My Story part one and as it goes…
Most of you have probably met me, the seaweed girl, at the RI Indoor winter farmer’s market. Some of you have heard my story and others have not, so I will share it here.

I am from Pawtucket, RI- a city girl gone wild. I attended a little college called Warren Wilson College ’03-’07 in NC- where I studied elementary education while working in a beautiful herb garden making medicinal products and wild crafting in a beautiful Appalachian valley.

It was almost time to graduate and I was yearning for the sea- so after dreaming ideas like home schooling children on a seaweed harvesting boat…I searched online and found a mentor, 4 little hand crafted boats and a beautiful bay in Steuben, Maine where I could learn all about seaweed. The home schooling turned into tutoring Mexican migrant children in a neighboring town.

This summer will be my third summer harvesting. We harvest in harmony with the tides. The tides are the lowest around the new and full moon. This is when we harvest. We throw on our wetsuits just before sunrise. With our knives and about 35 bushel baskets, we head out to the middle of the bay maneuvering around islands and ridges to familiar beds of seaweeds. With the seals and seabirds as onlookers we spend just a few hours cutting back the seaweeds from the rocks; our bodies heating up as we go.

-more of my story to come!

Part two

This will be my third summer harvesting seaweed in Gouldsboro Bay. The life that I return to Down East is full of hard work, music making and merriment with friends young and old, healthy eating and caring for my body and soul. During my two summers and one long winter living in Down East Maine I made some great friends. One group of friends run a bread bakery called Tinder Hearth Bakery- specializing in spelt and sour dough breads baked in a handmade cob oven. Tim and Lydia head it up with the help of friends and family. All of the people I’ve met there in Brookesville are always creating beauty whether it be through music, building, baking or growing. They host regular open mic’s to raise money for the bakery and restoration of their barn. People of all ages perform from five to ninety five at the open mics. These friends value community, something that could slowly dissipate in parts of Maine where the economy isn’t vibrant enough to sustain all of the young people who are planning their futures. My friends at Tinder Hearth collective love their home and hope to help other young people keep their roots in Maine.

I will also give you a glimpse of another community of friends in Maine that live according to a certain worldview of self-sufficiency and creativity. My friends John and Irene welcome people onto their land in South Gouldsboro- they call their land Zocolo. Zocolo is a Spanish word for the place that people gather in a city- to socialize, to sell their goods, where children play and where music can always be heard. At Zocolo travelers, as well as John and Irene’s friends and family, visit and work and learn besides them. On any given day you will find them sheering sheep or building green houses. Irene may be slow cooking mole, a traditional Mexican sauce, while maintaining projects outside in the gardens or stacking wood. My friends rely on the energy of the sun to heat their adobe house. Interns are welcome year round as there is work to be done. Music, dancing, and warm open arms welcome me back to Zocolo.

I don’t have to leave my home in Steuben, where all of the seaweed work is done, to stay busy and in good company. Larch Hanson, my teacher, welcomes a crew of apprentices each season, April through October, to harvest, hang, and store the dried seaweeds. While living at the home on Wilderness Shores Road you may find me working in the garden planting long rows of carrots, parsley, beets and kale. There is also a woodshop where all of the parts for six Windsor chairs lay waiting. I hope to finish a few this month. When working in a salty environment it is important to have a way to heat up and rehydrate the body; for this we have a wooden hot tub and a sauna. And Larch always has a story to share with the many visitors that pass through- some, like me, stay a little longer than others.