With more time at home in the wilderness of Uganik, we are able to reflect on this big old crib we call earth. It takes care of us usually, providing the right mix of sun and rain and temperatures to nurture bountiful life. When normal cycles get out whack, though, we can see first-hand how delicate the balance is between too much precipitation or too much warmth.

So too with the pandemic. The distance between wellness and sickness, between calm preparedness and stressing out suddenly blurs. While our lives here are safely remote, our thoughts are with our family and friends in more populated areas. We wish you all good health!

More than ever, we reflect on the goods we humans rely on and where they come from, how they are processed, how they end up in our homes, and how this world sustains us all. Living as we do, 60 miles by boat from town, where we only get to resupply once a month, certain aspects of our supply chain are more precarious than others. It’s not like we can just rush to the store to stock up on toilet paper. With rumors of Kodiak being all cleaned out of the precious commodity, we got in our skiff and traveled half an hour across the bay to our summer fishing camp, all boarded up for winter. Crawling under the electric fence surrounding the cabin with a screw gun in hand, we took the plywood off the front door and checked the bathroom – and we got lucky. There was a whole case stashed away last fall. On the way home we encountered a pod of Dall porpoises chasing herring, who momentarily joined us to play in our wake. It might be the most entertaining toilet paper run we’ve ever been on!

In all seriousness, though, without food, all the toilet paper in the world is useless, so we give great thanks to this blue and green world for providing. From fish to venison to jars packed full of canned raspberries and vegetables from our greenhouse, our pantry is full of the literal fruits of our labors. We’re planting more apple trees every year and looking forward to a fall apple harvest, along with plums and pears. Yesterday we planted carrots and potatoes outside, and a few days prior, radishes. Starts in little cups adorn our indoor windowsill planting station and our greenhouse is abloom with plum blossoms.

It’s all well and good knowing our pantry is full, but we love being part of the food chain for others. Growing, eating, and gathering from the wilds is a tangible privilege, and sharing this with a wider audience (in the form of our wild salmon) energizes us deeply. In a few short weeks our minds and bodies will turn again toward the upcoming salmon season, but right now we are most excited about a new way to regenerate our world - through growing food - that we’ll soon be engaged in.

Imagine a farming method that requires no inputs, no feed, water or fertilizer and no clearing of land. Imagine that while the crop is growing it sucks up carbon, cleaning up our ocean and our earth. Imagine kelp farming! It’s been on our horizon for a while, kind of the dream job that dovetails perfectly with our salmon fishing experience and equipment and with our ocean-centered appreciation of life. Finally, it is becoming reality. In a few weeks our permitting will be finished, and we’ll be ready to seed out our first 10 acres in the fall for a harvest next spring. We are ordering supplies, finding the perfect kelp specimens to use as brood stock for the seed lines, and practicing making kelp chips and dried kelp for salad toppings, stir fries, and soup stock.

Sunlight and ocean water produce these beauties

If you’d like to get an idea what this is all about and try some delicious kelp-infused pasta, check out Blue Evolution, which gets its kelp from Kodiak farmers, or read ‘Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us’ by Ruth Kassinger. Yes, kelp is algae! Who knew? Published in 2019, this well-written book chronicles the deep history and diversity of this amazing organism, and, as the subtitle says, how it has potential to positively impact the earth.

Actually giving back to our fathomless swirling ocean through the cultivation of wild local kelp – literally helping to regenerate the world - feels like a deeper step into a sustainable future, one we can’t wait to take.

Happy Earth Day, All!

-Tollef and Adelia

Ethereal fog on a glassy calm Uganik morning

Earth Day Thoughts: Regenerating our Ocean