Seaweed Made Easy - Here's My Secret

I have a secret. (or had one)

If you checked out my last post about seaweed, how delicious and therapeutic is, you have a glimpse into my love affair with it.  I am back after a weekend adventure to Lopez Island in the San Juans of Washington State where I harvested fresh bullwhip kelp (a brown seaweed variety native to the eastern Pacific Northwest waters).  There’s quite the kelp jungle strung up outside my window on my patio as I write this.  

My patio: drying bullwhip kelp blades 

I do realize there is a bit of involvement required to harvest ones own supply of sea vegetation; to plan a trip to an island, research safe places to harvest; camp and kayak your way through cold waters, out to ancient kelp beds with a pocket knife in hand and heavy duty bags stuffed between your legs in the intimate space of a kayak. 

That's me - with bullwhip kelp in hand. The long tube is the stipe and the bulb
at the end connects all the kelp blades.  Beautiful, right?

If you have the opportunity, do it, at least once.  There is quite a difference between store-bought, commercially-harvested seaweed compared to gentle, hand-harvested seaweed.  It's also quite a treat to transport this wet, heavy mass of kelp goodness homeward; string up ropes, wires and the like and spend a couple hours gently unfolding each and every piece to hang it up to dry in the sun.  You also have to love seaweed enough that when you hang it to dry, you don’t mind the occasional splat of salty-sea smelling, mildly slimy liquid slapping you in the face (kind of reminds me of the "spritz bath" I get from my friend's lovingly, snorty Boston Terriors). 

Harvesting and drying seaweed takes a bit of time, but is well worth every moment.  I love to connect with my food.  And truly there is this sweetly sublime moment when you are holding onto the stipe of the bullwhip kelp as it is still connected to the sea floor.  There is this moment when you are very aware of how magnificent it is to be sitting so close to the water atop a strong and mighty fortress of kelp.  

Close up of bullwhip kelp.
Fun fact: Kelp can grow up to 100 feet long and the blades up to 12 feet!  

If you don't have the opportunity to harvest it fresh,  I suggest finding a friend who knows how to properly harvest it and is willing to share; buy from a wild forager who lives on the islands or buy from quality companies (like Eden Foods) in your natural foods market.  You want to know it's fresh, healthy, has been sustainably harvested and safely harvested from clean, moving waters.

Now for the secret. 

Adding seaweed to your dishes definitely amps up the flavor and nutritional profile.  And while there are some very adventurous and cultured palettes out there that will eat chunks of seaweed gladly, for the majority of the population, this might be a bit of a stretch. 

I would be doing you no favors if I raved about how much of a treasure seaweed is without offering a gentle and easy way to incorporate it into your diet and to use it with ease.  It’s not a super revolutionary idea.  But it is a simple, practical tip and in my book, that equals awesome.

Here’s my tip: Ground the dried pieces in a spice grinder until it’s a fine powder.  Pour your ground kelp into a spice shaker and place it next to your salt and other cooking spices.  You can sprinkle it on almost any dish you prepare and do so as liberally or conservatively as you like.  You can use it as a salt substitute and reduce your sodium intake as well.  

Dried kelp to the left; ground kelp to the right

Some days, I'm feeling spunky and break out the arame, hijiki and wakame and boldly deck out my dishes with sea vegetables, but in the day-to-day in the Nester home, this is how I roll.  Eggs over easy, quinoa, oatmeal, stir-fries, pizzas, you name it; they all get a sprinkling of ground kelp.  This is a wonderfully accessible way to incorporate this nutrient-rich super food consistently and add it in to dishes in such a way that is kid friendly, too.  

If you are feeling a little cheeky, you can add it to vegetable frittatas that you serve your in-laws and not tell them until afterwards.  I also am not shy with adding it to a batch of brownies or cookie dough.  Most people never know it’s in there.  Come on, cookies AND minerals… heck yeah.

Photo By Dale Nester: Bullwhip kelp on San Juan Island

Go harvest or buy some kelp.  Ground it up.  And go seaweed crazy. It’s far too easy to incorporate this mineral-rich, tasty and extraordinary food into your diet than you may have ever thought. 

***Note: If you have a hyperactive thyroid or are concerned about iodine content in seaweed, talk with your physician before consuming seaweed on a regular basis. 

Wildly Wonderful: Nettle Tea

Stinging Nettle, surrounded by 
Horsetail (photo via)

It's quite amazing to be able to walk outside your door and harvest food from a garden you planted and helped nurture to life, but it's a whole new level of amazing to walk in the woods and harvest food that grows in the wild.  It’s both mystical and most splendid.  I pause for a moment and close my eyes to wonder about those who have harvested here even hundreds of years before me.  There is history here and these plants know it. 

There is an even specialer (that's right) energetic quality about harvesting plants like this.  They are resilient; they thrive on their own and they fiercely endure the elements and the attempts of predators; they grow in harmony with the seasons.  These survivors have a naturally potent life force and are without question, nutritionally superior.

The Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, is armed with hairy-looking prickles that carry formic acid, oxalic acid and histamine, to name a few.  This is a built-in chemical defense mechanism that causes a bit of burning if stung.  Anyone who has harvested them knows this oh so well!

Dried nettle leaf

When I harvest, I go armed with my garden gloves, grocery bags and scissors.  I always assess the area and make sure I am harvesting sustainably, that I am not taking more than I need and so that it looks as if I was never there.  Be sure to only harvest plants you can identify and only healthy, vibrant ones. 

I am so captivated by seeing my food grow in the wild.  It’s worthy of taking a moment to extend my gratitude.  People do this in many ways.  Some take a moment of silence before they harvest and simply whisper, “thank you.”  A former teacher of mine said she liked to sing to the plants while she harvested.  Lord knows if I did that, they would likely uproot themselves and run or bend over and cry.  No one has really ever heard me sing (not seriously at least) and for good reason.  I like having friends.  All that to say, do what you think would honor the plant the most.  I like to give thanks for its beauty, its nourishment, its strength and its life force.  I take a moment to see it.  I smile. 

Maybe years ago I would have thought this was crazy business, but after tucking seeds in the ground with my bare hands and after watching those very seeds spring to life, there is clearly far more going on with the food I eat than I have given credit to before.  After picking fresh, wild flowers from a field or helping to butcher ducks at Quillisascut Farm, I have experienced a spectrum of life that has caused me to arrive at the conclusion that I should be both thankful and responsible for knowing where this food came from.  Too many people know what food looks like neatly packaged on the grocery store shelf, and too few know what their foods look like fully alive and thriving.  We should know.  Without which, we must be so disconnected to the very land beneath out feet.   

Gratitude is due.  This food sustains us and we must never forget that.

9 lbs of dried nettles at Herb Pharm's Farm - I'd say hugs are in order

Nettles is hands down, one of my favorite wild edibles.  They grow abundantly here in WA, so it wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I had the opportunity to fall so in love.  The sun surprised us and popped out one day a few weeks ago while at school so a couple of my classmates and I went foraging on our break.  It is preferable to use fresh nettles, but they also dry so nicely in a paper bag in the trunk of my car.  That’s the lazy way to dry your nettles, but it works, so I’m game.  The "appropriate" way to dry nettle leaves is to spread them out on drying racks indoors with circulating air.

The paper bag-trunk drying method

By consuming nettles, they offer their energetic quality of strength to our bodies that I mentioned earlier; also, nettles is:

• a diuretic – in short, it moves stuff out, causing urination and cleansing of the kidneys, a fabulous detoxifier
• anti-allergenic - it may be used for asthma and other allergic conditions
• used in treating enlarged prostate
• impressive with a nutrient profile rich in calcium, protein, iron, magnesium and potassium
• highly beneficial (because of all the minerals) and often safe during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy and for nursing mothers, but of course, talk with your health care professional first

Here's what I'm talking about...we know how good kale and spinach is for us, right?  Although, they are all phytochemical-rich leafy greens, they pale in comparison to nettles.

Plant Nutrients	RDA	SPINACH	KALE	NETTLES
CALCIUM	800	102	206	2900
MAGNESIUM	300	96.8	37.4	860
IRON	18	2.96	1.8	41.8
POTASSIUM	1875-5225	518	244	1750
VITAMIN A (IU)	4,000IU	8,920IU	9,130IU	15,700IU
VITAMIN C	60	56	102	83
THIAMINE	1	0.116	0.11	0.54
RIBOFLAVIN	1.2	0.22	0.2	0.43
NIACIN	13	0.6	1.8	5.2
ZINC	15	0.618	0.78	4.7
MANGANESE	2.5-5.0	96.8	37.4	860
SODIUM	1100-3300	98	47	4.9
PROTEIN	3.60%	5%	10.20%	16.50%

*Numbers indicate milligrams per 100 grams, about 1 cup fresh or 3 1/2 ounces dried.

*Data based on USDA research “The Composition of Foods” in “Nutritional Herbology”

Here’s another reason why nettles ranks high on my list. It’s not only a tasty source of food and has fabulous medicinal properties, but its fibrous stems have been used for hundreds of years for making cords and nets.  This totally appeals to my pragmatic side.

Photo via

Ok, now for the delicious part.

With freshly harvested nettles, you can pretty much cook them in the same way you would use spinach in recipes. They are fantastic in soufflés, sautéed in pasta dishes, blanched and blended into smoothies as well as for pesto-making.  

When you harvest them fresh, you can either cook them up right away or let them dry (both of which will take the sting out). The dried leaves store best in an air tight jar in a cool, dark place.

For now, I wanted to post the most simple way to incorporate nettles into your home kitchen and medicine cabinet.  Since dried nettle leaf tends to be the most accessible to folks, let's make an infusion!  My husband (who was not exactly thrilled about the idea of drinking wild-foraged greens), loves nettles cold infusions sweetened with Florida crystals and iced up just like a good old southern iced tea.  My friend DeAnn loves to add fresh lemon juice to hers to make a Nettle Lemonade.  The recipe below is the bare bones and a canvas for you to sweeten, flavor and ice up how ever you desire. 

Have you tried nettles before, fresh or dried?  What's your favorite way to enjoy them? 

Nettles Cold Infusion
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 A powerhouse of medicinal and nutritional goodness, nettles are far superior to other leafy greens and are incredibly rich sources of protein, calcium and magnesium.  This simple cold infusion can be pepped up by adding a little peppermint tea, oat pods or your favorite citrus zest.  I find that using a French press is a convenient way to press out the nettles.

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Preparation time: 2 minutes, plus 6 hours hands-off infusion time

Yields: 1 liter

¾ - 1 cup dried nettle leaf

1 liter filtered, cold water

In a liter size glass jar or larger, combine nettles and water.  Stir, place a lid on it and let it rest on the counter for 6-8 hours.  Filter the nettle leaf out and compost.  You can sweeten to taste with honey, stevia, unrefined sugar or enjoy it by itself.

Copyright 2011, S. Nester, Original recipe

I love My Local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

I’m the teary-eyed girl you see picking fresh flowers, the one you see lost in gaze at the array of culinary herb beds. Not because of allergies or contact issues, but because I can’t believe I get to pick all the herbs and flowers I want. I feel like it’s a crime some days. Ok, there is usually a “2 cup” rule on the basil, but I was making basil, nettle, kelp pesto that week and who is going to tell the crybaby she can’t have 4 cups of basil?

And the flowers, I get to smell them and admire them all week long. They hold nicely in a simple quart mason jar in the center of my small, round wooden kitchen table and they literally make me smile almost every time I look at them. And sunflowers… rows of them, deep yellows, brown, reds, all tall and strong. They are my favorite flower.

Photo by Shelly Nester - Quillisascut Farm

I am seriously sad that the season has come to an end.
In a typical week in September, I would get: a head of lettuce, a bunch of beets, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, 6-8 squash, head of Chinese broccoli, onions, pumpkins and free pickings of the Swiss chard and kale fields. Again, I feel lucky.

So I should back up… what exactly is a CSA?

I like the way The Root Connection CSA states it, “A CSA is of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm. Members purchase "shares" in the farm's bounty from June to October, and get the satisfaction of reconnecting to the land and participating directly in the food that they eat. “

Pretty simple. You typically pay up front at the beginning of the season covering some of the initial growing cost. Shares might range from $20-$35 a week depending on the CSA. Once a week, I drive to the farm and stuff a couple of bags with fresh vegetables that were harvested that morning. The people that work there are nothing short of awesome and these people know all things gardening, farming and cooking --- thank God someone told me what the heck to do with kohlrabi.

….I mean have you seen kohlrabi? Maybe this is a Northwest thing, but this Virginia girl has never seen nor heard of this pale green, alien-octopus looking veggie until this past summer. It's kind of like a turnip meets a cucumber. It's crisp, sweet and perfect julienned in salads.

Ok, so once I load up on the vegetables, I then have free reign out in the “u-pick” fields to get fresh herbs, greens and flowers. I bring these babies home and enjoy them all week long. One share is usually enough for a family of 4.


This is hands down the highlight of the week. Not only do I love my CSA because I know the food I am eating is coming from rich, pesticide-free, healthy soil, that I am supporting local farmers and sustainable farming practices, but it’s because I get re-centered there.

I walk through aisles of red, yellow and magenta chard and am in awe of how these brilliant colors occur naturally.

I smell the eclectic variety of mints: ginger, pineapple, chocolate and fantasize about what dishes they might find a home in.


I get inspired here.

I reconnect and my stress from the week melts away. I feel peaceful, clearheaded and present. A sense of gratitude sweeps over me, gratitude for fresh air, for the open sky, for the ground beneath my feet and for the privilege of knowing where my food is coming from. Being at the farm reminds me to keep life simple, and who couldn’t use that gentle reminder every once in a while?