Foraging Seaweed for Food
Have you ever thought about foraging seaweed for food?
I hadn’t, until I visited Ireland for the first time about five years ago. This is when I saw the famine houses and learned just how devastating the potato famine of 1845-1849 was for the Irish people. This experience made me wonder: Why did people who lived on the coast (in particular) starve? Ireland’s rivers, lakes and oceans team with fish. Its fields and woods shelter pheasants, rabbits, deer and other small game. And the people in places like the Aran Islands foraged seaweed for generations to build and enrich the soil.
These questions deal with complex historical, cultural and political issues, and I am still learning the answers to them. But they made me realize how ill-equipped I would be to survive in a similar situation. I do not recognize the edible plants that are growing all around me. Nor would I know how to use them to feed myself and my family.
Foraging Seaweed for Food
As the first step in educating myself, I decided to take a class on seaweed foraging and cooking hosted by the Dingle Cookery School. It started early in the morning when all six students met at the Baile an Rannaig pier just beyond Wine Strand.
Our guide was the wonderful Darach Ó Murchú, who teaches wild food foraging courses, leads nature walks, and helps people learn how to live in low impact ways on the earth. To begin with, Darach led us down a steep, rocky embankment to the edge of the sea.
He explained that seaweed, or sea vegetables, are a type of algae that grow in the sea and form the beginning of the food chain for all other ocean life. Darach also said that Ireland has 600 species of seaweed. Sixty of these are good to eat, and only 6 are “poisonous.” (They wouldn’t kill you if you eat them, but they would cause severe intestinal distress!)
Seaweeds grow on rocks; the point at which they attach themselves is called their “holdfast.” They also have some kind of stem, called a “stipe,” and leaves, or “fronds.” Different seaweeds grow at different levels in relation to the shore (e.g. lower, middle and upper shore). This is called “zonation.” Seaweeds are classified as brown, red or green according to their color.
Seaweeds also grow best at different seasons. The main season for most is April to September, but some grow during the winter as well.
Seaweeds Have Numerous Health Benefits
Darach explained that seaweeds are highly nutritious vegetables. Although the exact balance of nutrients varies from one species to another, they contain numerous vitamins (A, C, E and K) and minerals, including calcium, zinc and magnesium. Some are particularly high in vitamin B12 (which is good for vegetarians), some are high in protein, and most are high in iodine.
Seaweeds also contain numerous beneficial plant compounds, including flavonoids and carotenoids. These help to protect the body from free radical damage, which is one of the underlying causes of heart disease and diabetes. The only major nutrient that most seaweeds lack is fat. (Which means that human beings could not live on seaweed alone.)
Seaweeds are also good for the skin. The Irish have traditionally bathed in them to relieve a variety of health challenges, including stress and skin diseases like psoriasis and eczema. Seaweed baths also help to relieve muscle aches and joint stiffness (rheumatism and arthritis), decrease circulatory problems, and encourage the release of toxins.
Identifying Different Kinds of Seaweed
Darach discussed six different seaweeds in depth during our class: kelp, sea spaghetti, dillisk (dulce), carrageen moss, sea lettuce and serrated wrack. He explained how each one could be used and/or eaten, what some of their individual health benefits are, and where they grow in relation to the shoreline. Darach also explained how to harvest the plants sustainably and how to identify which parts are freshest and most edible.
Each of the participants snipped samples of the seaweeds and put them in bags that we had brought along for the purpose. After our morning “harvest,” we took them back to the school to learn how to turn them into a feast!
The morning was really fun and made me realize just how little I know about nature in general and seaweed in particular! I am now inspired to learn more, however. The next step will be taking a class with Darach on how to forage food on land.
I’m fascinated by the thought of foraging for seaweed! And wonder if we, on the Pacific, have the same varieties which could be eaten or – if something that was edible on the Dingle Penisula would be toxic here? More investigation required!
I also wonder about mushrooms in Ireland – have you investigated? I know that there are mycelium networks world-wide, what have you found on your walks? Does the Dingle Cookery offer cooking classes with them?
I’m sure both coasts share some of the same seaweeds in common, Melissa, but I don’t know which ones. I don’t think that one kind would be edible in one place, but toxic in another, would it. But I guess we should check on that!
A lot of mushrooms have been showing up in my garden and along the roadsides this fall. I assume that they are poisonous, though. I haven’t seen any classes yet at the Dingle Cookery School that focus on mushrooms. I can ask the owner, Mark Murphy, if they plan to hold a mushroom class sometime. It sounds like a lovely idea!