Courtesy / Marnie Reed Crowell
Marsden Brewer, left, and his son Bob are seen with a trophy for the scallop cooking.
Updated: December 18, 2020
New cookbook promotes Maine's burgeoning farmed scallop sector
Courtesy / Marnie Reed Crowell
Farmed scallops were used to create scallops Rockefeller, with kelp added to heighten the umami element.
By Staff
A new cookbook released Thursday aims to draw consumer interest to Maine’s growing industry for farmed scallops.
“Recipe Ideas for Farmed Sea Scallops” was co-authored by fisherman Marsden Brewer and natural history writer Marnie Reed Crowell, both Stonington residents.
Coastal Enterprises Inc. announced the release of the publication as part of a three-year initiative, funded by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, to further develop scallop farming efforts in Maine, according to a news release.
The publication was funded with support from CEI, Maine Technology Institute, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, Maine Sea Grant Program Development Funds and Maine Community Foundation.
Lifelong fisherman
A lifelong commercial fisherman, Brewer has experimented with enhancing local scallop stocks for the past 20 years by collecting wild seed, protecting it from predators and eventually releasing it to the wild.
“Once we figured out how to get the seed through the larval and juvenile stages, we decided to take it a few steps further,” Brewer said in the release.
Maine has participated in a long history of cultural and scallop-rearing tech transfer exchanges with Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. This has included sharing information and insights into fisheries, renewable energy practices, art, culture and education with its “sister state” of Aomori Prefecture since 1994.
In 2016, CEI led a trip to Aomori for Maine fishermen and sea farmers to learn firsthand the technical aspects of farming sea scallops. Brewer and son Bob were on the trip.
Hugh Cowperthwaite, senior program director of CEI’s fisheries and aquaculture program, led the group to Aomori after several years of relationship building and planning.
“When we saw what the Japanese have done to commercialize scallop farming, we were blown away,” Bob Brewer said. “They have been sustainably growing, harvesting and perfecting the grow-out techniques for scallops for close to 100 years. There’s no reason we can’t be doing the same thing here in Maine.”
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
Various types of nets used to farm scallops were displayed at this year’s Maine Fishermen’s Forum, which occurred just before the state shutdown.
The Brewers formed PenBay Farmed Scallops in 2017 and have been selling ever since.
Dana Morse, an extension associate with the Maine Sea Grant Program, has provided technical assistance to them for several years.
Developing markets
Crowell, a natural history writer, heard of the Brewers’ efforts and embarked on a mission to help get the word out on how to prepare farmed scallops, as a relatively new product in Maine.
“If we want to develop markets, consumers and chefs need to know what’s possible from a culinary standpoint,” she said.
Crowell scanned the globe for modern and traditional dishes from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece, The Middle East, Turkey, Lebanon, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Norway, Asia and New England.
Brewer, Crowell and Cowperthwaite worked with Maine Authors Publishing & Custom Museum Publishing Inc., in Thomaston, on the cookbook’s design and printing.
The book includes a foreword by Maine author and chef Barton Seaver. A limited run of 200 copies of the 107-page full color spiral-bound publication and information on purchasing live scallops are available for sale by contacting PenBay Farmed Scallops. Click here for more information.
The Brewers are founding members of the Maine Aquaculture Co-op at Millers' Wharf in Tenants Harbor — Maine's first scallop farming cooperative.
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