Happy book birthday to The Forest in the Sea! I really enjoyed researching this book as I’ve always loved seaweed. Not to eat–I like to snorkel in it and watch it dancing to and fro with the waves.
People have been eating seaweed for a long time, though. Ribbons of bright red dulse grow on rocks and are strewn across beaches by waves, and have long been a food in time of need. The first written reference to people eating seaweed is a prayer by an Irish monk named Columba who roamed beaches 1,400 years ago, searching for food: “Let me do my daily work, gathering seaweed, catching fish, giving food to the poor.”
Columba’s seaweed recipe might not have been delicious—he probably boiled it with oatmeal—but it was nutritious.
For more about seaweed, please check out my book The Forest in the Sea.
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