To Rinse or Not to Rinse?
Our sea vegetables are sometimes rinsed or soaked in fresh water before use, but often this is unnecessary. Dulse, for instance, is eaten right out of the bag as a healthy, "salty" snack. Kelp is often lightly soaked and rehydrated (it expands!) so it can be cut into attractive shapes and sizes.

In any case, a light rinse before use lessens sea vegetables' salty taste. You will lose some sodium and potassium salts, but very little if any calcium, iron, magnesium, etc. You can save the rinse water for cooking.

You may want to inspect the plants for tiny shells (periwinkles) before use - we do our best but sometimes they hide in the folds. Simply dip the plants in water long enough to unfold them and release any shells.

What about the strong aroma?
Dulse does indeed have a relatively strong odor. With a lot of it around, if it is a smell that you are sensitive to or not used to, it might be a little unpleasant. One reason that it smells so strong is that it's a highly concentrated, dehydrated food. See Storing Sea Veggies. As long is there is no mold or other signs or smells of deterioration (caused by being stored too damp and/or warm) the product is fine to eat. Storing in a tightly sealed glass or plastic jar will help keep the odor from permeating the kitchen or pantry.

What about the whitish surface powder?
If you're concerned about the white powdery substance on the surface of stored plants, don't worry! Sometimes as these plants dry out a whitish powder will appear; this powder consists of precipitated salts and sugars and is safe to eat - you can rinse or use as is. In kelp, the principle sugar is mannitol and the salts are predominantly potassium and sodium. Mannitol is much less "sweet" than fructose, sucrose, glucose or pentose, and even less sweet than complex sugars found in brown rice syrup, yet it still adds a subtle flavor quality. This, along with the high mineral component and the naturally occurring glutamic acid is why kelp makes beans taste so great, cook so quickly and digest so easily.

This whitish powder also appears on dulse sometimes, but not as often. It seems harder to manage the osmotic process in the brown sea weeds (kelp and alaria) than the reds (dulse and laver), perhaps because the brown sea veggies are thicker. While we are more skilled than ever at handling all our sea veggies from harvest to packaging, sea veggies are not processed to the point of total control. This is actually one of their unique selling points: minimally processed whole foods, enzymes intact.

What about Sea Veggies as Raw Foods?
Sea Veggies can contribute a lot to a raw/living foods diet: minerals, enzymes, vitamins, protein, healing fiber, and marine phytochemicals. All Maine Coast sea veggies except toasted sushi nori sheets and nori flakes are dried under low temp conditions (less than 105° F). Dulse is our most popular vegetable for raw fooders - it is succulent and sort of melts right in your mouth. It is easily cut into salads, added to cold soups, and in the flake, granule, or powder form is easily blended in drinks. The 7 other whole Sea Vegetables we sell are applewood smoked dulse, kelp, digitata, alaria, laver, sea lettuce and bladderwrack. All can be eaten uncooked, right out of the bag but are quite chewy and really call for soaking or marinating in vinegar or citrus juice. To our best knowledge, the Japanese sea veggies arame, hijiki, and wakame are all processed with heat above 105° F - in fact the arame and hijiki are often boiled or blanched.

Please request our Raw Foods Recipe brochure! If you are new to sea veggies, start out with the small reclosable bags. When you're ready you can buy in bulk.

How do I use Sea Veggies for Healthy Skin and Hair?
In many Asian nations, beautiful healthy hair and skin and nails are attributed to the regular use of sea veggies in food, soap and shampoo. Exactly how seaweed works on skin and hair is still under investigation, but it is thought that a combination of factors such as the abundance of organic colloidal minerals, particularly calcium, silica, iron and phosphorous; the emulsifying alginates (fibrous material) that cleanse surface toxins, emulsify oils and de-acidify; and the abundance of iodine, amino acids, active enzymes, beta carotenes, B-vitamins, etc.

If you want to experiment, try mixing 1 tsp. of our powdered kelp (Laminaria digitata) with 3/4 cup of warm water, wait about a 1/2 hour until the alginate gels develop fully and strain the remaining particles. The remaining viscous liquid, used as a shampoo or simple hand soap, is cleansing and moisturizing.

Or try some whole kelp (or alaria, bladderwrack or even dulse) in your next bath. A cheesecloth bag will keep the seaweed from clogging your drain but will allow it to release its mucilaginous material that is so good for your skin and hair.

We now offer our own line of bath accessories called Sea Spa. These are bath bags containing a blend of four nutrient rich Maine seaweeds, green tea, and a choice of aromatic herbs: lavender, orange, peppermint or rosemary.

For more detailed information, please read our cookbook and resource guide Sea Vegetable Celebration, pp 35-38.

What about Sea Veggies as Animal Food?
Most domesticated animals are far from their original diets and need broad-based mineral support just as we do. They may also benefit from this sea vegetable source of chelated, colloidal trace elements as opposed to the inorganic mineral salts that leave a free metal ion in the digestive tract.

We receive numerous reports from customers who have successfully fed our sea vegetables to their dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, iguanas, etc. Dog and cat owners claim not only healthier animals but also healthier, fuller coats.

Milled kelp (kelp "meal") has been fed to cattle, sheep, chickens, and other barnyard animals for decades. For specially formulated seaweed based products designed for domestic animals and for feeding suggestions, try www.4source.com and www.noamkelp.com. For a more detailed discussion of this general topic, please read our cookbook and resource guide Sea Vegetable Celebration, pp 32-33.

What about Sea Veggies as Plant Food?
Sea vegetables have been used worldwide as a source of nourishment for plants by coastal people for centuries. Besides contributing a broad spectrum of abundant minerals, the brown varieties such as kelp and rockweed provide cytokinen, a natural growth accelerator that also increases flowering, intensifies color, and may increase total yield.

In the garden, till in fresh seaweed, mulch with it, or compost it with a good carbon source like grass clippings or hay. For sickly plants or houseplants make "kelp tea" by steeping some dried kelp overnight in enough water to cover and pouring the brown brew on the roots or spray the leaves.

A more detailed discussion of growing plants with sea vegetables can be found in our cookbook and resource guide Sea Vegetable Celebration, pp 34-35.

We sell small amount of dry seaweed not suitable for human consumption but excellent for composting or tilling in the soil. It is $2.00 per pound plus shipping with a $15 minimum. Contact us info@seaveg.com.