HERE THE RAW MATERIALS OF THE FUTURE GROW

Growing in the sea works a bit differently than farming on land. The seaweed does not need to be watered, fertilized, or treated with pesticides; instead, it directly absorbs the nutrients it needs from the water.

Our Sugar Kelp and Dulse are cultivated on ropes close to the water's surface. Algae have a reverse growing season, with seaweed shoots being planted in the fall to grow over the winter and then harvested in the spring.

It's quite fascinating, though: while most plants on land go dormant, things are thriving out there.

These are the two species you will find in our cultivation.

Kelp is a common name for perennial macroalgae, and algae are raw materials with taste, texture, and a natural content of proteins, minerals, and vitamins.

For us, cultivation is as much about curiosity as it is about the raw material itself. What can we learn from the sea and how can what grows just outside us become a larger part of what we do here?

The goal is of course that the cultivation should not remain out in Hakefjorden.

Our own cultivated seaweed also gets a place in the restaurant, where we can explore it in various forms together with our chefs. A raw ingredient that doesn't need to travel very far before it reaches the kitchen, if we put it that way.

But the seaweed is actually not completely new to Stenungsön.

As early as the 1870s, people came here to relax and enjoy life by the sea. At that time, there was a spa on the island where guests could try seaweed baths and scrubbing.

Now, just over 150 years later, the seaweed is back at Stenungsbaden, with the small change that this time we are growing it ourselves.

The story repeats itself. Just in our way.