seaweed slippery when wet

Videos

just seaweed cutting area isle of bute

see larger video

sourced by justseaweed

The tide is low on the Isle of Bute, off the west coast ofsouthern Scotland, and the only sound to be heard, apartfrom the lapping of the waves, is the clear, piping call of theoystercatchers overhead as a single figure wades into the water.Iain McKellar of just seaweed  is out harvesting.With a sharp knife he cuts the tops from fronds of sugar kelp(Saccharina latissima) and Atlantic oarweed (Laminaria digitata),and pulls them from the sea. Held up to the light, they are thecolour of olive oil, their texture somewhere between rubber andsilk. Sugar kelp’s frilly edges make it look like a ruffled scarf thatyou might want to drape around your shoulders, especiallyin Iain’s line of work: the weather is mild today but it’s not alwayslike this. ‘I have begun to wonder what I’ve got myself into here,’laughs Iain, as he emerges from the water. ‘If the orders comerolling in, I might regret my decision to start up this businesswhen I’m being blown off my feet by a north-westerly.’Treasures of the deepSugar kelp and Atlantic oarweed are just two of the many edible,nutrient-rich seaweeds found on British shores, along with laver,dulse and carrageen. After cutting them, Iain packs and poststhe Bloom in Bute seaweed to customers from all overthe British Isles, who order from his website, Justseaweed.com.He had the idea of harvesting seaweed during a spell off work,when he was recuperating from a hernia operation. ‘I was stuckinside, in a seafront flat for two months, and decided to teachmyself how to build a website – something I had always wantedto do,’ Iain remembers. ‘All I could see from my window wasseaweed, so I made that the subject matter of the site andthe idea for a business just grew from there. The more researchI did, the more I discovered about seaweed’s many uses,both for bathing and for eating.’As well as the two edible varieties, Iain gathers two types ofbathing seaweed: knotted or egg wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum)and bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus). Seaweed is naturally richin vitamins, minerals and trace elements. In hot water, it turnsa lovely spring green and releases a silky sort of gel into thewater. ‘It’s very relaxing,’ Iain says. ‘People use it for soothing thesymptoms of rheumatism, arthritis, psoriasis and eczema.Theyalso like the softening effect it has on their skin and hair. Whenthey try it, they come back and order again.’Although seaweed gathering has been popular for centuriesand is still practised in Ireland and Wales, Iain found very littleevidence of it being done in Scotland nowadays, except for itsuse as fertiliser. ‘It seems to have all but died out and I don’tunderstand why,’ he says. ‘Seaweed’s benefits are becomingincreasingly well known and this is a prime area for it. Thereare fast-flowing currents of seawater rushing in from the deepwaters of the Sound of Arran twice a day and countless gallonsof fresh rainwater run down from the mountains into the Kylesof Bute, so this is an ideal location. Fortunately for me, this isa designated seafood fishing area, too, so I know the water ispure because it is tested every three months by the ScottishEnvironmental Protection Agency.’Keeping seaweed sustainableIain has established cutting rights for a two-mile stretch of coast.‘The Crown Estate owns the seabed, so I had to apply to it forpermission. I also consulted Bute Estates, which is responsiblefor the area above the tide line. The impact I make is very low, asI operate on a cottage-industry scale. I don’t use any machinery;I cut by hand, and the quantities I gather by wading in are verysmall in comparison with the quantities that are there. Also, I cutonly the tops of the seaweed so the rest is left to re-grow.’Iain loves the tranquillity of the Isle of Bute. He was born here,and although he grew up in Corby, Northamptonshire, laterworking as an HGV driver there, he always came back to Bute forholidays. ‘The island definitely has some kind of calling,’ he says.It was a chance reading of a crime report in the local paper,The Buteman, that prompted Iain and his wife Yvonne, who are intheir forties, to return permanently. ‘We grew tired of hearing policehelicopters circling overhead in Corby,’ Iain says. ‘Here, we reada report of a lad leaving a fish and chip shop without paying andwe thought, “Hey, if that’s the extent of the front-page crime news,that’s where we want to be. Why wait until we retire? Let’s gonow.”’ Yvonne now works as a supervisor in a local supermarket.It’s early days for Bloom in Bute, but Iain hopes he has hit ona winner. ‘It’s been a real buzz for me, setting up a business, and,above all, I love living on this island. Out there at low tide, with thepeace and quiet, the sound of the birds… it’s a different world.’