a seasonal specialty. They actually call it spaghetti de la mer<\/em>, spaghetti of the sea. It\u2019s lightly steamed or saut\u00e9ed with shellfish. Think linguine vongole<\/em>, though that\u2019s Italian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorldwide, seaweed harvest volume by weight accounts for 40 percent of all aquaculture products,\u201d says Paul Dobbins, Ocean Approved\u2019s co-owner with Olson. Fish and shellfish represent the other 60 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a good year, there\u2019s up to 17 million metric tons of kelp farmed worldwide, with a gate value above $7 billion,\u201d says Olson.\u201dThat\u2019s just the farmed kelp. The wild kelp puts the figure way over that. It\u2019s used in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olson traveled a lot when he was younger. \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of commercial fishing. I also ran a restaurant, Vagabonds, in Bar Harbor in the 1980s. In my travels I developed a taste for seaweed salad but found the dried version contained food coloring and preservatives. We have 3,000 miles of coastline, ideal for growing kelp.\u201d Eureka. \u201cIf we didn\u2019t<\/em> dry it, it would be easier to use, more vibrant, more colorful, and, well, fresh. And it wouldn\u2019t need to contain additives or food coloring. Dried and reconstituted, it can\u2019t regain its bright color without additives. Our frozen kelp has its own natural color.\u201d<\/p>\n

His analogy is the pea: \u201cOnce you dry a pea, you can\u2019t make it green and fresh and sweet again. If you don\u2019t dry kelp at first, it becomes virtually a new product,\u201d striking, green, and ready to boom.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I approached Shep Erhart of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables and the market wasn\u2019t ready 30 years ago. I waited. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables has excellent dried kelp\u2013they don\u2019t reconstitute it or use additives. It\u2019s used dried in other recipes. I think we\u2019re the only company freezing fresh kelp.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we have half a dozen boats working from Camp Ellis to Cobscook Bay. We\u2019ve won sea grants from Maine Technology Institute, a non-profit organization that helps startups. We won a Phase I and Phase II NOAA SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant (totaling $395,000) from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. We can, as a result of this, go from microscopic spores all the way to the table with our product. On our five-member board of directors we have an MBA, two former hedge-fund managers, a very successful businessman, and Jason A. Garlock, DMD, who is detailing what properties of kelp really can be substantiated in terms of science\u2013all of whom are excited about this miracle product.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another exciting efficiency: \u201cKelp grows like wildfire in Casco Bay from fall into spring, which is when the lobstermen have already pulled up their traps. Harvesting of kelp\u2026could serve as a great winter job for our lobstermen and fishing community,\u201d says Dr. Garlock. Setting up a kelp farm requires an aquaculture license, but off-season fishermen may be employed to harvest kelp for the licensees.<\/p>\n

Want to give it a taste? \u201cBrowne Trading and Harbor Fish Market both carry our kelp,\u201d Olson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody likes wakame in Japanese restaurants, and Flatbread Company has always put it in their salads,\u201d says Zack Yates at Harbor Fish. \u201cPeople make it at home now, too. I find the fresh Maine kelp is actually better and more crunchy\u2013the stuff in sushi places is often the imported, pre-made salad. The tsunami in Japan wiped out a lot of kelp farms, so Maine kelp is in high demand now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelp Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

Farming kelp may become the perfect winter (off-season) occupation for Maine\u2019s lobster fishermen. Kelp requires no food beyond what it filters from the mineral-rich ocean. It grows on long strings that have been seeded with kelp spores before submersion in the ocean. The strings are attached to lines suspended under water some 25 feet below the surface, away from the danger of snagging or fouling the keels or propellers of passing boats. Harvesting begins two months later, when the seedlings have grown to six- to nine-foot ribbons. Kelp, which has no fishy flavor, is hand-cut from the strings, blanched within 24 hours to a bright green, and then cut into fine shreds and linguine- and fettucine-like \u201cnoodles,\u201d which are then frozen or sold fresh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 2013
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