As the temperatures drop and the weather rolls in, I find myself seeking out ways to bring a little bit of the outside world into my home. Food is one of my favorite ways to do this. Cozy meals, warm drinks and trying new ingredients keeps things interesting. Nori is a seaweed that, while familiar, … Read more
wild-harvested
Sea Palm Salad Sea Palm is one of my favorite seaweeds. Not only is it delicious to snack on and in salads, it is one of the most adorable sea vegetables on the coast. They stand in clumps along the rocky shoreline, greeting all passersby with their cheery topknots. Their fronds jostled by the wind … Read more
Nori is the first harvest of the season. Nori, also known as Porphyra perforate or lanceolata, is a RED seaweed and only one cell wall thick! This means you get LOTS of nutrients riding on this wonderful seaweed… Nori is the highest of all seaweeds in protein (50% by weight) and high in iron and Vit. B12. Think about this…, since Nori is only one cell wall thick, you don’t want to wash the nutrients off of it- like you see in all the neatly packaged small nori snacks in the grocery store.
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.
Sea Palm (Postelsia palmaeformis) is one of our most popular seaweeds growing only in the nutrient-rich waters of the Pacific Northwest. Sea Palm resembles tiny palm trees, therefore its name. It is a brown seaweed, meaning it is chock-full of live enzymes, trace minerals, vitamins, complex carbohydrates, and algae. Sea Palm is perfect for adding to any dish you cook, with its mild umami flavor. It is also a delicious snack on its own – right out of the bag.
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
July brings with it the boom of the seaweed harvest cycle for Ocean Harvest, as well as the finish of harvesting towards the end. At the end of this month, I will have spent 35+ days in the rocky intertidal seaweed beds at the lowest tides of the year. These days of harvesting are compacted … Read more
As the heat rolls in this month, we’re thinking cool recipes. Raw recipes. And vegan! We’d like to share with you one of our easiest seaweed recipes, featuring the wonderful, the inimitable, the super-tasty sea palm. Sea Palm Pickles 1 cucumber cut into rounds 1 handful of sea palm, cut into small pieces 1/4 cup … Read more