Winter Waters
A Regenerative Seafare Series
We’re excited to announce the launch of a new Portland and Oregon Coast area dining series, Winter Waters! During the month of February 2023, Winter Waters is partnering with chefs and tastemakers to celebrate regenerative seafood, with an emphasis on farmed sea vegetables including wakame, kombu, sea lettuce, and dulse. Other local seafood featured in this series include PNW-grown oysters, Oregon purple sea urchin, and sustainable fishery star: the dungeness crab.
The mission of Winter Waters is to raise awareness of farmed sea vegetables as a superfood culinary ingredient, and to improve local Oregon coast food systems. The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the most sustainable and regenerative fisheries yet we ship out most of the seafood we produce and import most of the seafood we eat. There is a disconnect between the people and the process and we’d like to help bridge this gap through education and delicious shared meals.
You can expect ticketed prix fixe, fine dining events as well as casual a la carte events and menu specials all month. There will even be a sea veggie cooking class with the Cookshop. Portland chef partnerships include Chef Maylin Chavez of Nacar Oysters (formerly Olympia Oyster Bar), Chef Leather Storrs and Natalia Torral of The Mahonian (Natalia is also co-founder of Shuck Portland, our favorite oyster festival), Chef John Conlin of Tercet, Chef Cameron Dunlap of Morchella, Chef Andre Uribe of Sustainable Meals Oregon, and Freelance Chef Trever Gilbert (formerly of Departure). Waz Wu of Veganizer PDX is hosting vegan, gluten-free pop ups with Chef Jewan Manuel of Plant Based Papi and Chefs Ryan Koger and August Winningham of Feral. Both pops ups will take place at Mestizo, with the bar run by Nan Chaison. Additionally, you can expect menu specials from Chef Kyle Christy of Street Disco and other Portland restaurants.
Oregon coast partnerships include the Winter Waters Finale at The Salmonberry and two seated dinners at Nekst, plus menu specials at Buoy Beer, Local Ocean, Bowline Hotel, Buttercup, and The Schooner. Check back on the website as new events are added. Presale event ticketing will begin 1/23 for newsletter subscribers, and will open to the public via the Winter Waters website on 1/24.
Winter Waters was created when passionate seaweed advocates Alanna Kieffer of Oregon Seaweed and Rachelle Hacmac of Blue Evolution teamed up with Oregon Coast food systems value chain coordinator Kristen Penner. They decided it was time to bring a seaweed-centric seafood series to the Portland and Oregon Coast area! These three women are working hard to make regenerative seaweed and local seafood a familiar and favorite food in our communities and help everybody source locally. They are foodies, farmers, and fishermen, who want to share the unbelievable work being done in our backyards with you. The Pacific Northwest draws visitors from far and wide and is home to some of the most sustainable and regenerative fisheries, yet 90% of the seafood eaten on the Oregon Coast is not from here. There is a disconnect between the people and the process, and we’d like to help bridge this gap through education and delicious shared meals. The Winter Waters non-profit beneficiary is Oregon Kelp Alliance, a multi-sector partnership working to protect our wild Oregon kelp forests.
Event sponsors include Blue Evolution, Oregon Seaweed, and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA). Blue Evolution is a company that regeneratively farms kelp in Kodiak, Alaska, and Sea Lettuce in Baja California. Its products are available for foodservice sales. Oregon Seaweed farms Pacific Dulse in Garibaldi and Bandon, Oregon, and provides product to local restaurants as well as retail stores throughout Portland, the coast, and through their website. OCVA is on a mission to support local producers and re-localize our region’s seafare through their Ocean Cluster Initiative.
