Seaweed Foraging

Foraging to you may seem like a wild concept or not at all. I feel like when we get things for free, we’re like woah, can I actually do that? You can! As long as it is permitted in your area. So hop on google and see what the regulations are in your area. In Australia, by state the regulations change…however you can get seaweed yourself in every state it just varies on the amount you want to get. In NSW it is limited to like 40kg… which is a lot of seaweed. So check your area first and then go down to a beach you know it is not around an industrial area, as you want the water to be clean and therefore the seaweed will be too.

Seaweed is luckily non-toxic so you don’t have to worry too much. I’d just go down to your local shoreline and start aquianting yourself with the species. There are three different colours you’ll find, which all have their own benefits…which seaweed is just amazing and all they have amazing nutritional benefits and are full of minerals. The three different colours are green, red, and brown. You’ll probably be familiar with types such as sea lettuce and kelp. These are pretty yum, too.

There are a lot of online resources and books to learn more but my tip to you is just to start getting out there, and not being afraid to collect some. Bring it home, wash it real good… maybe a couple times because you could imagine it’s pretty salty.

My huge success in terms of recipes has just been to cook it in the oven for a little while until it turns crips like crackers. If you have any great recipes, let me know! I feel like I’d love to put them into capsules to take them daily. I take spirulina daily in capsules for the benefits. As you know, seaweed can sometimes taste funky but honestly, it has everything you need which is why it’s suggested you take 6 capsules of spirulina daily.. that is pretty much the only supplement I’m taking at the moment actually and I feel great.

I’ve frozen some kelp for future recipes. Before you freeze, make sure you blanch it in boiling hot water. This is so cool, because almost immediately the colour comes out of the seaweed and it turns a different colour. So yea, just a couple seconds in hot water and then freeze it for future recipes. I’ve also made a nice salt dukkha with the seaweed I’ve foraged too. So yea! Pretty cool. Get out there. Learn some stuff.

Seaweed forage

After you wash it, dry it out in the sun on a tray. It dries pretty quick.