seaweeding!

I meant to share this adventure over a month ago, but I can’t seem to get anything done in a timely manner these days. More to come on that in the next post though..

Anyway, back in August Robert and I went to harvest seaweed with a couple of people from my herb class. We all met at a lighthouse on the coast at 6am on a Sunday to catch low tide. I have never experienced truly low tide at the ocean before- it was absolutely incredible. And the seaweed was abounding! None of us had ever collected seaweed before, but we pooled our tiny bit of collective knowledge from books and lectures and did just fine. What a delightful day…

dawn on the Pacific

huge starfishies!

tide pool

bizillions of mussels! I'm going back for some of these so I can introduce them to my good friend, Mr. French Fry

actually, my sharp teeth aside, when you put your ear next to these critters you can hear them making the most amazing sounds, a symphony of mussel diatribe

Sidney and Robert trying to identify what we have

mountains of Nori!

getting ready to wash

washing

post-seaweeding walk

On the way home from the coast (after some truly awesome coffees in Yachats) we stopped to see the Darlingtonia californica (also known as the Cobra Lily or Cobra Orchid). This is a carnivorous plant that traps and digests insects. This time of year is after it’s bloom, so we didn’t get to see the amazing flower it makes, but it’s a rad looking plant nonetheless.

Here’s some info and a silly drawing of the flower:

just click on the picture if you actually want to see it larger and read...

And here’s what we saw:

Darlingtonia californica

Then we went home and covered the lawn with the fruits of our labor for some high quality sun drying. The house was also covered in clotheslines of seaweed for days! Yay new adventure and nutritious snack