seaweed foraging

Last Saturday, we finally had a beautiful sunny day here in Seattle. It was a perfect day for a talk on wild seaweed foraging, led by Melany of Essential Bread. It was a fun and informative talk at a local park, probably not a good place to forage on a regular basis due to urban pollution; the park was packed that day! But there was alot of life in the water. To harvest seaweed in WA, you will need a Shellfish/ Seaweed license, but they're not expensive and you can get one at Fred Meyer's or other outdoor recreational stores. As always, it's good to learn from someone local that knows what they're doing before putting anything in your mouth! The best time to forage is at low tide when the shallow water offers up her bounty. Check on the government site for regulations and resources: http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/  Western WA has alot of wild edibles, so it's a good thing to learn to recognize what's edible. Here are some photos:

Irridescent Seaweed

Turkish Towel

ok, the starfish is not edible as far as I know, but it was pretty.

I did harvest a bit of seaweed to try out, although I'll look for a place a little further away from the megatropolis for future harvests. I wanted to try out some of the examples we looked at. yum.