![\"package](\"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/package-sea-beans.jpg\")
<\/a>Charleston, South Carolina, where Heron Farms is located, is expected to see a meter rise in sea levels over the next 50 years. Because sea beans grow in salty conditions, Heron Farms markets them as a food that can endure coastal inundation. Photo courtesy of Heron Farms<\/p><\/div>\n
That\u2019s not the case in other parts of the world. In Turkey, cooks blanch Salicornia<\/em> and splash it with olive oil and garlic. Koreans dry and grind the plant and blend it with sea salt. Italians tuck the shoots into bowls of pasta; the French do the same when making omelets and terrines. Across cultures, it\u2019s tossed into salads and preserved as a pickle. In modern global cuisine, it\u2019s used as a garnish to infuse dishes with a pop of texture and a taste of the sea.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I taste that sea bean, I taste Charleston water. It\u2019s the perfect amount of salinity,\u201d says James London, the chef-owner of Chubby Fish, a seafood restaurant in downtown Charleston. \u201cI got one of Sam\u2019s first batches, and it was breathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that there\u2019s a local source of premium Salicornia europaea<\/em>, the plump and tender sea bean that Norton grows in place of the native and tough S<\/em>. virginica<\/em>, more of Charleston\u2019s high-end restaurants are adding the ingredient to their menus. Local brewers have also begun fermenting the plant to create Gose-style beers and kombucha.<\/p>\n Heron Farms works much like a standard hydroponic operation, in which plants are grown in nutrient-rich water rather than soil. But sea beans are a type of halophyte, a salt-loving terrestrial plant that can\u2019t grow in pure fresh water. So, every week, a local fishing crew brings in at least 380 liters of salt water from off Charleston\u2019s coast. Though Norton dilutes that seawater from 35 parts per thousand of salt to just five or 10 parts per thousand, it still puts an extra burden on the equipment, which degrades faster in corrosive salt water.<\/p>\n Heron Farms grows sea beans in a Charleston warehouse under LED lights, using salt water hauled in from off the coast. Photo courtesy of Heron Farms<\/p><\/div>\n Indoor farming makes it possible for Norton to produce a year-round crop. In the wild, sea beans flourish from spring to midsummer before turning bitter and tough. But without the sun for photosynthesis, Heron Farms must rely on energy intensive light bulbs. \u201cWe will emit more carbon dioxide than the plants soak up,\u201d says Norton. Heron Farms is currently running at half capacity, and Norton calculates that for every kilogram of sea beans, the farm emits 12.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide. \u201cIndoor agriculture is a good bridge to feed some of us now, but it\u2019s not where we should be headed.\u201d<\/p>\n Norton has seen firsthand the long-term effects of unchecked energy use and the resulting climate change. He grew up on Isle of Palms, one of Charleston\u2019s barrier islands, and the walls of his childhood bedroom still bear the one-meter flood mark of Hurricane Hugo, a devastating 1989 storm that produced the highest recorded tidal event along the US East Coast. While attending college in the city, his classes would occasionally get canceled for flood days. \u201cIn extreme cases, I would get into a kayak and paddle down roads,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n As Charleston faced increased flooding, especially in the last five years, Norton had a series of revelations. \u201cI was taking a geology class and learning that the outcomes of sea level rise in Charleston are really one-sided. Most of the lowest lying areas have rent-protected housing, where the marsh seemed to be coming back,\u201d says Norton. There, he noticed sea oxeye daisy, another halophyte, growing around housing projects. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful daisy, but it\u2019s also a sign that the street you\u2019re walking down has tidal inundation.\u201d<\/p>\n Salicornia virginica<\/em> flourishes in the spongy pluff mud of South Carolina. Photo by Robert Clay\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n As Norton observed, much of Charleston\u2019s affordable housing was built in flood-prone areas, and residents have long complained about interrupted public transportation, inundated homes, and costly repairs. A recent study from Climate Central<\/a> reveals that Charleston\u2019s affordable housing stock is among the most vulnerable to flooding in the country. By 2050, the number of at-risk units is expected to increase fivefold.<\/p>\n Charleston has a flooding problem, and \u201cwe built ourselves into it,\u201d says Jared Bramblett, a hydraulics engineer who specializes in flood mitigation and resilient infrastructure. Over the centuries, developers filled in tidal creeks and marshes to make way for homes and businesses. Now, there\u2019s nowhere for water to go\u2014except into the streets and built environment.<\/p>\n In the past two decades, the number of tidal flooding events in Charleston has risen 202 percent, and city planners are bracing for up to a meter rise in sea levels over the next 50 years, according to Bramblett, who also photographs Charleston\u2019s high-water events<\/a>.<\/p>\n With Heron Farms, Norton set out to create a business that could thrive in Charleston\u2019s flooded normal by taking advantage of the region\u2019s brackish water to grow food. That\u2019s why Norton is focusing on halophytes, which suck up and remove salt from the soil, allowing less salt-tolerant plants to grow. He\u2019s also begun branching out into habitat restoration. So far Heron Farms has seeded over a quarter hectare of land with a native species, S. bigelovii<\/em>, and Norton plans to expand the effort.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>