April 24 – May 2, 2020

A Food + Drink Festival
Celebrating Maine's Kelp Harvest

Portland, Maine + Beyond

Presented By

Get Updates on Seaweed Week 2020!

From Farm

With 30+ 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 the springtime.

Maine's intrepid wild harvesters scramble over rocks during extreme low tides to collect dulse, Irish moss, kombu, sea lettuce 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. Won't you join them at the table?

See the 2019 List (2020 TBD)

About The Festival

Seaweed Week is the first thing of its kind: A harvest festival and restaurant week starring kelp! Maine's top chefs, mixologists, brewers and distilleries are putting native seagreens of all kinds front and center on the menu.

The heart of the festival is Portland (Bon Appetit's Food City of the Year), with events like cooking demos, talks and tours of a kelp farm in Casco Bay. But there are participating restaurants and events throughout Maine.

Why Seaweed? Why Maine?

Delicious + Versatile

North Atlantic 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, 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 and others 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 to make 50% more food by 2050, with increasing droughts and poor soil. Producing large volumes of seaweed for human food would change 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.

Watch This Lobstering Family Start A Kelp Farm

Find Out More About Seaweed Week Here

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