Yard To Table
Hosted by Emmy Award® winners Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts, Yard to Table introduces listeners to the couple's passion for cultivating a delicious life, one yard at a time.
In each episode, Trevor and Ellen offer a delightful blend of practical gardening tips, mouthwatering recipes, and stories from fellow gardeners and food enthusiasts. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, Yard to Table is designed to be approachable and inspiring, guiding listeners on how to turn their outdoor spaces into thriving sources of joy.
Tune in for an inspiring mix of practical knowledge and creative energy, sprinkled with expert advice, plenty of laughs, and engaging interviews that celebrate the Yard to Table lifestyle.
Yard To Table
Tide to Table with Suzie Flores of Stonington Kelp Company
When your yard is the Pawcatuck River what do you grow? Sugar Kelp of course! And our guest today Suzie Flores built Stonington Kelp Company in Stonington, CT - with her husband Jay - in the waters of her yard that lead to Long Island Sound. Turns out that growing in the water helps things grow on land (we’ll tell you ALL about that!) AND provides sustainable and delicious food to our community and to the top chef’s in Connecticut. It’s "Tide to Table" with Farmer Suzie on Part 1 on this week’s episode of Yard to Table!
Things we talk about:
Yellow Farmhouse Education Center
And here's the recipe for Kelp Mac & Cheese! YUM!
Follow Stonington Kelp Company on Instagram at @stoningtonkelpco
Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!
Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙
Oh. Well, hello Ellen.
Ellen :Well, hello Trevor.
Trevor:Yet again, we're back at the table. Back here at the table.
Ellen :It's another episode of yard to table, which is,
Trevor:did we plan that the back at the table as a podcast, language as a line, as an intro line, it
Ellen :does work. Yeah? I mean, I like those little world building things, niblets that we create, yeah? Yardists, yardists.
Trevor:I do like the yardists. The yardist is fun.
Ellen :Our listeners being yardists. I don't know if you know that you're a yard you are the listener.
Trevor:Everyone out there, all 11 people of you, you're, you are yardists. And we're very happy that you're here and you are our people. You Oh, definitely you are our people. And I think that's one of the cool things that we always say, is that we find more and more people that are our people. Each time we interview people
Ellen :I know. And this is an interview episode which is very exciting.
Trevor:I love, I love a guest. I mean, I always love, you know, I love a guest.
Ellen :I love a guest here. And you know, I love talking with you. I don't get enough of talking with you. In my life, I am, let's,
Trevor:where is this going? Because I'm a little I'm nervous, and I'm not sure that's the right response about that. No, don't be nervous. I'm not gonna be nervous. No, that's I'm not gonna be nervous because we have an amazing guest today. We do so I don't have to be nervous.
Ellen :And today's episode really sort of expands the definition of a yard
Trevor:that's and we did say, we did say that season two would have more kinds of yards in it,
Ellen :because that is what is so fun in doing this podcast, is the yards that we discover, and amazing people that are doing things in the yards. And as we know, our guest today, her yard is literally water,
Trevor:which is which you wouldn't normally consider a yard to be water, right? It would be full of dirt and it would have grass on it, or other plants water
Ellen :where things are growing, pretty exciting. So let me, should I introduce our guests? I'm ready. Okay, I'm 100% ready. I am very excited. I might be more than 100% ready. Yeah, it's pretty great. So as I said, our, our guest yard is literally water, the ocean, which is pretty exciting River, and then the ocean, right, amazing. And it's also a farm, a seaweed farm, in fact, in Stonington, Connecticut. And she is a former market development executive, and with her husband, run one of the largest commercial seaweed farms in our state. So cool, which is really amazing, and they grow and harvest food grade sugar kelp, which is used by some of the most outstanding chefs in our region, not just our region, but across the state, and when not farming. I'll quote from her site, our guest engages in outreach education around the sustainability of seaweed farming and works to support the emerging blue economy in the northeast, which is incredible, so important. She's been featured in food and wine on seasons from the Connecticut Public Radio and 60 minutes. Oh,
Trevor:that show, yeah, just a little 60 Minutes. I've, I've, I've mentored,
Ellen :yeah? Well, we are so excited to welcome our very special guest today, Susie Flores from Stonington, kelp Suzy,
Trevor:welcome
Suzie Flores:you two. Are so cute. I'm so happy to be here.
Trevor:We are thrilled, ultra thrilled, to have you here.
Suzie Flores:My oldest new friends
Ellen :feel the same. We feel the same. And I think we, you know, we always talk about at the beginning of the podcast how we met and we met in your yard, which is water. Before
Trevor:that, we actually met at in another place that we've talked about often, which is the Westport farmers market. Well,
Ellen :that is how we heard about you and I met
Trevor:very briefly. I remember we sort of heard how to drive by introduction from Laurie, the director of the farmers market, one of our favorites, and
Ellen :what a former guest on our show from season one. And as we've talked about with you, Susie, you know, Lori is a connector of people, right? I mean, a
Unknown:human conduit. She is, it's very well said, She's, she's incredible. And that farmers market in particular is a wonderful opportunity to that for me, was a really educational opportunity to explain to people about my weird Yard Farm on the water.
Ellen :We were so fortunate because we got to go out and see your farm last week, which was an incredible day. We've been trying to make it happen for a little bit, right? A while, we're a little dependent on weather and tides and waves and all that good stuff, but we made it happen, and I'm busting. Questions. We recorded some on the boat, which is really exciting. We're so happy to have you today so we can dig into
Suzie Flores:I'll keep my language less salty than it was even more. That's wonderful. on the boat.
Trevor:Oh, salty language. We have it on. We have it on for those of her who were not on the tour with us, which is sadly, literally everybody. But you can be and more leaders you can be, and you should be, anybody that can do a tour with Susie in Stonington, this is the thing to do. It was so much fun. Information in the show notes. Such a great, great time. But for those of our wonderful listeners that did not hear, how did you go from being in the advertising and publishing world, and immediately move to the water.
Suzie Flores:You know, that's a big, yeah, it's a big, like, you know, when you're big splash learning how to ski, and you're at the top of the mountain, and then you fall, yeah, and then you wind up at the bottom. That's
Ellen :me, by the way,
Suzie Flores:gracefully, I I wanted to eat seaweed. That was really, really how it all began. We were making a lot of life transitions. My husband and I were moving from New York City, tri state area to the Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York tri state area, found an old Marina, started rehabbing it, and in the process of that, we were thinking, what other ways can we keep being on the water? Because that is where we are super happy. And my desire to eat seaweed led me kind of down a rabbit hole to look into cultivating it in the ocean. I had read a little bit about it when I was in college, so I kind of went back and looked at my notes, yeah. And then we found a non profit based out of New Haven called Green Wave, who was establishing themselves to do exactly what we were looking to do. So, you know, we were, we were aspiring ocean farmers. They were looking for people who they could help set up ocean farms. And a lovely relationship was born out of that. And that was eight, this is our eighth harvest. So that was nine years ago that this all started. Yeah, it's almost a decade.
Trevor:That's a long time. Yeah, that's a really long time. That's exciting, yeah, were you always, were you boat people? Were, you know,
Suzie Flores:I No, not even a little bit. I had my body license. I mean, what? How did it? How'd you get there? I was, I was one of those.
Ellen :Did you just say? Were you pirates? The affinity for rum? There it is. Susie. We are old friends.
Suzie Flores:I was one of those kids. My dad was the same way. Grew up like, you know, within a miles distance of water Hudson River, and really had spent little to no time actually on the water. So when we moved up here, and it was, you know, my husband was like, let's get a small little boat that we can putz around in, the idea was just so foreign and wild to me. But when he did that, I went and got my boating license, because I'm also very cautious, and I wanted to do it by the book. And, you know, in buying the marina, we were just kind of thrown into it. He had a much stronger comfort level on the water. He grew up fishing. He had his family had, you know, a center console boat that they would fish off of, so he knew a little bit more about what was going on. And he is still a better Captain than I am, but I have come a long way
Ellen :having ridden with you, knowing you are a good captain, so I can only imagine how Jay your husband, yeah, he does it blindfolded. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, and I will tell our listeners, Susie's very much not representing herself well because she was driving the boat around, harvesting kelp, talking to us, watching everything and also identifying the ecosystem
Trevor:or taking temperature measurements. Very impressive performance. So Jay is
Ellen :going to blow our minds.
Suzie Flores:Yes, it's not a it's definitely not a career path, though, that was presented in the list of options, you know, in high school of what you want to be when you grow up. And I do love though, that my now third grader will say, when asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll say, kelp farmer. That's awesome. It's really cute. That's so much. I don't know if it's true, but it's really cute to hear
Trevor:for now. Well,
Ellen :so you're in New York, you're still working, yes in publishing, yes. You moved to Connecticut, and so this idea, or got your boating license, you're loving you're loving seaweed, you're loving kelp. You start saying, I want to grow it. So you obviously made this partnership with green wave. So to how, how long did that take before you were like, That's it. I'm out of the city. I'm a full time kelp farmer.
Suzie Flores:I and I should caution anybody listening here, seaweed is a part of your economic portfolio. It really you're not gonna find a lot of people who are doing this at the scale that we're doing it, and are not supplementing their income in other ways. What was so exciting about this industry? Three was that it was so new and there was so much potential. It was, I mean, it's, it's still, it's a it's an emerging industry in this region. It's an emerging industry in this country. In spite of the fact that it is a billion dollar industry worldwide, it was a desire to have a more well rounded experience in my life I had, you know, I mean, you know how it is, I had kids, and I started rethinking kind of all of the choices I've ever made in my life, as you do, as one does, as you do. I really wanted to make sure that I was living the kind of life that I would have wanted my kids to live. So when we recognized that there was an opportunity to possibly monetize and support and uplift and maybe even shape a new industry that had a lot of environmental positives, rather than, you know, participating in some sort of industry that just is drawing on resources and not doing, you know, good things for the planet. We we jumped on it. We figured it was worth trying to make it work, because even if we failed, even if we couldn't find markets for our crops, we absorbed a bunch of carbon and nitrogen out of the water. Like, like during COVID, when that did literally happen, we couldn't find any markets, because everything closed. You know, it was really, it was comforting to know, like, at the very least, we did some good. You know, it wasn't a complete wash. So that was, that was, that was really great driving part. And like, you've been on the boat, it's fun, it's relaxing. It's not the, you know, it's, I'm seeing eagles and seals on my commute out to the farm.
Ellen :And talk a little bit about that more, because you're going out when no one else is out there. Because what is the kelp season like?
Suzie Flores:It's designed in the state of Connecticut, and really, most domestic seaweed seasons are designed so that they are off season, if you will. So recreational boaters aren't out when we're out.
Ellen :You're not competing with wave runners and day trippers, correct? Yeah.
Suzie Flores:We're not taking up anybody's special space. But what we are doing is growing a very sustainable crop that is actually improving the environment for everybody who lives in that kind of coastal region. So it's really a win win, sugar kelp. Specifically, it's the only species of seaweed you legally can grow for commercial sale in the state of Connecticut, and it was selected because it grows so fast and it grows over winter, so you can out plant in November, yeah, which is, that's what we call it. When we kind of put the seaweed farm back in the water,
Ellen :we're putting our beds to rest, and you are growing your beds Absolutely.
Suzie Flores:Wow. And the whole farming process, the whole, you know, the seaweed grows, I always say, in spite of me, I don't, there's no fresh water, there's no fertilizing. I love it. I it's, it does its own thing. We're essentially just watching it grow, you know. And that's one of the other wonderful parts about it. Is, if the weather turns and it's really awful out, the seaweed will be fine, because I don't have to rush out there to water it, or, you know, provide any sort of nutrition to it.
Trevor:I love that idea of Susie running out like a Can I forgot to water the kelp, and then she goes, and that's a great
Ellen :I'm just thinking of the release of that when I think of, like, oh, always forgetting to water, that would be amazing, always obsessing about the water level in the beds, you know? I mean, this is like a totally different, obviously, entity, right? So that's pretty cool.
Suzie Flores:It's like the gateway. It's the gateway drug.
Ellen :We know a lot about those other arenas. Yes, it
Suzie Flores:is in for us, with the site that we have, it's like the easiest thing for us to grow. It, like I said, it grows in spite of us. We don't. We just, we just essentially make sure it all is staying in the area where it's supposed to stay.
Ellen :I think that's a little self depreciating, because I've seen your setup, yeah. So what does a kelp farm look like? Tell a little bit about that.
Suzie Flores:They can look different. Yeah, there's different arrays, different ways that you can set your farm up. And it all kind of depends on where your seaweed is going to go, how you like to harvest, maybe what state you're located in. There are these really cool farms in Long Island that I absolutely thirst after. I want one. I want to try this set up so badly. There are helical anchors. So that's like a you screw anchor that you're screwing into the ground, and then imagine it has a eye, kind of a hook at the top of the helical anchored. So it's about two feet maybe. And then there's a horizontal line with seaweed seeds suspended off of that helical anchor that's underwater, but it's only about, like, four feet of water. So you can actually put waders on and walk out to your seaweed farm, check the line, harvest the line, make sure everything looks beautiful. I want one of those so bad
Ellen :I could see that because Susie's farm is they're these amazing long lines that are in that you're hauling up on the boat and sometimes using the wind, depending on the weight of everything.
Trevor:It's a winch. A winch. It's a pirate theme. We're back to pirates.
Ellen :I love a good pirate theme. Wenching the winch. The
Suzie Flores:way that our farm is set up is it's a traditional rope kind of a rope system, rope method farming. It is an anchor that. Set about 30 feet in 30 feet depth of water, there is a mooring ball attached to that anchor. So, yeah, that's your kind of vertical and then your marker, yeah. And then about five feet below that mooring ball, when the mooring ball sitting at the surface, we tie a little loop de loop, and then you attach a horizontal line that gets unfurled between sets of those mooring balls. And so the seaweed we do scuba on our farm just for funsies, not because it's required, but the seaweed grows. It's in 30 feet of water, but it grows about five to eight feet below the surface of the water because it's suspended on those lines. So when we go out to the farm to harvest or to check the lines, or to take some sort of measurements. All we have to do is use the boat hook the gaff to pull the line up, and then we can just have a look, which is what we saw. Yeah, just very and on a calm day, it's really wonderful. But you do not want to be out there when the weather is snotty and the wind is blowing you all over the place because of the fact that the, what we call it, hooking into the farm because of the fact that you have anchor suspended on the ground. Boats can swamp props. Can get, you know, line tangled in them if you're not being careful. So we really do pick our days, which is the thing I'd love to figure out with the tours. And I think,
Trevor:I mean, I think it was one of the things that surprised me so much was that we were getting very specific when we were emailing back and forth about dates and times. And I think one of the emails you said, Well, tomorrow morning, at 8am we can go out. And I was thinking, I need a little more just to just give me just a whiff more space
Ellen :I'm giving you what I can give video, but until you're there,
Trevor:yeah, really understand that it is stationary. Yes, the farm does not move, correct? It is not like going out and crabbing or lobster pot, where you can kind of hook it and flip it and bring it in. It's all there. And the boat, because of currents and motion of the ocean, it moves. So you have to do these 11 things together, and until I was there experiencing it, I just I didn't know how much the time and tides really matter.
Suzie Flores:I try to make it easier on myself when I pick the days to take folks out. And we we've had experiences where we've had to disappoint people, because we get out and, you know, the wind says it's going to be blowing at a with a certain energy, but you get out there and it's just, it happens to be a little bit more in that moment, and it's, it's a bummer, but the last thing you wanted is the ocean like you, you're not, you're not gonna win. So no, yeah, and
Ellen :again, you're, you're, I mean, be respectful, you're like you said. You're cautious, like and you're, you're trying to make sure your guests are safe. But I think it's one of those experiences that's worth the wait, so maybe disappointment happens, but persevere, because it's such a incredible experience. And seeing, I know you're in this that shoulder season, especially now, right before the real action. What did you call the boats popping up on the water?
Suzie Flores:That's my signs of spring, the daffodils popping up. I love that. It's all the boats are coming back in, and I love seeing them. I feel a little safer knowing that there's more folks out there. Again. You know not that it's happened. I'm gonna knock on your table, the counter side to that is as more boats come into the water, they tend to get a little bit more curious, and might zip around the farm while I'm hooked in and wake me a little too hard. And
Ellen :that would not be good. Not good, not great. No, I could see that with I was getting nervous too, with the lines. I'm like, where's the engine? And just for you, I'm like, don't lose that seaweed. So are you the only seaweed farm in Connecticut? Are there more? How many seaweed for how many? This is so new to us, and it's so exciting. How many seaweed farms are there in Connecticut? In New England? Are we a big producer?
Suzie Flores:So Connecticut is actually the first seaweed farm in the country. Was put out there in Connecticut waters. And it was, I believe, associated with UConn. It was Dr Charlie yarish, who's a marine biologist, and he is called the godfather of kelp. He he did a lot to move the dial. He's actually a guy from Brooklyn too. So he has a great accent.
Ellen :That's amazing. Love it. We do like accents on characters.
Suzie Flores:He is one my fave. So that was the first farm. So this is actually where the industry was born. The first commercial farm came out of Maine. And so may and Maine has a really nice setup because they had such a strong commercial fishing industry. They have a history of like that working waterfront, and it's not just tolerated, but celebrated much more so than than, I think, in other states, in southern New England. So in Maine, you'll have the most farmers on the East Coast, in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. We we have a handful of us. And what's really nice about this community is that everybody works together. We all know each other. We drink together. We play foosball together whenever we go to our seaweed conferences, which actually do exist. Best love. And then there's a whole contingency of farmers that are out in Alaska, and believe it or not, they have all become fast friends. We actually just hosted some friends of ours from Kodiak who farm. They left. They stayed for a week. We did a whole bunch of different farm tours with East Coast farmers. That's awesome. It was great. It was so much fun. But, you know, they came to my daughter's chorus concert. It's, we're a big, happy seaweed family.
Ellen :It is, I mean, community where you find this is another theme that we talk about a lot. It's just when you find those people that are like minded, that are passionate about the thing that you're passionate about, kelp relates to sustainability and doing great things for our planet and eating good things. I mean, it's just that energy is so great, and you form incredible bonds with, yeah, well, I love that. And
Trevor:I'm sure it's just like in the publishing industry, where everybody loves each other, everyone
Ellen :gets all the information, no
Trevor:difficulty there, and all nothing about entertainment. It's just the same. It's just, I'm sure. Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt, but anyway, but,
Ellen :and you were telling us on the boat, which, I mean, of course, this makes sense, but the roots of seaweed farming is really very deep with our indigenous people here in Connecticut. Is that correct? You were talking a little bit about that. Tell us more. That was fascinating to me.
Suzie Flores:There is actually a seed producer in Long Island on the Shinnecock territory, and they have a hatchery where we will little baby kelp seed strings from. And they have this really cool program called the kind words program, where, in order to preserve their language, they bring the children in from the territory, and they will sing songs in their language that are kind words to the baby kelp while they're growing. Isn't that amazing?
Ellen :That's amazing.
Trevor:Like, come on,
Suzie Flores:using all of these different so that's why every
Ellen :you just hit me on every level, it's great.
Trevor:That's it. What else can we say that's better than that?
Suzie Flores:They also have a system set up where they wade into the waters. And it is a group of ladies that are truly, you know, and they are, they are both advocates, farmers themselves. They are just doing so much. They're doing all of the things there's, there's a really deep history of using seaweed in all different sorts of ways, all across our country and into Canada. There's a rich history, obviously, in Asia, I think that's where most people assume right away. When I when I told folks that I was going to be growing seaweed and selling it to restaurants, immediately everyone thought, Oh, you're going to sell it to, you know, sushi places? Yeah, I have exactly one sushi restaurant on my list. I want to talk about that because that's fascinating too. Yeah, it's very interesting. And that brings you to the whole other side of you know, the business and the industry developing. But there are all sorts of different uses. There's much more culinary evidence on the in the Pacific Northwest for eating seaweed. A seaweed does something in the diet with a lot of different indigenous cultures. In New England, there was use of seaweed in clambakes and things like that. It was really used as, like a flavoring element.
Trevor:Still retains, I'm imagining all the wonderful Ocean Salt and those those minerals that were probably harder to get on from indigenous peoples than just exactly
Suzie Flores:the thing that makes seaweed so credible for your diet is because it contains all of those macronutrients from the ocean that people get really excited about for fish. So if you eat the seaweed, you could just cut the middleman out. I love that. And I grow sugar kelp. I mentioned it's the only one that you can domestically. You can grow in the state of Connecticut commercially. But that's not because it's the best one, or it's just because it worked out in terms of, it's an over the winter crop. They know how to it is very it's regulated like seafood, so the tissue samples are tested to make sure that the seaweed, while absorbing carbon and nitrogen, isn't absorbing anything that would be bad for you. So that happens every year to our harvest. That's a unique law to the state of Connecticut right now, or I shouldn't say, law that's a unique part of our permitting process. It's not the only edible seaweed. So there's a ton that you can forage for as well, as long as you are acutely aware of the quality of water in which the seaweed has kind of grown in,
Ellen :it's so relational to obviously land farming, we talk a lot about soil and soil health, and we had a long journey here on our property. We were talking about the little bit before we started recording about making sure that all of the toxic chemicals were out of our garden and our lawns. We like a wild lawn. We forage violets so we can make my daughter and I love to make the violet syrup, but you can't do that if you're putting pesticides on your lawn, because you can't eat those violets. I guess you could, but should you probably not. But yeah, so there's so many correlations about how we treat. Planet, both our water and our land, that makes such a huge impact in our lives.
Trevor:As you said, for Connecticut, you have very unique things that are part of the permitting process. There are different regulations and things like that. And you'd mentioned about the blue economy and how much that is sort of up and down the East Coast. How's your farm helping to contribute to that overall economy, because everybody here in along Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island, it's such a big part of our ethos of being on the water, near the water, and having that as part of the part of who we are as New Englanders.
Ellen :And people might not know what blue economy means, too. Maybe you can give us a little background on that?
Suzie Flores:Well, I mean, that is not my term, but it is a, essentially an economy that is being built out of sustainability, specifically when you're thinking about things that are coming from the ocean and just sustainable practices in general. And so it's not just food. It's not, you know, it could be packaging that is made with seaweed, or, you know, having creating that industry for the invasive green crabs, or, you know, all sorts like just, even just focusing on fish species that are closer to shore and in season, rather than sending fishermen out to treacherous places in the ocean, super far away from their families in order to catch, You know, something that we're all a little bit more used to, like a tuna or something like that. So it encompasses, really, all of that. What's really interesting about the farm location, I think I pointed it out when we were on the boat, is that I, like you, saw how much current is coming and going, right? I'm regulated by the state of Connecticut. My one one direction of the tide comes from Rhode Island, and the other direction of the tide comes from New York. I am, like, right at that kind of crux of, like, right where the riparian, or, I don't even know the water borders would be between New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, but it's all the same water. Yeah, because it's water, it's fluid. So there's that, that kind of, the fact that the way that my farm is essentially nourished collectively by the habits that people on fishers Island are having, how they treat their lawns, and that runoff that goes into the water will impact my farm, and what happens in watch Hill Rhode Island, on all of those lawns, would impact what happens on my farm. It's a perfect analogy for how I think the industry has started to kind of work. And maybe not think so much about borders, but think of us all collectively as a region. I kind of forgot what the original question is. I got very excited about that.
Ellen :No, that was a great answer. What do you see? The role of your farm being as? I think you just really answered it. You see, it's a cycle. I mean, it's a circle, I guess, yeah,
Suzie Flores:time is flat circle,
Ellen :and it keeps going, friend,
Suzie Flores:I think that what the farm has taught me is to be a broader advocate. We don't have the luxury in this industry right now, for anybody out there who's farming to be competitive with each other. Yet we absolutely got another water analogy. We have to all rise with the tide.
Trevor:There it is. We do love a pun on this podcast that is very true.
Suzie Flores:There's so many, yeah, so it's it's taught me that collaboration and cooperation is really the only way forward for this industry to grow. There is a really strong sense of togetherness, and I think that that's how we'll be able to continue to own the integrity of this style of farming. So we're regulated really heavily. Other countries don't have the same sort of regulations, to my knowledge, and so we have an opportunity to be role models, essentially in being stewards of the ocean, farming responsibly more small farms that are independently owned, spread out across is going to have little to no impact on the ecosystem other than positive impact, right? We don't want to have that 100 Acre, massive farm that's shading out an entire section of the ocean. So there's, you know, there's ways that we can kind of continue to grow this industry domestically, together in a way that uplifts everybody at the same time. And that is what I'm kind of learning from my farm, that it isn't I can't do it alone. Yeah, I'm not gonna be the only one. I'm not trying to do a like hostile takeover of the ocean. I really, really love seeing this community grow, and I want to actively do more of that. I just need to figure out a way to do that and also pay for my kids to go to soccer.
Trevor:Yeah, and is there's, are there a larger group that, like, is a, I'd say, like, lobbying organization, or is that something that that can be created as it goes? Yeah, there's helping. Who's helping? Talk about it?
Suzie Flores:I Well, like you guys. Yeah, there's, there's a lot of I'm also meeting just some of the coolest people organically, just from being at the farmers market and having people say, Well, I'm interested in that. Why don't we see what we can do to try to support this industry? There's not anything that's formalized, but we're trying. We do work a lot with that nonprofit, Green Wave. They're wonderful. People, they are focused on primarily establishing farmers, and they've been doing a lot of market development, but there isn't an industry association here. There are some government funded organizations. But again, the priorities aren't exactly where I would like to see them focused, but I think that it's something that can be done. I just don't know exactly how to do it.
Ellen :I feel like we're having a moment where it's gonna happen. I really do.
Trevor:Give Ellen only, like, 20 minutes.
Ellen :We're gonna have lots of conversation. But I think one of the things you you just said which resonates. And again, we've talked, we talk about this a lot because it's so important, local farms of any kind can't, yeah, work unless people support them. We need to be number one is to go to our local farms, our kelp farms, our local growers. That's so critically important, because of all the amazing things that you're doing when you're thinking about it so holistically. But impact on the planet, impact on others, that's huge. But for our listeners who are like kelp, I only think of it in terms of Asian dishes that I enjoy. How would you suggest people get their intro to kelp? You've had some amazing partnerships with some local chefs. You have recipes I know, but how do we get someone who is why kelp? How do I eat that? How do I get it from Susie? People eating the kelp? Yeah,
Suzie Flores:well, we are working with this awesome organization called the yellow farmhouse, which is a food education nonprofit that's based in Stonington. They're also putting in a kelp processing kitchen through a grant that they won with the sole purpose of trying to help small farmers like myself have a commercial kitchen where we can process seaweed to be used as an ingredient for bigger deals, potentially. So that's really awesome. Awesome. They're great. And they're doing, we're doing another program with them, which is starting to introduce kelp into public schools through culinary education, and then also recipe testing directly with students in the school district. And my kids schools are going to be the first kind of test case of this model, and I'm really excited to embarrass them. I love it. It's gonna be great. So that is, that is one way we're kind of like hoping to start the education of this native, sustainable and very endemic, locally grown food to the kids, starting with the with the use we also offer. And again, it's very seasonal. It's when the kelp harvest comes in, which is April and May. Primarily, you'll get a little in March, if we had a good, you know, growing winter, and you can get it a little bit into June, if the waters stay cold, but in April and May, we will work with very talented chefs to offer cooking experiences. But that can be tough because it's, you know, only 12 people at a max at a time. They tend to sell out. They're, you know, on only a couple weekends a year or so. And then we have many, many amazing, brave restaurant partners in the state of Connecticut, whose chefs loved the story of the seaweed, who really liked the idea of trying a new ingredient. And so you can find it at those restaurants. What I always ask people to do, when they say, like, oh, we want to we want to become more involved. We want to support your farm. How do we do it? Please go to your fish market, or wherever you would buy seafood, and say, Do you carry local kelp? And if they say, No, be like, Well, why not? Because Connecticut has one of the largest commercial seaweed farms outside of Maine. So you we should be carrying it. Everybody should be.
Ellen :I love that. Okay, I'm taking and that's an action note. Or do you why do you not have local kelp
Trevor:And listeners, just because you don't have the benefit of being in the studio with us. When Susie said, Why don't you have kelp, there was so much wonderful rage in her eyes. It was I immediately responded, awesome. And Ellen then had like a laser beam connection to that. Why aren't you supporting local fisheries, growers and farms? That was just a very special moment. I had to comment on that..
Suzie Flores:That was a jersey vein.
Ellen :We do. We have the jersey connection. That's a whole other thing. You can take the girl out of Jersey. But why would you
Suzie Flores:A lot of the seafood places carry seaweed salad, but it is imported, it is dyed, it is loaded with preservatives, and it has sugar in it, so it is a very replicable menu item. Anybody can make it at home, and you can use fresh ingredients, you know, it's like, it's like buying the, like, the pre made, a pre made salad, versus, you know, just chopping the vegetables on your own
Trevor:at home. Yeah, for us, we always marvel at how much less vegetables we buy, because you have asparagus that you literally crack off from the garden, and you eat it, and it's just, I mean, eat it raw, and it's so sweet, and you can't go back.
Ellen :You can't replicate once you go back.
Trevor:So that's the same thing, like, if you have the what everybody knows, bright green seaweed salad. And it's like, neon in color, and it leaves a lot of color. And I'm always like, what is that? How does that work? Well, that's the last time I'm meeting that.
Ellen :So who are your big supporters in the chef world? Where? Where can we come and try some of your dishes in our local restaurants?
Suzie Flores:We I am, so I didn't do any of this work, but we have had seven James Beard nominated chefs as all this, this is like that slips my mind. And this is not just, this is in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, in Connecticut, and it's like it's just the coolest thing ever. So OCO and cottage, located in Westport and in Rye, Ryan has been one of my longest running customers, Brian. Chef Brian Yes. Chef Brian Lewis, yep. He's been one of my longest customers, and his his executive chefs at both restaurants are just so incredible. That was one of my first stops today, was going over and meeting Chef Nick. Anytime you go to Oh, go try the seaweed salad. There you go. You can see, you can see and taste the difference I am in the in Stonington. So in my area, we just, we just have a lot of Chef love, and there's a lot of talent by us, just like there is in this area. So Chef David Standridge and Chef Renee two, Ponce, Chef Adam Young. So these are restaurants, respectively. Would be shipwright starter, oyster club slash port of call sift and mix. Gosh, I'm sure for getting like, 1000 up there. Yeah, I can, I can give you some in the show so people can try. It's wonderful. And they do all sorts of different things with the seaweed that I never would have. Even cookie recipe up, yeah. Oh, and like, they have blown it away times 1000 like, David will candy the kelp, and then he like, crumbles it and uses it and like flam style desserts. And talk about a conduit for kids, oh yeah. Like hiding your good stuff in, like a cookie. It is sugar kelp. Well, I have, there's a chef we work with out of white gate farms in East slime, who makes, okay, ready for it. She makes a sugar kelp macaroni and cheese that is to die for. Okay, where was this again? Yeah, white Gate Farm, and they'd have, like a farm stand where they do prepared foods. Oh, wow. She has a recipe up. It's, it's, it's also up on our website. So if somebody wanted to buy the kelp and try it themselves, as I should, yes, but nothing beats having somebody else cook for you.
Ellen :Spoke true words, I will say I told you this before I I love to cook. It's very hard right now, because we're going through a renovation, to not have access to my kitchen, working on our table, working on our table, our new table. But as a busy parent who works it's lovely to have that choice taken away from you sometimes, there is that's a nice feeling. You know, on a particularly busy day, like you driving many hours to get down here to deliver to a chef partner coming on a podcast, getting back before the kids get home from school, right?
Suzie Flores:It's great, yeah, we do.
Trevor:And it's, I mean, I think that's so much. The whole idea here is, let's excite people through their stomachs, through, yeah, through what it's designed to be is to eat and what, outside of sharing your amazing crop with some I guess, just okay, James Beard, award winning chefs. If you can't find anybody better, that's fine. What other products you do? You have at Stonington?
Suzie Flores:So we did a and we will relaunch everything next year with this new kitchen coming up. But a vegan for a cock, a and a song, yeah. Sugar kelp. Incredible. Sugar kelp. Salt, sea salt. And what's cool about the kelp sea salt is the sugar kelp naturally has iodine in it, so you can get the minerals from the sea salt, which is, you know, one of the reasons why people enjoy adding sea salt to their dishes, in addition to the tastiness of it, iodine from the kelp. And you don't need as much salt when you have the kelp there, acting as that sort of umami, savory enhancement to your foods.
Ellen :Trevor got me some seaweed salt, which we liked very much, but I'd rather have
Trevor:the sea bean. Yeah, it was that was more from the sea bean side. Yeah. Wasn't a local salt. It was not local. Throw that away and get the good stuff.
Suzie Flores:One, have you guys tried it in your gardens yet?
Ellen :Well, that's the other thing I wanted to ask you about. Tell us about seaweed in gardens.
Suzie Flores:You mentioned before, making sure that there is enough water in the soil, and that is one of the very cool things that seaweed does, because obviously, it's cellular structure, right? You know, it can hang on to water a little bit longer. So having seaweed incorporated into your soil, in theory, will reduce the amount of reduced time between waterings for you, incredible, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, it improves the just the soil composition, the soil structure. It has obviously the nutrients that are getting pulled from the ocean, and the same nutrients that are good for our bodies will nourish the soil as well. And it has a growth hormone naturally in it, so it's supposed to be very great for like, root development. Development, and so fruiting and fruiting development too. So there's a lot of positives to having seaweed in the soil and using something that is a like, locally cultivated, you know, it's grown in clean waters. You don't have to worry about, you know, putting heavy metals or something like that into your soil. It can potentially, this is what I'm hoping, that having the seaweed kind of soil meal that we use. And what's cool about this also is when we dry the seaweed at the end of the season, whatever I can't sell for food, it's a great avenue for farmers like myself to take all of that, what would be waste crop, and use it in another kind of way that can still help support the farms. You still have to pull it all out of the water. So now that kind of soil amendment stuff will pay for the farm hands that I had to hire to do that work anyway. So it's nice, but it's it could be an alternative to using chemical inputs in your soil, which would be great.
Ellen :It's huge, I mean, and everyone's we're always looking for, what is the organic compost that's going to help your gardens grow? Now are, I know, we talked a little bit about, and this kind of goes into the next question about question about, what do you see for the future of Stonington kelp? Yeah, and because that's not the sole focus of your business, obviously, it's the fresh kelp and the farming, but that is another piece. So, or is there places where you can purchase your kelp for for gardens? And then would you see that as a bigger part of the business in the future?
Suzie Flores:Yeah, I think that that's going to be a really big part of the business for our farm and for the other smaller regional farmers, because the processing infrastructure is minimum. That's sort of like our minimal, like viable product that we could make. We're using waste crop, and it's easy, it's replicable. And I'm actually working on a grant to kind of learn more about this. And once we have this information that essentially the recipe that I followed in order to make the soil amendment is going to be available to every other farmer, anybody else who cares to look at it. But part of sharing the knowledge, yeah, absolutely each other, yeah, absolutely. I want a test patch. Yeah. I want to try 100% I actually thought that I put one in my car for you today, and I didn't cast when
Trevor:you come back if,
Suzie Flores:If I didn't have to actually think about how to get from point A to point B, but I imagined what, what my dream point B would look like. I would love to see the magic wand. I would love to have a fully electric harvest barge that we can take larger groups out on for the tour. So something that would be a little bit more comfortable, but allow us to still do the work that we need to do, and do so quietly with the electric motors, I would. And so I would love to have a broader outreach with ecotourism, because that, I think, is a really key way in both uplifting the local economy in terms of driving tourism. It pushes people to the restaurant so they can try the kelp. And we love our restaurants in the mystic Stonington area. And then it also, it creates kelp super fans for life. So I would love to see that. I would love to see the soil amendment thing just really take off in this region, that every single garden center that sells the vegetable plugs, the fruits, all of it that they all of them, are carrying local seaweed products, and I would love to see our seaweed on the back of all of the seafood trucks that are already driving up and down. I don't want to add another truck to the road, but I would love to cram boxes of seaweed on the back of said trucks, so that the chefs who all want to try it have access to it. So again, your action call listeners is to go to your local sea seafood market and say, Do you sell kelp? And is it local?
Trevor:And if you don't - full of rage - "why not?"
Suzie Flores:Asking the question of where it came from is huge. It's so massive because, you know, you never know. I think a lot of people think, especially at least where I am in Stonington, like we're in a fishing port, like a fishing village,
Ellen :it's coming from, right there, correct, right?
Suzie Flores:Guess what? It is not
Ellen :you are. It is amazing how far your food travels and and I think we are. It's an educational process to teach people how to ask that question, yeah, because I don't think it's I think to your point, it's not a natural people don't think to ask. But as we learn more and more about where our food comes from, as a farmer's market says, who grows your food, well, where does your food come from? That's a really important part.
Trevor:And I think, and certainly on the water, because I've looked there's really only a very, very small handful of fishers that are truly only focusing on, what can I get in this very small area around the sound, from the sound right outside, and to your point that not everybody is comfortable with the kinds of fish that are coming out of the right, out of their local waters,
Suzie Flores:yeah. And that's ridiculous. It is. And the the I mean, the water is a change in like there's new fisheries that are being introduced in our area. Other fisheries are leaving the area because of the changes in the water. So having the the ability to have your palate adapt as well is going to be really important, whether you like it or not. Unfortunately. Unfortunately,
Ellen :As you said, that we are it's everyone is responding to how the world is changing and what's available. That's that's super important. What's
Trevor:your favorite kelp recipe?
Ellen :I think it might be that. Is it the mac and cheese literally going on favorite,
Suzie Flores:the one that I make the most is probably the kelp, furry cockey that we have, it's just sesame, salt, sugar and lots and lots and lots of seaweed. And I make that the most because I put it on everything, french fries, popcorn, eggs, rice,
Ellen :oh my God, I want it on popcorn right now. Ice cream, it's so good.
Trevor:Sprinkle in my mouth.
Suzie Flores:Yeah, it's delicious. But the one that I do like the most would be that using the sea would Ooh and like I do like a good Pokeball, but I think it might be the macaroni and cheese. It's that sounds, it's really great. There's also a seaweed, like, puff, like chip, kind of that David makes out a ship, right? Starter. I know it's really good. Oh, that sounds, oh, we gotta get up there. Yeah,
Trevor:I do like a kale chip, you know, because they're so crunchy. And I think this would be, like, yes, because of the cellular structure, would really, it's changing.
Suzie Flores:I think he, I think he uses, like, like a tapioca flour a little bit on it to keep it dry, so that when you it just, it's very good there, actually. I mean, there's a lot of them. Renee did a Buca Tini once where the seaweed was in the pot, like it wasn't seaweed next to a piece of pasta. Like she made the pasta homemade, and the seaweed flower was happened?
Ellen :That would be, yeah, I can see where that structurally, how that can happen. That sounds amazing. It was so good. So we ask on the podcast always, what's going on in your yard? So knowing your yard is the water, what's going on in your yard right now?
Trevor:The yard, yard
Suzie Flores:Spring happens in the water too. So my, you know, the signs of spring in your yard, your beautiful flowers that are starting to pop up. I saw the, you know, all of the harvest poking out through the dirt. The sites that I see of spring are obviously more boats on the water, but the daffodils we have, the shellfish Bloom will be coming soon, and that is when you start to see tiny, tiny little mussels and marine snails on a lot of the gear that holds the farm up. And I'm starting to see more birds. Actually, the Birding of seaweed farming has a complete shock. Did not think that I was going to become so accustomed to all of these different winter ducks, but yeah, so now we're seeing the transition of the birds, and the signs of spring are coming. The water temperature is starting to slightly creep up. It's time. It's time. So yeah, we got it. We probably have about five more weeks of kelping.
Ellen :Oh, wow, yeah, the season. And then what do you what do you do over the summer,
Suzie Flores:After we wrap so after the actual seaweed is taken out of the ocean, we do the work to remove the gear from the farm. Kind of do like an inventory winding down. And then over the summer, I turn right around and start grant writing to see what I can do for next season
Ellen :the advocacy begins,
Suzie Flores:but that's a lot of what that downtime is. It's, you know, when I can have a moment of silence, maybe before the kids get up and start thinking about what we want to do, how we want to grow, yeah?
Trevor:Oh, that's exciting. Do you have a land do you do growing on on land?
Suzie Flores:I grow a ton of flowers, yeah, so I love grown flowers. And then most of flowers, I just love them. Most of my herbs and things like that, I have all in raised beds or, like, big, giant buckets, because I am still working on my soil, we can talk about, yeah.
Ellen :Well, again, Susie, thank you. And what an incredible experience. We highly recommend taking the kelp tour in for Stonington kelp, because it is really such a mind expander in so many ways. Plus it's beautiful and fun. And Susie is a consummate captain and host. So that was a incredibly fun experience. And thank you for just the education level and being a farmer and doing all that you're contributing to our world and our environment. Thank you. We're I so thrilled that we had this opportunity to talk to you.
Suzie Flores:This was great.
Trevor:We had such a phenomenal time before and now, and I know in the future. Thank you so much for being here.
Suzie Flores:It was absolutely my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Trevor:Ooh, that's Susie, amazing. Original, a real original, a friend
Ellen :now and a friend for life. If you're okay with that, Susie,
Trevor:I think she's, if you're out there, that's, that's what Ellen really wants.
Ellen :Its just, so she's so impressive.
Trevor:No, it's awesome.
Ellen :And the work that she and her husband Jay are doing is just so interesting, and it's right, and just really what we all need to be doing in this world, caring about the environment and finding new ways to bring healthy, delicious food to the table. Good, good, tasty stuff. Yeah, like that, mac and cheese. Yeah. What did you think about that?
Trevor:I mean, I did as surprising as she mentioned. Mentioned it, but I think it's well documented that I have a long, long love affair with the mac and cheese. So that is on the list, 100% on the list.
Ellen :Well, for everyone who is very excited to try that, the recipe for that delicious kelp mac and cheese is on their website, on Stonington kelp, CO, C o.com, and we'll drop that in the show notes for you. And in order to make it you actually have to get kelp, and it is the end of the season. So there are some places where you can pick up fresh kelp. There is the Diddy bag in Stonington whitegate farm in East lime, Flanders fish market in East lime and fiddleheads food co op in New London. And if she's coming to the Westport farmers market, we'll drop that up. Drop that in our stories as well.
Trevor:And here locally, there's some restaurants too that are obviously doing
Ellen :Fairfield county - huge supporters. Yes,
Trevor:maybe going a little you and me, little date night?
Ellen :a date night?
Trevor:Yeah, we could do oko or the cottage Kelpie, something.
Ellen :I love that
Trevor:A little date night.
Ellen :I like a date night.
Trevor:That's the plan.
Ellen :Thanks for being with us and having a seat at our table.
Trevor:Yard to Table is a production of Macrocosm Entertainment. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and for tips and more information, follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse.
