From ALMA:
About a week and a half ago, we were in the Channel Islands. We were all rowing back from a hike on San Miguel Island when Arlo and I saw some seaweed float by. We collected it and decided to cook it. We have the book Sea Vegetables, which identifies lots of edibile seaweeds and ways to cook them. We used this book to identify the seaweed that we had collected! We identified it as Perennial Kelp, or the scientific name Macrocystis (Mac-row-sis-tus), and in California, it can grow up to 200 feet or more!
Arlo took the blades (leaves) and the floats and fried them. I took the floats and fried them. Then I stuffed them with cream cheese. It was all very good. My favorites were the fried blades and the stuffed floats. The leaves tasted like seaweed that you get at the store! We didn’t salt the seaweed at all, the saltiness came from the salt in the sea. I hope to cook more seaweed in the future!
Awesome!
Sounds great I’d love to try it be safe and please continue to keep in touch
Cool stuff, tastes good and good for you. I appreciate Arlo’s adventurous spirit and your support.
That’s awesome…Thor Heyerdahl said he never understood how anyone could starve at sea…you are literally floating in a soup of plants and animals.
Health food from the sea! Tell Arlo he is the “King of Kelp!”
How amazing!
I am curious about the sea vegetables. Many vegetables on land are packed with nutrients…what about sea vegetables? Land vegetables have a wide variety of tastes…what about sea vegetables? Are there poisonous sea plants out there that you have to watch out for? Do you expect the taste to change significantly as you move father south? Good luck on your adventure. I think I am going to start reading this blog with my kids (8 and 12) so that we can learn together.
Hi Alma,
Yesterday, I read your Blog’s latest post (about entering Mexico) to the 6th graders (your old cohort). Coincidentally, we just studied Carnival in our Art of Science class, so I thought it was fitting that I let them know about your journey. Last week, we even took a field trip to the Museum of the African Diaspora to see the exhibit call “En Mas” which was all about the Carnaval celebrations in different parts of the world. We took the Alameda Ferry to San Francisco, so we were even on a boat kind of like you are; I think it’s amazing that we are still in sync with you, even though you are so far away ! Lots of love,
Beth
THAT LOOKS BETTER THAN FRENCH FRIES! 😀
~ Leonie
Would it be fair to call that seaweed bacon?
The floats look yummy, even without the cream cheese. Fun!