For generations, coastal dwellers have gathered seaweed off local beaches for use on their crops. Gardeners still gather “sea manure” or “goémon” – the seaweed mixed with shell and sand that has been torn loose by wave and storm action.

Bear Cove Resources, in East Berlin, Queens County has been collecting and marketing wrack seaweed products since 1994 and operates with 3 permits from the province of Nova Scotia to operate equipment along a designated stretch of shoreline along Liverpool Bay, to seasonally remove controlled amounts of wrack seaweeds and to operate a compost facility.

On the third Monday in May at our regular monthly meeting Betsy & Bob from “Bear Cove Resources” explained the Storm -cast process with the assistance of a visual presentation. Storm lookout, carefully gathering the wrack seaweed with respect for the principals of sustainability during the winter months, to turning piles, finishing the 100% fully composted sea wrack for outdoor garden uses and the sterilization for indoor plants were all explained. Storm-cast, which is a complex mix of brown & red algae and the small organisms which live on them supplies trace nutrients and contributes organic matter, and is teaming with beneficial micro organisms. It enhances the germination of seeds, increases the uptake of plant nutrients, imparts a degree of frost resistance and enables the plants to better withstand insect pests and some fungi.

It’s labour intensive, it’s smelly work. The results are an excellent, odour free fertilizer/conditioner to use when splitting perennials, planting bulbs, refreshing soils around berry plants, re-planting trees, and any general garden use.

Thankfully for us, Betsy & Bob from “Bear Cove Resources” handle all the work and the smell.