Who likes seaweed?

[Finley]

I am finally going to collect seaweed as mulch. Snow on the mountains so with a bit of luck the sandhoppers won't be active and colonise the car!
I'm doing a couple more covered beds for planting through (I know weeding is the best thing but I have three jobs in the summer so I have to experiment! Plenty of winter prep time and limited summer time..).
The squash bed has had loads of chicken manure pellets and I'll give a good layer of seaweed then cover it up and let it simmer over winter. The other bed will be raspberries - will they appreciate a layer of seaweed and lots of pellets too? They're autumn treasure, arriving as bare roots in a few weeks.. Or, if they do like seaweed, would the bottled juice be better as seaweed wouldn't have time to rot down before they go in?
Ah so many questions.. praise be for the experts out there!

[burnie]

You need to let the rain wash the salt off before you spread the sea weed, putting it through a garden shredder helps speed up the composting.

[hamamelis]

I know a few people who just spread it straight on, no washing, no composting, that have been doing it for years without problems.

Even the RHS say no need to wash, just stick it on straight from collecting it, it won't have enough salt on it to be an issue.

[Finley]

I've got four bin bags full! I'll give it a swift rinse and then.. Guess I'll just bung it on the squash bed for now and collect more for the raspberries if I'm so directed!

[rary]

I have just put three bags of seaweed on to a veg bed, and I use a lot of seaweed on the garden without washing it, I would recommend that you use fresh seaweed just after a high tide and especially after a high wind, as there will be no sandhoppers in fresh seaweed, there's usually three lines of seaweed the thinnest is generally closest to the sea and the weed usually attached to rocks, the middle line is the freshest from a high tide this is the stuff you should collect, don't take any attached to rocks, the top line is the oldest layer and generally starting to rot, this is where you get the sandboppers and flies, you really should avoid using this stuff as it is colonised by a lot of insects, spread the seaweed around any established plants where it will rot down and feed the soil and as burnie said if it's shredded it rots down quicker, and easier to apply

[KevinM67]

Has anybody tried eating/cooking it ?

[Finley]

Has anybody tried eating/cooking it ?

On our beaches there's normally some sea lettuce but I've never collected it. I generally just harvest the samphire around June!

[Snadger]

Has anybody tried eating/cooking it ?

My thoughts exactly! Seems such a waste of food if its edible and tastes ok!

[Finley]

There's some which has a moisturising gel inside the pods, no idea what it's called but if you squeeze it out it makes your skin really soft. Useful stuff, seaweed!

[jackarmy]

We eat it here in Wales, at least some of us do lol.
We call it lavabread and is supposed to be high in iron and extremely good for you.
When i first tried Kale last year ( cant remember the variety) i thought it to be very similar in taste and texture to lavabread ( seaweed) .
My wife and son however thought the Kale was "hanging" , they also cant stand lavabread whilst i love both.

[veggiechicken]

I used to buy laverbread in the market, Cardiff and Swansea, nice mixed with mashed potato into a sort of green pattie thing. Some cook it in bacon fat with oatmeal (I think).

Just for you Kelvin Carrageen / Irish Moss Recipes - Irish Seaweeds

[Finley]

We don't get much laverbread up in gogland.. But I might go investigating on the beaches and see if I can make some

[Dynamo]

I'm pretty sure they drag the seaweed straight out of the water and onto the fields to fertilize the potatoes in Jersey.

[KevinM67]

I'm pretty sure they drag the seaweed straight out of the water and onto the fields to fertilize the potatoes in Jersey.

I saw something on telly a few weeks back and some French onion farmers do the same thing. They mulch all their beds with it. (I did this myself this year and it worked quite well - although it didn't stop some of the red ones from bolting, as per usual).

Also, many professional asparagus growers do it also.

[bario1]

I collected four bags on Saturday - it'll be going straight on my asparagus bed as soon as I cut back the ferns.