I love your comment about seeing the encircling sea as an opportunity to push boundaries and find novel practices, rather than as a restriction on your life. Something very deeply philosophical to that, beyond more than just the waves, seaweed and saltwater 😌
I love this so much! Eons ago, when I was a young pup, I lived on a small commune in the hills above Santa Barbara CA. The guys would swim out to the kelp beds on Thursday mornings, and bring back some fresh giant bull kelp leaves. I would cut them to fit baking pans and make several pans of lasagna with kelp leaves instead of noodles. It was so good. We typically had 20 extra people show up for dinner on Thursday! Now, I buy dried kelp and dulse, and always have some in the kitchen.
That's so cool that you can harvest seaweed without going for a swim! And super cool that you make your own sea salt and use seawater for your sourdough. I am wondering about the seaweed used for your garden, though. Do you rinse it off first, or do you get enough rain fall that the salt doesn't build up in your soil?
Kelp lasagna sounds interesting! I don't rinse the seaweed as we get loads of rain here, but if I'm going to use it in the polytunnel rather than the outdoor beds then I leave it in a pile in the garden to get rained on before before putting it into there. I don't actually make seasalt anymore since we had to replace a bit of stovepipe this summer that had corroded - I'm pretty sure those things were related! 😬
Oh gosh, maybe they were related. That's kind of scary. Maybe you could make sea salt outside. I have read a lot about salt making, but it was all a very long time ago. I even watched a documentary on salt making, I think it was just called "Salt." But I have never tried it myself. I no longer live close enough to the ocean to give it a go, and we had offshore oil rig seeps and spills back in Santa Barbara, so not a good idea there. I did run across instructions to make a solar evaporator for small scale salt making at one point, but I don't remember how it was designed . . . Anyway, delightful article none the less. The kelp 'noodles' tasted like wholewheat spinach pasta, and had about the same texture. People didn't guess that anything was weird about it. but we told them after they ate. Word spread through our friend groups and then everyone wanted to try it. It was fun, and people brought food, beer, wine, and pot, LOL. So, a good time was had by all. That was all a very long time ago, I've been clean and sober now for 40 years. Now I think stewarding the seed and plant exchange at the library is super fun. :)
I'm a lifelong bread baker and have never heard of using sea water. I'm intrigued! Currently I'm in NM, so can't try it, lol, but next time I'm on the West Coast...
I love your comment about seeing the encircling sea as an opportunity to push boundaries and find novel practices, rather than as a restriction on your life. Something very deeply philosophical to that, beyond more than just the waves, seaweed and saltwater 😌
Thanks!
I love this so much! Eons ago, when I was a young pup, I lived on a small commune in the hills above Santa Barbara CA. The guys would swim out to the kelp beds on Thursday mornings, and bring back some fresh giant bull kelp leaves. I would cut them to fit baking pans and make several pans of lasagna with kelp leaves instead of noodles. It was so good. We typically had 20 extra people show up for dinner on Thursday! Now, I buy dried kelp and dulse, and always have some in the kitchen.
That's so cool that you can harvest seaweed without going for a swim! And super cool that you make your own sea salt and use seawater for your sourdough. I am wondering about the seaweed used for your garden, though. Do you rinse it off first, or do you get enough rain fall that the salt doesn't build up in your soil?
Kelp lasagna sounds interesting! I don't rinse the seaweed as we get loads of rain here, but if I'm going to use it in the polytunnel rather than the outdoor beds then I leave it in a pile in the garden to get rained on before before putting it into there. I don't actually make seasalt anymore since we had to replace a bit of stovepipe this summer that had corroded - I'm pretty sure those things were related! 😬
Oh gosh, maybe they were related. That's kind of scary. Maybe you could make sea salt outside. I have read a lot about salt making, but it was all a very long time ago. I even watched a documentary on salt making, I think it was just called "Salt." But I have never tried it myself. I no longer live close enough to the ocean to give it a go, and we had offshore oil rig seeps and spills back in Santa Barbara, so not a good idea there. I did run across instructions to make a solar evaporator for small scale salt making at one point, but I don't remember how it was designed . . . Anyway, delightful article none the less. The kelp 'noodles' tasted like wholewheat spinach pasta, and had about the same texture. People didn't guess that anything was weird about it. but we told them after they ate. Word spread through our friend groups and then everyone wanted to try it. It was fun, and people brought food, beer, wine, and pot, LOL. So, a good time was had by all. That was all a very long time ago, I've been clean and sober now for 40 years. Now I think stewarding the seed and plant exchange at the library is super fun. :)
I'm a lifelong bread baker and have never heard of using sea water. I'm intrigued! Currently I'm in NM, so can't try it, lol, but next time I'm on the West Coast...
I'll be interested to know what you think if you try it!
I'll be interested to know what you think if you try it!
I am so land locked, I can't imagine foraging your own sea salt or seaweed snacks! Utterly amazing! (Also, "Mermaid's Pubes"?!? Hilarious)