Lazy Point Farms

We’re not a farm at all but rather a small-but-mighty, remotely-led team in NYC (see mooregood.org/about for details!) Our mission is to grow kelp in NYS for the environment, jobs, water quality, economy, and to increase supply and demand. To start the harvesting, farming, processing, and distribution of kelp on Long Island. To grow permaculture practice for climate justice, to nourish ourselves, create jobs and sustainable ways of living for people living in the United States. We’re working together with dozens of growers, researchers, and aquaculture experts to make that happen!

Click through the slideshow to meet some of our colleagues.

Cornell Food Venture Center

Dr. Padilla-Zakour and her students have played an instrumental role in developing what New York knows about kelp transport + processing knowledge for New York State.

The Center’s goal of helping food businesses large and small introduce new products into the marketplace dovetails nicely with our work encouraging the nascent NY kelp industry. Between lending their time to help develop a protocol where there wasn’t one before and being on call to answer questions about all things to do with food safety & regulatory compliance, it’s safe to say we couldn’t do this work without them!

Newtown Creek Alliance

We’re proud to partner with these modern-day warriors. They are a wellspring of thoughtful, intellectual foresight—NYC is lucky to have them.

The folks at NCA--a community-based organization dedicated to restoring the infamous superfund site at Newtown Creek—share our desire to help restore NY's local waterways in a healthy way. We've been proud to provide them with spools of kelp spores and other growing gear for the last several years.

Hart Hatchery

Lizzie! We Bow Down. Lizzie Hart of Hart Lobster is innovative, creative, and talented… she's approximately 400 steps ahead of everyone at all times.

Hart Hatchery, a family-owned shellfish company on Long Island, has worked alongside us since the early days of the project. The hatchery takes wild sugar kelp spores and grows them on PVC spools which can be used in kelp aquaculture. Lazy Point Farms has purchased their spools for most of our growing partners from Hart, including the Newtown Creek Alliance and AWAW EAG grant winner Shanjana Mahmud.

East End Food Institute

Even in the early days of our project, the folks at EEFI have always taken our wild ideas seriously, forging ahead with thoughtful contributions and expertise, pioneering new methods for New York State, all with a helping hand and a smile.

Our friends at the local non-profit organization EEFI are working towards building a more environmentally-sustainable, efficient, and equitable local food system, which makes them a natural fit for our project. EEFI has been working with us to process kelp since our first food-grade harvest: drying, pickling, blanching, and otherwise processing pounds and pounds of kelp harvested by our growers.

University of New England

Hailing from the heavyweight champion kelp-growing waters of the East Coast — Maine— we're lucky to partner with this team so full of expertise and experience.

We have partnered with Dr. Carrie Byron and her students on the dynamics of temperature in kelp transport and have more plans in the works to collaborate on future efforts. We feel confident that the research currently being done at the University will help the nascent kelp industry grow and produce kelp in the safest way possible.

RETI Center

Inspired by their innovation and drive, standing in deep admiration of their commitment to creating local jobs through stewardship of the environment, we want to help the RETI Center succeed in anything they want to do with kelp.

Founded by the Red Hook community after Superstorm Sandy, the urban scientists at RETI are working to help New Yorks's coastlines rebound with kelp farms, constructed salt marshes, floating gardens. We share their vision of how coastal cities can respond to climate change in a way that is equitable for all citizens and were proud to provide kelp spool spores to aid their ongoing project to develop modular floating gardens, built entirely of salvaged and reclaimed materials, which can help restore urban coastal areas.

Violet Cove Oyster, Co.

SLAY. Susan Wicks is the reason we spring out of bed in the morning.

Violet Cove Oyster, owned by Long Island native Sue Wicks, is one of our longest-term growing partners. Wicks farms shellfish—and now sugar kelp—in the pristine waters off Moriches Bay. While we are still growing for research, last year we were able to distribute samples of the kelp grown on the Violet Cove Oyster site to various local small businesses!

Huntington Rotary Club

Whenever we give spools and supplies to a new grower we're excited. Huntington had a particularly incredible first year and we can't wait to see what they do next! We admire their drive + vision for their local community.

DLB Consulting

David, David David. He's our rock. Our permitting master. Our experienced aquaculturist. He knows EVERYONE. David is the person who took my phone call, took me seriously, and got this whole party started.

David Berg advises Lazy Point Farms as we grow a seaweed industry in New York. He has a graduate degree in marine science and started his career growing seaweed and shellfish in an artificial upwelling project in St. Croix, USVI. He later owned and operated a shellfish hatchery. Some of his previous coastal projects include coastal restoration plans for Port Washington’s Baywalk Park, Oak Beach Park, Stony Brook’s West Meadow Creek Park, and water quality improvements for Massapequa’s Grand Canal.

Setauket Harbor Task Force

Growing sugar kelp for our pilot program seemed a natural step for this group of volunteer citizen scientists who advocate for protection of marine life, so we provided them with a few spools of spores and other equipment. We fully support all of the work they are doing to advocate for community support to clean up the waters in Brookhaven's Port Jefferson Harbor region and hope we'll have a chance to work with them again and repeat their past successful harvest!

Friends of the Bay

Friends of the Bay, the Oyster Bay-based environmental preservation organization, has grown kelp with us in the past. We look forward to working with them again in the future!

SUNY Maritime

We’re excited to partner for a second year with the SUNY Maritime crew!

Gino Macchio Foundation

Simultaneously working to advocate sustainability, empowerment, education, and awareness in the local community, the Foundation shares our vision of an economically and environmentally sustainable local aquaculture industry.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program

Among many other things, we are grateful to Steve Schott for being Long Island's kelp whiz. Not only is he Long Island's only marine botanist, he's also a helpful, patient, expert consultant for anyone interested in kelp and helped us through the troubleshooting days of kelp hatcheries and growout. He has used his expert eye to dive for kelp sorus tissue- a critical step in our operation- and he’s a visionary for helping push kelp into new technology with the potential of gametophyte cultivation. We’re so grateful for Steve!

Farmingdale State College

Dr. Shore and her team are our pathogen testing team blind us with their SCIENCE and their passion to learn more about kelp for NYS!

We were so eager to learn about Dr. Shore's lab’s findings through testing seaweed tissue harvested by our growers last year. From ensuring that seaweed meets standard food safety requirements to answering all of our questions about various pathogens potentially found on Long Island, we’re grateful for Dr Shore’s lab!

Long Island Oyster Growers Association

We're proud to be members alongside a great group of hardworking people on Long Island!

Long Beach High School

The town of Hempstead has been working with students from Long Beach High School to grow kelp in a local waterbody, helping deploy the reels of kelp spores and monitor growth. We're very proud to be part of this learning experience and could not be more excited about seeing kelp in the classrooms!

Town of Hempstead

Steve, Matt and their team are leading the way for how towns on Long Island can and should create opportunities for the communities they serve. Thank you for paving the way and setting such an incredible example for others to follow. Hempstead’s kelp growth is nothing short of legendary, and they make a mean spool. We're excited to see all the projects- both for kelp drying, and other projects- with the new greenhouse we're helping them build!

Maris Stella Oysters

Sixto can grow some gorgeous kelp, y'all.

Like many of our growing partners, Sixto Portilla is a local shellfish farmer excited to diversify his aquaculture business. One of the interesting results of partnering with oyster growers, is that we’ve been able to collect evidence of the benefits that growing kelp in tandem with oysters can have on both crops!

Islip Town Fishery

We worked with the folks in Islip at the very beginning in 2020 when we were all still facing a learning curve and trying to connect the dots with how to optimize kelp hatchery conditions among several hatcheries on LI. We can't wait to see them start up operations again in 2023-2024.

Lucky 13 Oysters

Long Island natives and Lucky 13 founders Matt Welling and Max Haspel grow gorgeous oysters—and now kelp, too, we hope!—in the Great South Bay. We're excited to call them partners!

Adelphi University

Dr. Freeman is a wealth of expertise and knowledge—a proponent of sisal/plastic-free lines—Long Island is lucky to have him. We're lucky to be able to call on him for site selection, measurement, and general insights for the industry.

Gobler Lab: Stonybrook Southampton

We’re proud to have supported the Gobler Lab last year through an equipment grant (grinder) and a financial grant of $75,000. We feel it made important inroads toward better understanding various kelp cultivation conditions and optimizing seaweed blends for gardens. Everyone knows their research in the space, and Long Island is lucky to have their leadership and guidance.

East Hampton Shellfish Hatchery

The folks at the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery share our goals of helping to encourage the kelp industry in Long Island and have been working hard to provide spools + farming opportunities for the east end!

Montauk Seaweed Supply Co

We salute Sean’s passion + drive + efforts for Long Island. The Montauk Seaweed Supply Company is always there to meet, execute, and exceed our crazy ideas with a grin and a helping hand.

Montauk Oyster

Mike Martinsen's passion for kelp's potential for LI is pure inspiration—it's why we keep going, for growers like him. He grows beautiful kelp and we can't wait to see him out there again someday once regulations open up into those deeper waters.

Dune Fishery

We loved working with Ethan to grow kelp - he provided a lot of insightful feedback into improving gear setup for local growers- and can't wait to start up fresh with the new owners of Dune Fishery!