Working Waterfront has published a report on Ocean Approved. The Maine seaweed aquaculture venture that received a “$95,000 NOAA Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase I Grant and an experimental lease to raise seaweed near Little Chebeague Island”.

The NOAA grant will make it possible for the company to generate their own seed and raise young seedlings (or sporelings) to put on aquaculture lease sites for growout, a move which Olsen says is necessary if they want to increase productivity. “We have been hand picking seaweed from the wild,” he explains, “always respecting the biomass and making sure we are tending the beds. But kelp can be overharvested, so to expand into larger scale production, we have to begin growing plants from our own seed.” He adds that this move also has the advantages of making possible selective breeding and choosing the ideal environment to put down their seedlings for optimum growth.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes check splitting guidance,

Your friend Joe has just spent the last couple of hours downing expensive single-malt Scotch and a lovely filet mignon, side dishes priced separately.

You, on the other hand, had a light appetizer and have been picking at a salad. You’re drinking iced tea – and not the Long Island kind. (There’s a recession on, you know.)

Here comes the bill.

a report on a new set of farmers markets set-up by Cultivating Community with the goal of making organic food more affordable,

Starting last week, the organization that works to supply low-income Mainers with access to locally grown food began opening a series of farmers markets throughout Portland.

Not only do these markets sell organic vegetables and fruits grown in Maine, they offer a double-coupon program for people receiving the federal nutrition benefits SNAP, often called food stamps, and WIC, including the program’s farmers market vouchers and fruit and vegetable vouchers.

and Joe Appel’s wine column where he explains there just aren’t yet any good local wines that are made from native grapes (e.g. Concord),

In response to my column last week on American wines, a reader wrote that he was “bothered” that all the wines I described, while made in this country, used European varietals. “Surely,” he wrote, “there are good Niagara or Concord wines that exist and are worthy of consideration as truly American wines?” No, there aren’t.

A film crew from Man vs Food was in Maine this past weekend. According to the Press Herald, the show’s host Adam Richman made a stop at Nosh to try the Apocalypse Now burger.

On Monday Richman visited the Maine State Pier and took a schooner ride. Richman also spent the afternoon and part of the evening at Nosh Kitchen Bar on Congress Street, where Chef Jason Loring made him an “Apocalypse Now” burger – three times.

The burger, which sells for $20, is made with American cheese, seared pork belly, cured bacon, foie gras, mayo, and macerated orange and cherries. Loring said Richman also tried his pork belly reuben.