A Sea Lettuce Harvest with Kelpful

Here at SLO Veg, we always stress how important it is to know your farmer, but it’s also important to know your product. Meredith from our team met up with the artisanal producers at Kelpful to learn more about who they are, what they do, and how valuable adding seaweed to your healthy & balanced diet can be! Find Kelpful products over in our marketplace for regular subscription or one-time add-on purchase.

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A few months ago I was taking inventory of the shelves in our facility that house our coveted marketplace items. As I dreamily eyed the rows of our chocolate barks, infused oils, and perky powders galore, it dawned on me that I didn’t know the faces or the stories behind these products. This realization made me feel like a total imposter! A phantom consumer who doesn’t practice what they preach. This tough reality was motivation enough to run to a computer and start researching the brilliant idealists that make up our team of suppliers. As I began my research, I was immediately overwhelmed by the overt awesomeness of each of our vendors. I stood up, took a lap around the warehouse and figured it would be best practice to take things one step at a time.

Kelpful: Who They Are

I started my research with Kelpful, which is a local seaweed vendor that harvests all their seaweed here on the Central Coast. They use the sun to air dry their product, and then they pack it up to be sold to you! Their mission is to welcome everyone to all the nutritious and medicinal wonders of ocean plants, while working to restore marine ecosystems and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Better yet, 1% of all proceeds to Kelpful goes to SeaTrees which is a nonprofit that is committed to reforesting the ocean. After spending just 5 minutes on their website, I knew I had to see their team in action, which is what motivated a little field trip out to Cayucos to meet with their team and partake in a harvest!

Kelpful At Work: A Sea Lettuce Harvest

Marketing gal, Rachel and I met up with Melissa, co-owner of Kelpful and her team to harvest some sea lettuce and learn more about what they do.

We took a small walk down to the beach where Melissa handed me a pair of scissors and a mesh bag to collect my sea lettuce that they would later use to make seaweed salad. While we were out there, Melissa told us that sometimes, harvesting in accordance with the tides of the ocean means that they’re out picking seaweed at six in the morning with a limited window to collect their inventory. She also said that they have several different rotating locations where they harvest to ensure that they don’t overwork one single site.

While I was out there, crouched in mounds of slippery assortments of seaweed, I was taken with the peacefulness of the ocean and how connected I felt to the earth. Different types of kelp washed back and forth with the waves, luminescing in the sun while sea anemones blossomed as the tide slowly submerged them.

Anything that wasn’t sea lettuce (a fluorescent green curly seaweed) I’d pick up, interrupting our working silence with “Hey Melissa, what’s this?” Without a beat, she’d calmly answer and we’d get right back to it. I also learned that seaweed requires a lot of atmospheric carbon dioxide, so the routine harvesting of kelp and sea plants is actually very green in practice. Melissa said that while they come to this site about once a week, it’s always regrown entirely by their next visit which just goes to show how regenerative ocean farming is.

Benefits of Eating Seaweed

Seaweed is super high in iodine which is great for our thyroid, it also has high amounts of calcium and folate coupled with other amazing vitamins. Eating seaweed is also beneficial for our gut health as it has prebiotics and healthy fibers. Melissa had some awesome tips for adding seaweed into the diet, one of which was to sprinkle their “Cali Furi” seasoning on eggs, salads, toasts, or even incorporated in cookies for a little sweet and savory action. You can find this seasoning in our marketplace as well as its spicier counterpart “Cali Furi Fire.” We also sell whole, dried seaweed which can be seasoned and cooked several different ways. Try pan frying any of our dried seaweed with some salt for a quick salty crunchy moment, or even coating it with some salt and maple syrup before dehydrating in the oven for a vegan bacon alternative. The possibilities are endless when you know your supplier! Thank you to the team at Kelpful for sharing your ocean knowledge, we are proud and fortunate to offer your products!