((PKG)) INTENTIONAL HARVEST / SEAWEED COMMUNITY
((TRT: 14:32))
((Topic Banner: Seaweed Community))
((Camera/Editor/Producer: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Map: Kasilof, Alaska; Jakolof Bay, Alaska))
((Main characters: 2 female; 1 male))
((Sub characters: 2 female; 4 male))

((NATS/MUSIC))
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Come here, Addy. Good morning. Do you want help with your breakfast, Fiona? Are you awake enough for breakfast? We’re going to go to Homer today.
The thing I love about our day sea weeding, which I've done since I was a small child, which is that the whole community comes together.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Agam Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
What’s the goal here? How many are we making?
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
We are aiming for three for everybody.
((Michael Creighton
Ionia Resident))
What else…
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia resident))
…45.
((Michael Creighton
Ionia Resident))
…are we bringing?
((NATS))
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia resident))
We got our rice balls made. We got some walnuts with some homemade miso on them. And now, we have some wild fiddleheads going. And we're going to sauté some kale with some homemade tofu. That'll be our lunch at the beach.
((NATS))
((Agam Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
We’ve got to feed 15 hungry mouths that’s going to harvest beautiful seaweed. And this is a great source of energy, plant-based energy.
((Ally Brill
Ionia Resident))
We're going to go down to Homer and catch a boat across the bay and pick seaweed for our seaweed for the year.
((Agam Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
You’re ready for my perfect rice ball?
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Yeah. There you go. Perfect B. I give it a B.
((Ally Brill
Ionia Resident))
It’s supposed to be sunny, so it's going to be a warm, wonderful experience. There have been years where it's been snowing and freezing cold and we do it anyway, so...
((NATS))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
Ionia is like a safe haven that we created 30 years ago. A group of us found each other in the movement called Macrobiotics in Boston. And we had in common, trouble thriving and surviving in the modern world as it is. So, we created this little village, where we could eat simple foods and be involved with nature, and learn how to relate more kindly with each other, so that we could really find that support that we needed, and create a world that made more sense to us, that we wanted to bring our kids up into and ourselves up into.
((NATS))
((Ionia Residents))
Let’s go.
Come on Alex, let’s do this.
Let’s get out of here.
Eight to a car.
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Make sure you have eight, whoever's going in there.
((Alex Eller
Ionia Resident))
Get in the car now.
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
When tide is low, it is time to go harvest our seaweed together. Even though it's a really hard, long day, it brings us together. ((Agam Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
It just feels every time like kind of unique or special, every time I leave the community, because it just doesn't happen very often. I have all my life there, you know. I raise my kids there, home schooling, and I never get to get outside so much. And when I do, it just feels like, wow, there's a whole world out there.
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
You guys ready? Almost there. Water doesn't look too bad, actually.
((NATS))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
We had a dream of a rurally-based village, but we were all city folk. We had no idea how to do that. We had no money and nothing going for us. And we heard that there was free land in Alaska. And we heard that there was this thing called the Alaska Permanent Fund, which was a little payment for every man, woman and child, that happens every year. Not me, but some of us got the idea, the crazy idea, to go to Alaska and try to homestead. And so, I was dragged up here pretty much kicking and screaming. But I came and after a few years, I just fell in love with the place.
((NATS))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
We found this land. It wasn't free, but it was $300 down and $300 a month, and we could do that. And we took our first year of permanent funds, which was a whole lot, you know, because it was a bunch of us. And we just pooled them all together and were like, ‘Wow! That's more money than we've ever seen anywhere.’ And we took it, and we put in a road, and we put in the well, and we actually bought teepees that first year, and put them up and lived in them for the first winter and with our families. And then, we started building in the spring.
((NATS))
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
That’s a nice handful. I grew up here. My parents are one of the founding families. I remember being outside a lot, especially when we didn't even have a house to be in. We still felt very warm and cozy, kind of a tribal to be out in teepees together. But it wasn't too long before we definitely got on building our log cabins. ((NATS))
((Rosalie Eller
Ionia Resident))
Whoever fills up their bag first...gets…an order of French fries that we’re all going to share, but they don't have to pay for it.
((NATS))
((Ted Eller
Ionia Resident))
You cut it so that it regrows. So you leave the stem that's anchored to the rock, and that's what it looks like. It's got one spine and it's got a lot of really nice leaves on it. And after you dry it properly and store it for a while, that spine stops being tough. It's best fresh before you dry it, but it only lasts two or three days. ((NATS))
((Connor Eller
Ionia Resident))
Been every year since I was five. My favorite day of the year. Yeah, it's very, very small. But it's been that way for the last, the last few years. Nothing like when we were kids. They used to be like twice as long as I was.
((NATS))
((Ally Brill
Ionia Resident))
The amount that we eat is just like, to buy it, it's just too much. It's ridiculous. So hopefully get enough this year that we don't run out. ((NATS))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
We don't have any religion in common, but we did have this way of eating with grains and vegetables and beans, and using principles of balance that really nourished us and helped us to find our health and our centers and take care of our kids. ((NATS))
((Agam Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
We’re working nicely. Everybody are collecting. I think we're going to probably have enough for the year, hopefully. It feels so good right now to collect something local. It always feels weird to buy something that you have right next to you, that you can collect or harvest or gather or grow.
((NATS))
((Michael Creighton
Ionia Resident))
I think we have plenty of time to pick the rest before the tide comes back up.
((NATS))
((Rosalie Eller
Ionia Resident))
Are the fiddleheads good?
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
They look good. Vegan in Alaska? How is that using what’s on the land? I grew up vegan and I've always felt like I got everything I needed from the plants, especially if you like look closely to the abundance of food that's around. You just have to look a little closer. Like open your scope to like all the vegetation and all the mushrooms and all the sea life, and it feels like a sustainable choice, even in Alaska.
((NATS))
Get all the seaweed to the dock. We’ve got 40 minutes.
((Ally Brill
Ionia Resident))
Great day of sea weeding. Beautiful day. Good harvest.
We had a good day but we’re only halfway there.
((NATS))
((Ted Eller
Ionia Resident))
I’m getting too old for this stuff.
((Agam Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Our community, with the intention that it has to learn how to live with difference, there's a few points where we come together. And those are usually around local foods, to eat what's around us in our environment, and that we can do it ourselves. And so, seaweed is an amazing opportunity for that.
((NATS))
((Alex Eller
Ionia Resident))
Hard to lift in there.
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Some of Ionia’s uniqueness comes from the fact that it's an intentional community, intention of really learning how to live together and to live in harmony with the world around us.
((NATS))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
There’s always someone else you can pass your baby to. There's always someone else you can go and talk to. And, you know there's no privacy, and there's no such thing as doing something that doesn't affect, you know, 50 other people. However, that tradeoff is worth it for a lot of us because doing it all by yourself can become very lonely and it can become very unsustainable for some of us.
((NATS))
((Greg Eller
Ionia Resident))
It's going slow. In years past, before global warming probably, we had two meter long and a half meter wide pieces of seaweed and you would hang everything in two hours. It was really much nicer. Really nice.
((Alex Eller
Ionia Resident))
This is going to make it taste better though. In the winter, when we're eating it, we'll know how much energy we put into hanging it and drying it.
((NATS))
((Emma Becherer
Ionia Resident))
Really cold.
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
I'm kind of sorry I didn't go on the boat this year, but it's a very highly prized position to get on that boat and everybody wants to be on. It's so fun out in the water.
((Connor Eller
Ionia Resident))
Got to use it as a moisturizer.
((Rosalie Eller
Ionia Resident))
I should be cooking dinner. I wanted to be here for the conversation and the cold hands.
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Hands are cold. Hot, fresh, cooked seaweed.
((NATS))
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Fresh seaweed.
((Greg Eller
Ionia Resident))
I want some. Yummy. Mmmm, yummy.
Give me, give me, give me, give me…
((NATS))
No.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Jesse Brill
Ionia Resident))
I’m still not tall enough.
((Greg Eller
Ionia Resident))
Little stuff. A lot of it fits in one bag. So it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Connor Eller
Ionia Resident))
14 hours. Getting a little tired.
((Michael Creighton
Ionia Resident))
This is very exciting to have all this seaweed hung. It's one of our better harvests we've had in a long time. But yeah, ready for dinner and a nice evening. Hell, yeah.
((NATS))
((Ann Ohn-Bar
Ionia Resident))
Oh, my goodness. Quiet down everybody. First, I just want to say: Yes, we hung all the seaweed. Thank you everybody for helping harvest. And last but not least, to the cooks: Thank you. Saori.
((NATS))
((Saori Habuta
Ionia Resident))
Okay, begin.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
Every day is different. I love the dream of a village. I think it’s a wonderful way to live on the planet. And I hope that Ionia can be a little example for other experiments and projects like this all over the planet.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Eliza Eller
Ionia Resident))
And it keeps me, yeah, it keeps me sane. It keeps me on the right track. It keeps me nourished. As long as it does that, I have no reason to think about anything else, ever.
((NATS/MUSIC))