Seaweed Landing
This week there’s been a lot of seaweed and red tide to contend with up and down Green Hill Beach. For those that can wade through the red tide, there’s still awesome swimming to be had. Seaweed may be the bane of our daily dip, but back in the day, seaweed that washed along Rhode Island shores was agricultural gold for South County Farmers.
Howard D. Browning’s Poem
My neighbor and friend shared with me a book this spring that featured this poem by Howard D. Browning. His boyhood recollections and writing offers a glimpse of how seaweed was farmed and used by Rhode Island farmers to yield bigger and more robust crops.
Next time you’re cursing the red tide, think about the Browning Family and how they farmed these lands. To everything there is a silver lining. Consider the adventuresome aspect of the Browning family’s midnight Seaweed Landings. What an incredible a family memory!
Midnight Quest for a Seaweed Landing
When winter storms were blowing cold
And made the ocean rough
That’s when father shook his head
And said, “Boys the weather’s tough,
And to that we’ll have to go,
For there’ll be seaweed landing tonight
We’d dress up in warm coats and boots
Hitch the horses to the old tip cart
Put the five-time pitchforks aboard
And that was just the start
Then came the cold two mile ride
That took us to the shore
Where we’d see the beacon light
And hear the breakers roar
Loading seaweed was our midnight quest
Sometimes it was on the sand
And sometimes in the surf and wouldn’t land
Then in we’d wade right after it
With water up to our knees!
And when we pitched it into the cart
Sometimes the water would freeze
The loads we carted were not large
For the sand dunes were steep
And when we got it to the road
We tipped it in a heap
Some nights we’d bank forty loads or more
Then go home and rest awhile
And go right back for more
Every load spread on the fields
Meant fertilizer to raise larger crops
Of oats and corn and hay
The corn ground into meal
Made Jonnycakes
That kept the wolf away