How to Harvest Seaweed
Some people go to the beach to get a tan, while others go to forage.
Wild-harvested seaweed can be found in very expensive packets at health boutiques, but it is abundant and free to harvest on beaches along both coasts. You can pay a handsome sum to take a seaweed harvesting workshop or do a little sleuthing and strike out on your own — it’s surprisingly easy. Here are the basics.
Where
Any coastal area with rocky stretches of coastline is generally chock-full of sea vegetables. This includes virtually all of the West Coast and much of the New England coast. You’ll find seaweed on the flat, sandy beaches of the Southeastern U.S., but often in more modest quantities. The most important consideration is to avoid areas of urban and industrial development, where water quality is questionable. If in doubt, contact state or county authorities for advice. It is best to contact the authorities to find out about local harvesting restrictions and whether permits are required. The rules vary widely: In Washington, a permit is required, but you’re free to harvest for personal consumption up to certain limits in other states (up to 10 pounds a day in California and up to 50 pounds a day in Maine).
What Kind
No seaweed is poisonous, but some are more palatable than others. Here’s a sampling of the most popular varieties.
How to Do It
You want the freshest possible seaweed, not the stuff that washed up weeks ago and is piled up in a stinking mat of debris at the high tide line. The optimal time to harvest is at low tide on a calm day, when you can safely wade into the shallows and harvest directly from the beds of living seaweed (bring water booties to protect your feet from the rocks). Using scissors or garden clippers, cut off no more than half of a given plant so that it can continue to photosynthesize. Never pull the plant up from the base. Alternatively, go to the beach after a big storm and harvest the piles of fresh seaweed that have just washed ashore.
Bringing the Harvest Home
Mesh bags are ideal for collecting and transporting seaweed, as they allow the water to drain out. If you’re going to be at the beach for a while and the weather is hot, you may want to bring an ice chest to keep your harvest from becoming a slimy mass. Remove shells, stones and other loose debris. Fill a plastic tote with clean water and repeatedly dunk and swish the seaweed until all the sand has floated to the bottom of the container. To dry, simply stretch a piece of rope across a sunny area and string the seaweed along it like laundry. Store your harvest in glass jars.
Follow us
Republish!
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Want to republish a Modern Farmer story?
We are happy for Modern Farmer stories to be shared, and encourage you to republish our articles for your audience. When doing so, we ask that you follow these guidelines:
Please credit us and our writers
For the author byline, please use “Author Name, Modern Farmer.” At the top of our stories, if on the web, please include this text and link: “This story was originally published by Modern Farmer.”
Please make sure to include a link back to either our home page or the article URL.
At the bottom of the story, please include the following text:
“Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at <link>Modern Farmer</link>.”
Use our widget
We’d like to be able to track our stories, so we ask that if you republish our content, you do so using our widget (located on the left hand side of the article). The HTML code has a built-in tracker that tells us the data and domain where the story was published, as well as view counts.
Check the image requirements
It’s your responsibility to confirm you're licensed to republish images in our articles. Some images, such as those from commercial providers, don't allow their images to be republished without permission or payment. Copyright terms are generally listed in the image caption and attribution. You are welcome to omit our images or substitute with your own. Charts and interactive graphics follow the same rules.
Don’t change too much. Or, ask us first.
Articles must be republished in their entirety. It’s okay to change references to time (“today” to “yesterday”) or location (“Iowa City, IA” to “here”). But please keep everything else the same.
If you feel strongly that a more material edit needs to be made, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’re happy to discuss it with the original author, but we must have prior approval for changes before publication.
Special cases
-
Extracts. You may run the first few lines or paragraphs of the article and then say: “Read the full article at Modern Farmer” with a link back to the original article.
-
Quotes. You may quote authors provided you include a link back to the article URL.
-
Translations. These require writer approval. To inquire about translation of a Modern Farmer article, contact us at [email protected]
-
Signed consent / copyright release forms. These are not required, provided you are following these guidelines.
-
Print. Articles can be republished in print under these same rules, with the exception that you do not need to include the links.
Tag us
When sharing the story on social media, please tag us using the following: - Twitter (@ModFarm) - Facebook (@ModernFarmerMedia) - Instagram (@modfarm)
Use our content respectfully
Modern Farmer is a nonprofit and as such we share our content for free and in good faith in order to reach new audiences. Respectfully,
-
No selling ads against our stories. It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads.
-
Don’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. We understand that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarize or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
Keep in touch
We want to hear from you if you love Modern Farmer content, have a collaboration idea, or anything else to share. As a nonprofit outlet, we work in service of our community and are always open to comments, feedback, and ideas. Contact us at [email protected].How to Harvest Seaweed
by Brian Barth, Modern Farmer
June 10, 2019
Modern Farmer Weekly
Solutions Hub
Innovations, ideas and inspiration. Actionable solutions for a resilient food system.
ExploreExplore other topics
Share With Us
We want to hear from Modern Farmer readers who have thoughtful commentary, actionable solutions, or helpful ideas to share.
Submit
Can you rewet and redry seaweed multiple times without it getting bacteria on it?
I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada….
Where would I find someone to guide me in the harvesting, storage and cooking of our various sea plants?
I am a Ghanaian and live in Takoradi, l just harvested some seaweed. I pick the weed from the roots. Is it safe to consume?
Hi, you know anybody or have any experiences with tutorials about what and how …. harvesting seaweed in Germany?
Where in Nova Scotia can seaweed be sold
Does anyone know if Florida allows gathering of Irish moss?
I like harvesting my own seaweed when I have time. Harvesting wild seaweed is a cost-effective and rewarding venture. Coastal areas are brimming with varieties like Sea Lettuce and Nori. You may ensure freshness by picking at low tide on calm days. Mesh bags are handy, and a sunny spot for drying before storing in glass jars seals the deal! It’s like creating your own natural supplement right from the beach.
I remember my grandma used to make Irish moss pudding. Now, I’m inspired to try harvesting some myself. Great way to stay active in retirement! Plus, I’ve heard sea moss supplements are excellent for health. They’re like a concentrated dose of all the good stuff in sea vegetables.
It’s illegal to take seaweed in Maine and Massachusetts without landowner permission. The landowner owns to low tide in these states.