Thanks To Seaweed, A Family In Rural Newfoundland Supports Community Through Pandemic
Mornings spent watching icebergs sail by. Visits from singing whales. Sitting in boats, the salty ocean breeze running through hair as fish bob below. These are all everyday occurrences in the life of the Howells.
Courtney Howell, 42, originally hails from Louisiana, and she moved to Newfoundland not long after marrying her husband Terrance, now 49, a Newfoundlander. They raise their daughter Phoenix, 11, in the outport community of Grates Cove.
“Phoenix caught a shark yesterday,” Courtney said, speaking from her home on the rugged Atlantic Coast. “She was reeling cod in and a shark bigger than her got in instead.”
Phoenix, like many Canadian children her age, enjoys a good “Friends” marathon on Netflix and snuggling up with her cats. But she’s also quite the adventurer. When she’s not rock climbing or accidentally fishing sharks, Phoenix helps out with the family business.
August is normally a busy season for the Howells as tourists flock to Grates Cove. The community sits at the northern tip of the Avalon Peninsula, a two-hour drive from St. John’s.
A post shared by Grates Cove Studios (@gratescovestudios) on Jul 20, 2020 at 2:11am PDT
But the Howells pair of vacation homes, which they run alongside an arts centre and restaurant at Grates Cove Studios, haven’t seen the same influx of out-of-towners as they would get any other year.
With the COVID-19 pandemic making Atlantic tourism a hard sell, Courtney told HuffPost Canada that the survival of their small family business was uncertain. Initially, they didn’t know how they’d weather the economic downturn that began back in March. But it turned out, the answer to their financial worries lay (literally) at their feet.
Seaweed.
It’s everywhere on the shores of Grate Cove, particularly after a big storm, and it is the main ingredient in the family’s skincare line 7 Fathoms, a side business that they’ve turned all their attentions to this year,...
