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- Maritime kitchen gardens in Kulturhavn Kronborg
Maritime kitchen gardens in Kulturhavn Kronborg
Did you know that it is possible to lay out gardens underwater? Or what to grow there? If you visit Helsingør’s cultural open space, Kulturhavn Kronborg, you may see the answers for yourself.
The municipality Helsingør Kommune and Øresundsakvariet (the Øresund Aquarium) joined forces in the spring of 2016 and laid out a maritime kitchen garden. It consists of several hundred mussels, a so-called mussel farm, that are submerged in the harbour on wires with lines attached. It was purchased as a ready-made kit from Copenhagen NGO ”Maritime Nyttehaver”. The mussels start out as small larvae that attach themselves to the lines in the water. Here, they grow bigger and bigger during their life span of around 2 years.
The mussels are cleaner than usual, as they are not lying on the sea bottom. In addition, the production is very sustainable, as the sea bottom is not damaged when the mussels are harvested.
In practice, however, Helsingør’s maritime kitchen garden will be used to teach school children about the cycle of the mussels and let them get up close. But having the farm also provides significant signal value: Helsingør Kommune invested in a mussel farm as they saw it as an obvious choice for a harbour municipality to do something special with mussels. They wish to encourage people to eat more mussels and learn more about them in order to make all the opportunities that mussels offer visible. The mussel farm will also be used in connection with big events and during the summer holiday where the mussels can be exhibited to visitors and presentations on them be given.
Even though the mussels are thriving in the waters off the harbour, unfortunately they cannot be eaten. Very expensive analysers are needed in order to get permission to consume them as food, which is why they are currently only used for communication purposes. On the other hand, last year’s ”Vild med vand” event (“Mad about Water”) included chefs from a local restaurant who cooked steamed mussels bred elsewhere that the audience could try.
If you want to locate the mussels, stand with your back to Kulturværftet and walk towards Kronborg castle – they you will be right where they are placed in the harbour. They may be difficult to see, however, as the farm has little water flow, causing the development of plenty of algae. But keep an eye on the event calendar for Helsingør – and come visit on a day when there are events or presentations on the mussels so you can learn more about these interesting and delicious sea creatures.
Source: Helsingør Municipality and sn.dk
Picture: VisitDenmark / Luckyday – Nordic Cookery
Coordinates: Latitude: 56.037132
longitude: 12.615988
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