Kelp

I have found that no matter how determined you are to be a forager it is generally something that happens more by chance then by a plan. Take for example a recent trip to the beach. This beach just happened to have nice fresh long strands of kelp washing up (if you haven’t seen kelp, look it up, it is very impressive seaweed) and kelp just happens to be the seaweed that we buy to make dashi, and dad just happened to know this. So he snagged a few pieces of kelp as they washed up (because of their size a few is plenty.)

When we got home he washed the sand off of them and hung them on the porch to dry, which they did…for awhile. The only problem is that when it was particularly humid they reabsorbed moisture from the air which essentially un-dried them. So there they still sit…waiting for a dry stretch so we can store them for future use in Japanese food.

(Toaster the cat was included to give you an idea of the size of a small piece.)