Kelp being collected in 2014 in Casco Bay by Bangs Island Mussels/Wild Sea Tank Farming. Picture credit history: Jaclyn Robidoux
The 4th yearly Maine Algae Week begins Friday, in the world Day, with a celebration at Oxbow Mixing & Bottling, 49 Washington Ave., in Rose city, including Oxbow’s kelp beer launch as well as demonstrations led by algae farmers as well as researchers.
The complimentary first event ranges from 5 to 9 p.m., with demos set up for the initial 90 mins. Algae Week goes through Might 1.
The occasion had actually been stopped throughout the last 2 years of the pandemic, yet returns this year completely pressure, with greater than 75 bars as well as dining establishments providing unique recipes as well as beverages making use of full-flavored, umami-rich algae, in addition to 5 breweries touched to produce unique beers. The occasion internet site listings getting involved locations.
“Individuals often tend to such as algae when they attempt it, yet they don’t have a great deal of chances to attempt it,” stated Maine Algae Week creator Josh Rogers of Heritage Algae, clarifying the relevance of having location cooks as well as mixologists reveal occasion goers specifically just how scrumptious the plentiful component can be. “They’ll be utilizing it to make whatever from hamburgers, hotdogs as well as pizza to attentively layered, farm-to-table recipes. I enjoy that it reveals the genuinely wide variety of feasible usages for algae.”
In a little bit of organizing luck, the Northeast Tank Farming Seminar & Presentation is assembling collectively with the Milford Tank Farming Workshop April 27-29 in Rose city, suggesting Algae Week will certainly be a possible must-see for tons of algae farmers, researchers as well as various other professionals currently in the area for the exposition.
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“It’s most likely the solitary most lasting plant you can expand,” Rogers stated, contrasting it with natural fruit and vegetables, which calls for open land as well as great deals of fresh water. As algae expands, Rogers stated, it boosts salt water top quality by decreasing acidification that damages shellfish coverings. “We actually require to be scaling up our algae farming. It’s changing the functioning beachfront.”
Jaclyn Robidoux, co-organizer of both Maine Algae Week as well as the tank farming exposition, stated Maine has around 30 algae ranches, up from one ranch simply a years back. “We’ve definitely seen a jump in the last 10 years. Before that, there were no seaweed farmers mostly because there were no seaweed buyers,” Robidoux said.
Rogers noted Maine’s long history with seaweed as an ingredient. “It’s always been part of the local diet, going back to the Indigenous peoples,” Rogers said. Indeed, New England’s first nature guidebook – dating back to 1672 – lists numerous culinary and medicinal uses for seaweed, many gleaned from Native Americans.
Rogers said Seaweed Week “is a little offbeat, but it’s very important, and people are excited about the event being in Maine.”
Fermentation Fair at Oxbow
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Nicholas Repenning of Go-en Fermented Foods presents some of his miso and koji products to Fermentation Fair goers in 2020 at Bunker Brewing Co. in Portland. Alden Robinson
Fermentation Fair is slated for Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Oxbow Blending & Bottling in Portland.
The fair features eight presenters, from restaurant chefs to home-process experts, explaining their methods for making koji, yogurt, kimchi, vinegar, sourdough bread, wild and organic wines, and other fermented foods.
“There are so many fermented foods being made right now in Maine, and just a crazy variety,” said Eileen Murphy, co-director of the local nonprofit The Resilience Hub, which is putting on the fair for the third year since 2019. “There’s some fermented food I haven’t even heard of that will be there, so I think it’ll be a great learning experience for everyone there.”
Murphy said the fair wasn’t held last year because of the pandemic. But fermented-food fans can take heart – The Resilience Hub intends to hold the fair annually again.
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“We’re trying to get even more people involved in the future,” Murphy said, adding that she feels fermented foods are on the rise in Maine. She attributes their growing popularity to the fundamental combination of science and food.
“I know first hand how tricky fermentation can be, though,” Murphy said. “So the fair is a great opportunity to ask fermentation experts about their processes, and learn so much more about it.”
The Fermentation Fair is free and open to the public.
More good press for Portland dining
Portland restaurants earned another major magazine story, this time in Conde Nast Traveler, which ran a roundup last month of “The 15 Best Restaurants in Portland, Maine.”
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“These days, Portland is a jumble of creative and scrappy spots that make snacking your way around town an utter delight. That said, when you want the complete dining experience of a sit-down-and-linger meal that will haunt your dreams, these are the restaurants to be reckoned with,” the story proclaims, before offering writeups on Solo Italiano, Union at The Press Hotel, The Honey Paw, Woodford Food & Beverage, Central Provisions, Via Vecchia, Scales, Fore Street, Baharat, Eventide Oyster Co., Chaval, Izakaya Minato, Pai Men Miyake, Terlingua and Street & Co.
The Conde Nast Traveler piece also offers an explanation of how this small city developed such a giant reputation for fine food.
“The state’s proud lack of pretense and its close-knit community of small farms, working waterfronts, and independent restaurants are long-held traditions that predate (and frankly, eclipse) hype phrases like ‘locavorism.’ And it means not only widespread access to far better food for everyone, but that celebrated fine dining here tends to eschew anything high-concept, and instead just keep it real,” the story states.
Portland Farmers’ Market headed outside
As its indoor winter season draws to a close, the Portland Farmers’ Market will be held Wednesdays and Saturdays in Deering Oaks from April 27 until Nov. 23.
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This Saturday will be the last indoor market of the year in the gymnasium at the Stevens Square Community Center at 631 Stevens Ave. The summer market will remain at Deering Oaks except between May 18 and June 15, when it will move to Payson Park while the city treats trees at Deering Oaks for an infestation of browntail moths, according to Portland Farmers’ Market Association President Caitlin Jordan.
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