Kelp for Dinner

Celebrating the summer harvest season with our friends and neighbors on the Homer Spit.

This week we celebrated the summer season with our team and neighbors on the Homer Spit! We share our building with some hardworking, talented and innovative folks – the ladies of Kachemak Kelp Hub and chef Johnny of Johnny’s Corner. While we all operate independently, we share a workspace and support each other’s ventures through product collaborations, brainstorming, high fives, forklift troubleshooting, nutritious meals and flowing coffee. We’re so happy we get to have such great neighbors, and as the kelp harvesting season comes to a close, our teams gathered together to have a beautiful family meal in the kelp drying greenhouse last week.

The table was set with fresh halibut poached in sugar kelp, topped with smoked salmon roe, in delicious curry – all made by Johnny. There were big salad bowls full of locally grown greens, baguettes from one of our favorite bakeries in town, and gelato from another neighbor, Carmen’s Gelato! There were babies playing in the corner, kelp hung to dry above us, and the most gorgeous florals by Brandon of East Hill Floral, who we are lucky enough to have on the Salmon Sisters team. Wowee!

Poached halibut, wrapped in sugar kelp and topped with salmon roe, prepared by Johnny. Sugar kelp hung to dry in the greenhouse.

The Kachemak Kelp Hub has joined us at our Fish Shop on the Homer Spit for the third season and is an initiative supporting the emerging seaweed aquaculture industry in Alaska. They directly support regenerative seaweed farms in Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet by testing new approaches to processing, seeking out new markets, and sharing results and information with others. Their ultimate goal is to foster the development of an Alaska industry that’s healthy for oceans, people and the planet. You might see their team hanging kelp to dry in hoop houses behind the Fish Shop! We are proud to sell their hand-crafted products in our Fish Shop and on our webshop, including Alaska kombu and wakame seasonings, kelp chili crisp, and a variety of dried wakame and kombu products.

Evie and Kathryn, the fearless leaders of Kachemak Kelp, harvesting and processing

Johnny's Corner, which is located in the corner kitchen of our building, offers globally inspired rice bowls featuring Wild Alaska Seafood from Salmon Sisters and has become a beloved local favorite. Johnny, the chef at the corner, is a former commercial fisherman who grew up in Homer; his career on the water taught him to value the ocean, it's beauty and bountiful resources. Over his 15 year career as a fisherman, he adopted the role of cook on the boat, and the kitchen quickly became his happy place after long hours on deck. His summer seasonal work gave his the opportunity to travel the world and also, to root himself in the kitchen. Johnny loves to tell the story behind the fish on his menu and loves offering locals and visitors a delicious taste of what Alaska's oceans have to offer.

Chef Johnny of Johnny's Corner serving Kachemak Sugar Kelp in his miso soup, Summer and Lily with lovely fronds outside the drying greenhouse

The Salmon Sisters Fish Shop, which shares walls with Johnny’s Corner and the Kachemak Kelp Hub, is our brick and mortar shop all about Wild Alaska Seafood. The seafood we stock is harvested by small scale, independent fishermen around the state, from Klawock to Kodiak, and processed by trusted partners. We offer tinned, smoked, fresh and frozen fish and also the opportunity to learn about the sustainability and health benefits of Wild Alaska Seafood. We help travelers place orders for boxes of frozen sockeye salmon, which we ship to their doorsteps to meet them on their return home from Alaska. Our cookbooks are available as a resource to help people prepare their catch and cook delicious fish in their own kitchens, and take a little love, stewardship and knowledge of Alaska seafood home with them. The Fish Shop is also stocked with tasty grocery items that highlight many of Alaska's small food producers and culinary compliments to cooking seafood.  

We love working alongside such amazing folks (especially the ones that make up the Salmon Sisters team!) and sharing food grown, harvested and prepared right here on Kachemak Bay. While summer speeds on, it feels so good to find moments to savor the flavors of the season and all the hard work going into producing it. May we all have many more nights eating beautiful food with friends in the greenhouse.