A crop from the ocean floor

[n2doc]

By Bob Drogin
December 5, 2009

Reporting from Falmouth, Maine - Paul Dobbins and Tollef Olson admit they still have a kink in their scheme to use seaweed to revolutionize American eating habits, clean the environment, lower the federal trade deficit and make themselves fabulously rich.

Call it the yuck factor.

"It tastes better than it looks," said Olson, holding a shimmering frond of brown horsetail kelp he had just plucked from the cold gray waters of Casco Bay. "Really."

Dobbins and Olson run what is believed to be America's only commercial kelp farm. Inspired by mega-aquaculture sites in Asia, and a $7-billion global seaweed industry, the two entrepreneurs started cultivating kelp here last year and have begun marketing it as an exotic frozen vegetable.

"It's a giant brown algae in the water, but it turns bright green when it's cooked," Olson said. "Think kelp noodles. And kelp salad. And kelp slaw."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-kelp5-2009dec05,0,2829660.story

[SoFlaJet]

1. I love it with my raw tuna

shocked the hell out of me that I would even eat raw tuna OR seaweed-old dog new tricks and all...

[endless october]

6. same here.

some folks at my old job talked me into trying raw tuna in a California roll wrapped w/ seaweed. i'm the sort who blackens his burger into a lump of coal because i have taken too many microbiology courses. have to say, though, i really enjoyed the raw tuna. i was surprised.

[joshcryer]

11. C'mon, guys, tuna?

Not being a meat nazi here, but, tuna? :(

[izquierdista]

2. Bleeech!

Feed it to the abalone, THEN pluck the abalone and serve it to me. I'm not going to eat that low on the food chain.

[villager]

7. Give the eco damage a few more years -- we'll all be eating that low on the food chain...

;-)

[MikeE]

3. I love seaweed

I eat it as a salad with a soy sesame dressing. I put it in miso soup, and as a vegetartian, I use agar agar flakes. I think a key to their success will be getting chefs to start using it in creative ways.

[madrchsod]

4. kelp is used as a filler /binder in a lot of processed food mixes.

i dumped thousands of 50lb bags of kelp when i worked at a plant that mixed binders for food products.

you can actually paint with the stuff that makes cottage cheese white. add a little oil and turpentine and paint the town white....

[StarfarerBill]

5. I love the taste of nori by itself...even better in veggie sushi.

I wonder what this kelp would taste like, once it's processed.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. I have heard that seaweed is pretty durn good for what may

ail you... as are the algae extracts that have been grown in hawaii for years.

http://www.cyanotech.com/

[silverweb]

9. Okay, I'll try it.

If I can find it in the area. I've tried dried seaweed and really didn't like it at all. We'll see how the new frozen kelp does as a vegetable. Adding it to coleslaw, which I love, is a really intriguing idea, too.

Quite a few years ago,I remember reading about how "ocean farming" could solve a lot of the world's hunger problems. It's nice to see someone finally developing that idea in a creative way.

On Edit: It looks like they're not yet selling their product outside of New England.
Nice website, though: http://www.oceanapproved.com/index.shtml.

[Bobbieo]

10. Wish someone could find use for jellyfish!!!