Kelp as food and environmental cleaner

[bixaorellana]

This is a really interesting article. The comments afterward are good, too, as some spotlight kelp farming in other parts of the US and also experimental medical uses for kelp.

The Johnny Appleseed of Sugar Kelp
The quest of a Long Island seaweed farmer to make kelp the next kale.

[mickthecactus]

Good article. Thanks.

[kerouac2]

I've eaten kelp for at least 30 years even though it is not exactly a major part of my diet.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, Mick.

I would eat more of it were it readily available here.

A traditional use of seaweed in coastal areas was to use what was tossed by storms onto shore as a fertilizer. When I first heard that, I wondered about the salt content, but apparently it's okay to use right away.

This is very long & somewhat technical, but most interesting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed_fertiliser

This is more reader-friendly and useful to people like me who know little about seaweed as food: foodprint.org/real-food/seaweed/

And here is more news from the sea in terms of a happy marriage between commerce and ecology ~
Fish leather is here, it’s sustainable – and it’s made from invasive species to boot

[patricklondon]

Some seaweed is a traditional food in some (many?) places:

www.welshfoodanddrink.wales/laverbread/

www.cornishseaweed.co.uk/recipe/





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[whatagain]

Had to look up both kelp and kale.
Makes it easier to follow 🤣

[kerouac2]

While not very common inland, people along the coast eat quite a bit of salicornia. We see it in Paris during the holiday season when people want "different." It grows in mangroves, salt marshes and on beaches.

[bixaorellana]

Um ~ thanks, Patrick, I think. I had heard of laverbread and assumed it was bread with seaweed in it. But it's so much weirder than that! Even tripe doesn't boil for six hours. It was the detail about rolling it in oatmeal that really did me in.

The Cornish seemed to have skipped over the desperation/poverty aspect of eating seaweed and made right for a haute cuisine aspect. I see that their website & recipe development was partly funded by a govt. grant, echoing the grants the OP & others got to develop seaweed harvesting.

I've picked & tried salicornia or its cousins on various beaches. It has a nice snappy texture and a mild, somewhat salty taste.

[lugg]

Now I wondering if salicornia is the same as samphire , which I love ? Off to google .

[lugg]

Jun 12, 2022 14:59:44 GMT bixaorellana said:

This is a really interesting article.

It sure is - I guess we have a lot to learn from the Japanese who have long included seaweeds in their diet but also historically in the UK it was an important part of the diet of those who lived close to the shore. Possibly true for other countries ?

[bjd]

I once knew a young woman who had moved from Nova Scotia to Toronto. Her family used to send her dried seaweed (dulse) that she really liked but couldn't get in Toronto.

www.delightedcooking.com/what-is-dulse-seaweed.htm

[bixaorellana]

I've never heard of a traditional use of seaweed as food (or anything else) in this country, nor really, in the US although surely back in the old days it was eaten on the coasts. I mostly know it from buying it in health food stores, back when I lived in the US, so it was a "special" food.

re: salicornia / samphire ~ I too was curious & found out it is the same & has a bunch of names. This perky little blog post makes one wonder why it's not more popular: umamigirl.com/how-to-cook-samphire-sea-beans-saltwort-glasswort-recipe/#:~:text=Sea%20beans%20(also%20known%20by,shellfish%2C%20and%20also%20with%20eggs.

It certainly would seem easier to make seaweed a common foodstuff than some of the other things that are proposed as the answer to world hunger. If not a food, at least a supplement of some kind.