The seaweed king of Prince Edward Island hasn’t yet made a buck from the seaweed he’s been collecting to sell as fertilizer, but that’s not stopping him:
He doesn’t advertise and he doesn’t have a website, but Dorgan is getting lots of calls these days from continental Europe, Ireland, Texas and other parts of the United States. Even Mennonites from Pennsylvania are driving up to personally inspect the buoyancy of his product at North Atlantic Organics.
The naturally buoyant Dorgan talks, eats, and sleeps seaweed, and his gestured speech is peppered with rural vernacular and hard-scrabble passion.
“We’re selling storm-tossed seaweed,†blurts out the North Caper as confidently as a gourmet chef offering up a recipe. “It has over 50 natural minerals and nutrients and people want it because it’s a completely natural product.â€
Islanders have always gone to the shore to gather free seaweed for their farm fields and gardens, but decades ago the straggly beach litter got a cold shoulder and was replaced with chemical fertilizers as a more advanced alternative to agriculture production – not unlike lobster, once thrown out the window if guests arrived because it was considered “poor†food.
Photo by murkas2.