Vanessa M. Gezari

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. On a rainy evening last September, I caught a ride with friends to an industrial section of Portland, Maine, where I live, to hear Graham Platner speak. After parking near a hardware store and picking our way through weeds and across railroad tracks, we arrived at abar that resembled an airplane hangar. The space under the roof was already full, so we stood outside in the parking lot, clutching our hoods and umbrellas against the drizzle.

At Bangs Island Mussels the shellfish are seeded alongside ribbons of edible kelp. Photograph: Bang Island Mussels On a glimmering May morning, Tom Briggs pilots a 45ft aluminium barge through the waters of Casco Bay for one of the final days of the annual kelp harvest. Motoring past Clapboard Island, he points to a floating wooden platform where mussels have been seeded alongside ribbons of edible seaweed.