A Canadian Family

Genealogy, Family History & Vintage Postcards

Mmmm – Prince Edward Island Seaweed Deserts!

The other day I blogged about the Jersey, Channel Islands practice of  harvesting seaweed (vraic) off the beaches.This prompted a  little trip down memory-lane for Carol-Ann (Theriault Gen.12).

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“I visited PEI a few years back to attend the wedding of a cousin (Lagace, Gen.11).  While taking a walk on the beach I had the pleasant surprise of coming across a horse galloping through the ocean with a few men standing nearby.

peihorsewater

My cousin explained that they were seaweed harvesting.  There is a semi-floating ‘sled’ attached behind the horses which drag them along to collect the seaweed brought in by the tide. They overturn the sled on the beach, collect the seaweed, then load it into a pickup truck for transport.
I imagine the way it is done today is much the same as it was then – the triangles you see are semi-floating sleds  and since they didn’t have pickup trucks they may have dumped the seaweed into small boats to bring to a central depot rather than pile it on the beach and bring it in by pickup truck.”

peihorseseaweed80percent

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January 31, 2009 Posted by | . | , | 2 Comments