Seaweed Week: A Food and Drink Festival Celebrating Maine's Kelp Harvest

April 21 - 30, 2023

The 5th Annual Food and Drink Festival Celebrating Maine's Kelp Harvest

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Event at a glance

Local restaurant and bar menus feature seaweed-based food, cocktails, and other specials

Brewers, bakers, distillers, chocolatiers, cheesemakers, and other artisans release limited-edition items

Events include a kick-off party, cooking classes, seaweed ID walks and workshops, product launches, and more

Seaweed Week Farmers Market! Buy fresh kelp direct from local farmers and cook with it at home

Join the celebration!

Everyone – Get updates via our mailing list

Businesses – Register to participate

Farmers – Join our Farmers Market to sell your fresh kelp

From Farm . . .

With 35+ kelp farms and growing, Maine leads the nation in seaweed aquaculture. Lobstermen, mussel growers, oyster farmers and others plant their lines in November for harvest in April.

And Wild . . .

Maine's intrepid wild harvesters scramble over rocks during extreme low tides to collect dulse, Irish moss, kelp, kombu, and wakame. It's a way of life that goes back thousands of years along this coast.

. . . To Table

Maine's top restaurants, bars, breweries and distilleries are bringing their passion and skills to local sea vegetables. Join them at the table!

Why seaweed? Why Maine?

Delicious & Versatile

North Atlantic Kelp, Kombu, Wakame, Sea Lettuce and Irish Moss species represent a wide range of flavors and culinary uses. And if kelp is the new kale, dulse is the new bacon.

Health Benefits

Typically, seaweeds have 10x more minerals than land-based plants. Plus vitamins, essential aminos, and antioxidants. Oh, and it's where fish get their omegas.

Happy Oceans

Seaweed creates habitat for baby lobsters and other marine life. It also sequesters carbon, creates oxygen, and reverses ocean acidification.

Shellfish Love

Oyster and mussel growers are adding kelp farms to their operations because beneficial halo effects make their shellfish stronger, healthier and tastier.

Working Waterfront

At a time when Maine's traditional waterfront jobs face multiple pressures, lobstermen are turning to aquaculture, a way to augment their unsteady income.

Maine = Awesome

Maine is leading the way in a trend that saw US seaweed products increase by 76% between 2011 and 2015. Let's support these local innovators.

Feed The World

The world needs 50% more food by 2050, with increasing droughts and poor soil. Seaweed is one piece of the global food-security equation.

We Can Be Heroes

Growing seaweed requires no land, no fresh water, no fertilizer, and no pesticides. Let's champion this zero-input crop that's a true sustainability superhero.

Highlights from past festivals

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A woman talks about specimens of seaweed to a small group of people on a beach

As seen in

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