LUMMI ISLAND, Wash. — It's an area that's been feeding souls for centuries.
"We're on Lummi Island. This is Legoe Bay right out here," said long-time Lummi resident Riley Starks. "Even before settlers came here, this was a favorite beach for the Lummi Nation."
Now, Starks and others have teamed up to produce a crop new to commercial farming in our area.
"We're the first fully permitted commercial seaweed farm in the state of Washington," said Starks. "It's a win, win, win for the Salish Sea, because it's healthy food, it helps the environment tremendously."
Though seaweed grows wild, Lummi Island Seagreens carefully cultivate the sugar kelp they raise.
"You have to start with kelp from around here," Starks explains. "It goes from you can't even see the seeds they are so small, just little brown things, to fronds that are 10 feet long."
"We have reef net skiffs because we're reef net fishermen. We're just hand-pulling," Starks said.
It's a labor-intensive task - each line they pull in can weigh hundreds of pounds.
"We just fill a tote and then we deposit it on the tender," Starks said. "Some will be frozen, the rest of it is going to go to a dehydrator in concrete."
With its different flavor profiles and numerous health benefits, Starks says food is a natural market for their produce from the deep.
"We're concentrating on culinary because I have a culinary background," he said. "And people eat seaweed all over the world."
Chef Luke Kolpin first cooked with seaweed when he worked at the famed restaurant, Noma in Copenhagen.
"It would be at least 20% of the menu would have something in it on the menu," Kolpin said.
Now back in the states, Kolpin uses seaweed in some of the food he makes at his restaurant, Cedar and Elm inside The Lodge at St Edward's in Kenmore.
"We make a really nice roasted seaweed kelp oil to go with one of our cakes, an olive oil cake," said Kolpin. "It adds a different element that you wouldn't normally get."
Seaweed farming in Washington is still in its seed stage. but Starks and others hope the work they're doing now will continue to grow into the future.
"This is the most fun I've had on the water," Starks said.
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