Pembrokeshire's Seaweed Farm, Câr-Y-Môr
The Growing Pembrokeshire Seaweed and Shellfish Farm
We recently met up with Meg from Câr-Y-Môr, Wales’ first commercial seaweed and shellfish farm. The Welsh name translates to ‘For the Love of the Sea’, and that’s exactly the impression we got from their dedicated team.
Rosie with Sugar Kelp
During a walk along the stunning Pembrokeshire coastal path with views of Ramsey Island accompanied by Megs' dog Mali, we learned about everything that makes Câr-Y-Môr a successful and growing ocean farm.
They started in 2019 with an idea that sparked from a conversation. Meg had moved down to Pembrokeshire from Abergavenny after she was done with city life from living in London as a dancer. The conversation drew light on the fact that there were no seaweed farms in Wales. The Welsh coastline covers 1,680 miles so there was plenty of opportunity. Driven by this and the current climate crisis, Câr-Y-Môr was born.
Meg shifted her skills and experience into a new area with the help from her dad who’s a shellfish farmer and her mum who has years of experience being an agricultural accountant. Just from our single visit to the farms we realised that the more you learn about seaweed farming the more potential you can see. It can help with challenges of food systems, health and declining coastal industries.
How it Works
They started with two 100m test farms off the St Davids peninsula growing different native seaweed and shellfish species. This allowed them to not only learn the technologies involved in the operation of a successful ocean farm but also allowed them to install a much larger farm to begin operating at a commercial scale. This farm is 3 hectares, the equivalent to 2 football fields!
Image by: Chalmers Creative
The farms don’t require a huge amount of maintenance to effectively function. The seaweed itself grows off ropes and requires no fertiliser or food to thrive. A fun fact we learned on our visit was that seaweed is the second fastest-growing plant after bamboo!
Their Mission
They are a community benefit society operating a regenerative ocean farm. Their aim is not only to improve the coastal environment but also to improve the well-being of the local community of Pembrokeshire with food security and sustainable job creation.
Their sites have been largely run by volunteers. They currently have over 200 members and 12 paid members of staff who run the day to day. By joining the 200 members that are already on board you would have equal ownership of the business. How it works is that the members each have 1 vote to support the aims and decisions of the business, the 12 employees are the core team. Interestingly they work with no hierarchy, so everyone's equal and key decisions are made in their weekly team meetings.
Image by: Ymor Photography
Whilst on our visit we asked Meg about the challenges they face and whether the local community and fisherman have been for or against their new takeover of seafood farming in Pembrokeshire. But with seaweed being an important ecosystem builder the local fishermen have been completely on board. The new ocean farms have created underwater gardens where plant life thrives which in turn attracts sea life such as crabs and lobsters. A lot of fishermen have actually started fishing close to the location of the farms as they’re catching a lot in those areas.
We love the ethos they’ve adopted at Câr-Y-Môr where they’re not only creating a sustainable product but they’re giving back to their local community. At Coastal Cottages we have a similar approach with our guests. We created the Coastal Community Fund to invest back into the communities of our cottages. So that each of our guests can essentially leave Pembrokeshire better than they found it!
It’s clear that sustainable farming, the local community and the environment are the core drivers to their work at Câr-Y-Môr.
Câr-Y-Môr Shop
Although not eaten widely in the UK, seaweed has great potential to contribute towards health and nutrition. Being low in fat they contain a wide spectrum of nutrients.
Their recently new shop based on the outskirts of St Davids, stocks some delicious and interesting goodies! Open 7 days a week they sell fresh local seafood on order including crab, mussels, lobster and oysters as well as some products they’ve created using the seaweed they grow.
Caught daily, they can supply local or you can get their fresh Pembrokeshire seafood delivered to your door.
On our visit to the shop, we spotted a delicious-looking ketchup made of tomatoes, gochujang and sugar kelp. Another interesting find was the seaweed granola made with sugar kelp, orange, quinoa and maple syrup. If eating seaweed isn’t your thing then maybe a seaweed drink could convince you. The orange marmalade and mango switchel is made with their kombu seaweed. We were told it makes for a delicious seaweed cocktail!
They also have some great innovative products that can be used for cooking, including the sea truffle oil which is infused with their hand-harvested pepper dulse. We also spotted some seasonings that add earthy and umami flavours to dishes.
Whilst we were there they mentioned to us their fairly new product, the SeaMôr Bag. Seaweed is apparently really good for your skin! The SeaMôr Bag can be used in baths, releasing oils to help with common skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.
If you’re holidaying in Pembrokeshire with Coastal Cottages, it’s definitely worth the trip to the Câr-Y-Môr shop near St Davids.
Coastal Cottages St Davids Holiday Cottages
The city of St Davids is, more accurately, an attractive village on the most westerly peninsula of mainland Britain and has what many consider to be the country's most lovely cathedral. You’ll also find excellent shops, pubs and restaurants in the city’s centre, which is easily accessible from our range of St Davids holiday cottages.
