Silky Sea Palm is one of our premium seaweeds, and rightly so! It is harvested in April and May from the juvenile Sea Palm plant. Since it is so small, we leave 2-3 inches of frond tip on each cut, gathering a decent amount to dry.
Seaweed Recipes
Hello Seaweed Lovers! We have been busily harvesting all 11 types of seaweeds to bring to you throughout the year, and I am taking a short breather to bring you a yummy and easy Fermented Sea Palm recipe, as well as 20% off any size Sea Palm for the month of July! Use Code: SEAPALM.
I’ve been busy planning the 2023 harvest cycle after I picked up my tide book. Did you know we can only harvest seaweed a maximum of 40 days a year? Those days are all between April and the end of July. We work with the moon phases (new and full moon) because these are the times during the summer when there are negative tides. This means we can get to the seaweed-filled rock areas in the ocean for about 1-2 hours each day (4-5 days in a row) to harvest as quickly as possible before the sea covers the rocks and seaweeds over again. It is vital to work! It is also very cyclical, like a woman’s monthly moon cycle.
This month, I want to introduce you to RED seaweeds. Three classifications of seaweeds are identified by color: red, brown, and green.
Hello Dear Seaweed Blog Subscribers! I took some time off from blogging this past summer to complete the years seaweed harvest, and I am back with a great recipe for you! Ocean Ribbons or Lessionopsis littoralis are beautiful flowing ribbons of brown seaweed that grow on the outermost rocks of the intertidal zone. We harvest … Read more
Bladderwrack or Fucus distichus is one of the most popular sea vegetables growing along most coasts and has been used for centuries all over the world as medicine. The brown seaweed is the #1 superfood as far as iodine and polysaccharide content.
Sweet Kombu or sea cabbage (Hedophyllum sessile) grows in clusters like a cabbage bed. We harvest the blades that have bubbly indentations, as these are high in polysaccharides, which give this sea vegetable its sweet smoky aftertaste. Sweet Kombu is a brown seaweed. It can be eaten like a chip right out of the bag, as well as cooked in stews, … Read more
Wakame (Alaria marginata) on the west coast of California is a beautiful, magnificently abundant genus of marine algae. This nutritious, edible seaweed is considered a brown seaweed. The long, broad, gracefully flowing ribbons of Alaria cling to the rocks in the lower intertidal zones. The olive-green fronds grow to over 30 feet in length and … Read more
Hello from my cozy home in the redwoods. I love fall and the smells of scrumptious comfort foods, either cooking in the oven or simmering on the stovetop. One of my favorite dishes to make during the chilly season is beans! I love all kinds of beans (pinto, black, fava, black eyed peas, lima…). You … Read more
I have been sustainably hand-harvesting seaweed on the Mendocino coast from the same 10-12 locations since 1999. Lucky me! In those years, I have come to know these seaweed harvesting spots intimately, and have been there to see the ebb and flow of more than the 11 varieties of (kelp, seaweed, sea vegetables) that I … Read more
Nereocyctis luetkeana When we think of “forests” there’s one we often overlook — the offshore kelp forest, largely made up of Bullwhip Kelp or Nereocystis luetkeana. Nereocystis (Greek for “mermaid’s bladder”) is the largest in the family of brown algae, and found along the coast of California to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The fastest-growing … Read more