Lizi Latimer
HOW TO HARVEST KELP [Wherever You Are]
Written by Lizi Latimer
There is a rambunctious three-year-old living on the first floor of my building. She is a firecracker – sweet, angry, exuberant – she makes herself known as the youngest and only girl to two soft spoken, and sometimes dismissive, older brothers. The parents are loving and practical – they try to not hide life’s complexities from their kids by taking challenging discourse and making those ideas easier to understand – even for something as bonkers as what we are all going through now. Are we going to die in two weeks? asked the three-year-old. My mouth dropped. I was standing at a solid six foot distance when I witnessed this interaction unfold last week. What do you think? the mom replied, completely unphased. Before the little girl could prophesize her own death sentence, her brother threw himself into the conversation – What happens to you after you die? Have scientists killed someone to find out? He’s eleven. The mom explained that it’s not about the physical body after death, (duh, Ames) – it’s about the spiritual – and spirituality is something we cannot see.
Continuing my six feet of social distancing, I applauded my younger neighbors for asking the big questions of life, both personal and holistic. I suppose injurious times like these inspire such mortal thoughts. Here are some of my questions and thoughts I’ve asked Google during this pandemic:
What do Maya Rudolph and PTA’s children look like? / Describe the science behind puppy eyes. / Does a 30” Tulip Table for an apartment even exist? / Pixar Ratatouille Screenplay PDF Downloadable / What is a substitute for baking powder? I ran out / Video of a Diwali celebration with sky lanterns / When does the first snowfall usually happen in Hokkaido, Japan?
I grew up in Northern California just off the coast of the Pacific Ocean where giant cliffs break off the tighthold grips to our phones, cell service disappears, and we trace windy roads out to the ocean on top of enormous cliffs. The sand is not soft like Los Angeles, it is craggy and thick, and the water is freezing cold. There are no ferris wheels, there are no toilets (you pee in the ocean), and nobody blasts Top 40 from a man’s portable subwoofer he brings to the beach. Rather, relaxation and entertainment is watching the waves carry a surfer early in the morning, and then thrash against giant rocks - immovable and strong – just like us.
But, extending out around the corner of a cliff, and in between smaller rocks that don’t get as much foot traffic, is a secret scramble of critters and algae under the sun. As a kid, I would go out there in low tide searching for crabs and sea anemone while kelp would twist around my ankles, and envelop my wrists under water. Slimy and tough, I’d throw off the algae, annoyed, tossing it back into the water as if it were debris. My focus was on the critters.
But, as we get older, we know our interests shift and we begin to ask different questions from life. One Google search amongst the ones I previously bore out was, “How do you harvest kelp?” And what I found was that harvesting kelp is basically like tidepooling for adults. We go to the ocean, we look between rocks, and we source life’s riches that we can use towards soups, salads, and gardening.
I found this research to be utterly fascinating in how simple and nourishing this harvest can be. I also learned something throughout this process: that particularly in times of COVID-19, the internet has a way of making you feel that if you’ve read about how to do something, you’ve basically done it. So, there you have it.
How to Harvest Kelp
What you will need:
- One pair of garden cutters or a sharp knife
- A bag that can carry objects of substantial weight (kelp)
- Rain boots or waterproof shoes you don’t mind wading in
Instructions.
Step 1. Find your tide book on the bookshelf.
Step 2. Check the tide table forecast for the hours of low tide. You’ll want to harvest during low tide so that as the water goes out to sea, you’re left with an abundance of green gifts for ultimate foraging success.
Step 3. Pack a lunch. Make it a hearty one.
Step 4. Seek out an ocean nearest to you. It doesn’t matter how you get there, just go.
Step 5. Once you’re there, stop right where you are. Take in the sweeping view of this oceanic landscape. Really let your senses settle in – growling waves, salty air so clean that even the soundsfeel fresh. Mmm. You’ve made it.
Step 6. Descend down the seaside cliff. To your right you’ll see a circuitous path that leads you to the beach. Take off your boots and march barefoot in the sand to the scramble of rocks hiding around the corner where a protruding cliff meets its alcove.
Step 7. Observe the outcropping of sedimentary rocks in the water – some flat and smooth, others mostly jaggedy and slimy.
Step 8. Pull up your rain boots and look down as you slosh your way in between the rocks. Notice the beauty of its technicolor landscape - sea cucumbers, sea anemones, pink sea stars, and holy-fucking-shit – what an abundance of seaweed to forage. Green, red and brown seaweed algae (otherwise known as ‘kelp’). All three main groupings represented. Point to the Wakame, Nori, Bladderwrack, and oh my god - there’s Kombu.
Step 9. From the tackle bag around your waist pack, pull out your gardening clippers or knife. Quickly turn around. Notice you can’t see the little path you took down to the sand moments ago. You’re by yourself now, nestled amongst peaceful marine life that is normally entirely underwater. How cool.
Step 10. Source the kombu. Now, there are hundreds of seaweed varieties that exist – none of which are poisonous so don’t worry about clipping the wrong one – but for the purposes of your foraging, really go for that kombu variety. Kombu is considered the powerhouse of all seaweed because of its rich flavor (umami) and abundance of nutrients (iodine, zinc, vitamins, dietary fiber). Look for the brown algae that is wide, leathery, long, and flat (like ginormous flat noodles). See it glistening around your boots. Ah-ha, you found kombu.
Step 11. Grab hold of a long blade of kombu. Slimy and wet. Be careful not to yank the stipe (“stem”) in the process.
Step 12. Carefully, snip off a section of the blade. We only want to take a little bit of each blade so that the kombu continues to grow at a healthy rate – which is between 3 inch to 2 feet per day. God damn.
Step 13. Once you have snipped your kelp, coil it up and fold it in your bag to return home.
Step 14. Oh, fuck. Your lunch. By now your sandwich will be a little soggy, but no doubt still delicious. I recommend eating it.
Step 15. Once home, submerge your kelp in a bucket of freshwater. This helps rinse off any crustaceans or loose crud that came home with you. Also, fresh water produces a saltier taste from your kelp – perfect for soups and for all you salt fiends, out there.
Step 16. Lay your kombu strips under direct sunlight to dry. This could be on a table, sidewalk (gross), pasta rack, or even hanging flopped over on a clothesline. Depending on how warm it is outside, your kombu should dry in about 4 hours.
Step 17. Store your kombu away in sealable bags or glass jars. Use it to make soup or feed it to the soil in your garden. Kombu is the kelp you use to make the traditional Japanese soup dish called Dashi. And if you haven’t had Dashi, you probably have actually had it. It’s the soup stock used in miso soup! Enjoy.
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