It’s not everyday that you get to meet Iceland’s first (and only) seaweed farmer. But it’s exactly this that is often overlooked about life in Iceland: the sheer breadth and diversity of people living here. Jamie Lee is a pioneering farmer and innovator, who has the envious claim of being the founder and owner of Iceland’s first seaweed farm, Fine Foods Íslandica.
I have known Jamie through her Instagram account @finefoods.is , where her seaweed posts caught my attention a few years ago. Being closer to Hólmavík while living in Ísafjörður this year meant that I could finally take up Jamie on her invitation to see exactly what she has been up to at Fine Foods.
The first thing that strikes you about Jamie is her stillness. Her voice and demeanour exude calm, a quality that I imagine comes in handy while being out at the sea. The San Francisco transplant has called Iceland home for more than six years now and has, like many immigrants who move for the love of Iceland, never really lived in Reykjavík.
“As a graphic designer, it was hard for me in the States to study anything science related. But this program is so unique,” Jamie shares of the University of Westfjords programme that had a cross-section of students, from teachers to bureaucrats to “even a surfer dude” she recollects. Having nursed a lifelong love for seaweed, Jamie gravitated towards it as part of her studies.
What sparked her interest in the remarkable relationship between seaweed and .
