The day I met Alana Kiefer was spectacularly sunny with a delicate salty breeze—a rarity on the wet Oregon coast. It was my first go to to Cannon Seashore, however Kiefer appeared fully at residence as he led me throughout the pale, delicate sand to a craggy, darkish rock cluster by the ocean. As a coastal explorer and educator, this stretch of Pacific coast is his workplace, his classroom, his kitchen, and the inspiration for founding his personal firm. shifting tide.
Kiefer based Shifting Tides in February 2023 to show individuals about intertidal ecosystems—the distinctive place the place sea meets land, which adjustments from hour to hour because the tides circulate—and the way they have an effect on our every day lives, particularly Relating to what we eat.
Alana Keefer sautés seaweed on a conveyable grill simply yards from the place we harvested it. Pictures by Elena Valeriote
Kiefer leads guests to the Oregon coast, the place he harvests after which prepares meals with wild seaweed and shellfish on the seaside. I beforehand obtained a state license for harvesting rights with He—/relatively than only a watch—so, after he demonstrated the right method, I used to be handed a small knife and we labored facet by facet to rigorously take away oysters and gooseneck barnacles from a large triangular rock with salt water. Enthusiasm radiated from Kiefer as he supplied recommendation and data, however it was the neon inexperienced seaweed that basically lit him up.
Accumulating wild oysters. Pictures by Elena Valeriote
“In Oregon, the seaweed harvesting season is from March to June 15, with a restrict of one-gallon bag of seaweed per day and solely three luggage per 12 months,” Keefer stated. “The foundations are that it’s important to use a knife or scissors to take away seaweed, and pulling anchors reminiscent of holdfasts or roots from rocks is definitely unlawful. This enables them to regrow 12 months after 12 months. It regenerates rapidly, however we must always by no means harvest all of a given space and depart loads intact for wild species to make use of.”
Kiefer catches recent foraged seaweed. Pictures by Elena Valeriote
Seaweed is a key ingredient in what Kiefer considers “local weather delicacies,” together with grass-fed and farmed meals that positively influence our local weather. A main instance is the wild bull pickle she makes and serves to those that be part of her at Shifting Tides, which has a delightfully vinegary, spicy taste and agency crunch. Attendees have the chance to strive the seaweed in Dalse that he farms and pan-fries in olive oil for a delightfully crisp, salty meal. Throughout my go to, I sampled the dals earlier than and after cooking the kiefer, and I additionally favored it in its uncooked kind – mildly crisp and barely chewy in style; Paying homage to the ocean, however not in contrast to the inexperienced of terrestrial leaves. Due to the flexibility of this specific seaweed, she makes use of it in every kind of dishes, together with do-it-yourself pasta, vegetarian Caesar salad dressing, and bagel seasoning.
Seaweed is the first focus of Kiefer’s work as an educator, spinner, and farmer. When he isn’t main the Shifting Tides tour, Kiefer works as a part of a small group Oregon Seaweed, an area seaweed farm the place he has been serving to domesticate a spread known as Pacific Dulce since 2021. Most of their seaweed is offered recent (about $15 per pound) or dried to close by eating places and residential cooks, however it’s additionally out there for worldwide delivery. As plant-based and environmentally aware meals tendencies turn into extra widespread, Oregon Seaweed is poised to satisfy rising world market demand for seaweed, valued at greater than $17 billion in 2023 and is predicted to double within the subsequent decade.
“One of many issues I like about my two jobs is that no two days of the week look the identical,” Kiefer says. “With Oregon Seaweed, some days I am out on the farm all day, cleansing tanks, drying and packaging seaweed; Others, I am instructing cooks at eating places prepare dinner dulse, or speaking about it with prospects on the market; Others, I am on the pc all day answering emails or engaged on on-line gross sales. It is the identical with Shifting Tides—there’s plenty of time exterior at low tide instructing individuals and cooking with individuals.”
“Alana’s ardour for the ocean is infectious,” stated Maggie Michaels, who just lately joined one in all her excursions. “The journey was like an accessible mini marine biology class, the place you uncover a critter and be taught the way it matches into the context of the surroundings.” Pictures by Elena Valeriote
Kiefer’s schedule ebbs and flows relying on each the tides and the vacationer season. In good climate, he can have 10 consecutive days of excursions and one workshop each weekend. Every of his roles has its personal particular duties, however there are clear throughlines between them.
“As a result of that algae is a much less standard meals in our tradition, plenty of my work with seaweed is instructing individuals how and why to make use of it,” Kiefer says. “Consuming seaweed is only one of many superb conservation efforts round meals.
“Regenerative aquaculture is giving again to the surroundings, relatively than taking from it or having a impartial impact on it, and requires no or very minimal inputs to develop meals,” Keefer explains. “For instance, seaweed requires daylight and pure vitamins; no freshwater, herbicides or pesticides. They’re eradicating carbon dioxide from the water via the method of photosynthesis in addition to further vitamins reminiscent of nitrogen, which may have a constructive impact on the native ecosystem.”
Kiefer, who farms Oregon seaweed in Dulles, for instance, has the flexibility to sequester one pound of carbon for each 4 kilos of seaweed. Within the wild, Keefer harvests about 10 totally different styles of seaweed, together with: nori, kombu, wakame, sugar kelp, pepper dulse, and seaweed spaghetti. A number of of those might be well-known to sushi lovers, however few will know the place to purchase the seaweed itself, what it seems to be like in its pure kind.
“He brings this mysterious underwater world of vegetation to life,” stated Duncan Berry, a Shifting Tides tour participant. Kiefer is “a power of nature, a real optimist, mingling with the wild…a dwelling expression of the coast.” Pictures by Elena Valeriot
Given his sense of absolute ease navigating the hidden nooks and crannies of Cannon Seashore, I used to be stunned it wasn’t Kiefer’s native habitat. He was born in New York Metropolis and got here to Oregon as an adolescent. Quickly, he started working for an environmental training group on intertidal ecosystems. She immediately fell in love.
“I grew up in a household of cooks, restaurant homeowners, cookbook editors and total meals lovers, so whether or not I spotted it or not I used to be born with a deep connection to meals,” Kiefer says. “As quickly as I went to the seaside, I moved away from meals service and began working alongside our ocean. I discovered so much concerning the meals system and what finally goes into getting meals from the ocean to our plates.”
Rocks and tide swimming pools the place Kiefer grazes on barnacles, mussels and seaweed for a day meal. Pictures by Elena Valeriote
On my go to to Cannon Seashore, Keefer identified the smaller-than-thumbnail starfish that suck on shells caught to the rocks across the tide pool. He instructed me about sculpins (a kind of slender fish with large mouths) that reside among the many sea lettuce and camouflage themselves to match their inexperienced colour.
Since founding Shifting Tides greater than a 12 months in the past, Kiefer has explored the ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest with individuals of all ages from throughout the nation. “To start with, it was principally individuals from Oregon. Now, by partnering with some inns on the coast with vacation spot administration organizations like Journey Oregon and the Oregon Coast Guests Affiliation, I am instructing lots of people who aren’t within the space in any respect—faculty college students from Wyoming, government teams from Tennessee, {couples} from Texas.”
Whereas guests might not have entry to the identical actual wild seafood again residence, they arrive away with an understanding of regenerative meals techniques that apply wherever.
“So many individuals are working exhausting to convey meals from the ocean to our desk in a means that’s sustainable and helps coastal communities,” Kiefer stated. “Foraging and cultivating seaweed for meals is actually a dream for the individuals of our shores, foraging and cultivating tales, practices, science, and conservation.”
Kiefer’s dream is the fact we want. Watching her sauté seaweed on a conveyable seafoam grill only a few yards from the place we harvested it, I felt a form of hope rarer than a blue-sky day in Oregon. There isn’t a single, easy answer for our meals system, however Shifting Tides exhibits the precious work already being executed and invitations us to affix.
Pickled bull kelp on the Oregon coast. Pictures by Elena Valeriote
