Seaweed Foraging Adventures

Seaweed Foraging Adventures
1.5 hours Cayucos, CA

• Seaweed History & Identification 
• Mindful & Ethical Harvesting Methods
• At Home Processing and Recipes for daily life (self care & food) 
• Family Friendly

California’s Central Coast is a sacred place that provides us with beauty, sustenance and fulfillment beyond measure. There are over 20,000 species of algae (seaweed) which grow incredibly fast and are more nutrient dense than most terrestrial plants. As we take you into the beautiful intertidal zone, we will show you how to identify and sustainably harvest some of our favorite varieties of seaweed. If you’re lucky, we may even find some very unique species that have flavor profiles similar to truffles and shallots. Some species, like nori, you may already be familiar with and surprised to find growing abundantly here in California! Along the way, we will point out marine life we come across regularly like octopus, crabs, anemones, nudibranchs, seal lions, otters, and more. After our harvest, we will enjoy some seaweed immunity broth while taking in the breathtaking scenery of the Central Coast! We hope to leave you with a new appreciation for seaweed and the knowledge to responsibly enjoy the fruits of the intertidal zone.

*Please be advised there is a chance this adventure may be canceled or rescheduled due to rain, and harvesting seaweed to take home may not be possible at the time of the adventure due to water quality concerns after major rain events. If we need to cancel we will send you a link to reschedule or refund to a gift certificate to reschedule when you're ready.

Seaweed Foraging Adventure Curriculum
Learn
Global and local history, cultural significance and traditional uses of seaweed
How to interact with the intertidal zone 
How tides work and how to identify ideal foraging times
Ethical harvesting and coastal stewardship 
Home processing techniques 
Food, medicinal and self care recipes

Harvest
Wild harvest and taste a variety of species 
Take home your seaweed (if you would like)

What To Bring
This tour involves going into the intertidal zone (the tide pools). You may get wet up to your ankle or knee. Please wear footwear with good grip that you do not mind getting wet. We recommend water shoes and a dry pair of socks and shoes for afterwards. We will provide the harvesting gear. A cooler with ice is helpful for transporting your harvest back home. A good hat, sunblock, and a waterbottle.

 
About Kelpful

We’re a small worker owned cooperative run by women who began with a dream of farming seaweed. We say “This is What Climate Resilience Tastes Like” because seaweed embodies the qualities of a climate resilient resource- it is abundant, renewable, fast growing, and needs no fresh water or fertilizer to grow. Seaweed also sequesters carbon and nitrogen, improving the marine ecosystems where it grows! Collectively, our team has spent decades harvesting and using seaweed in our daily lives. This curriculum has taken years to develop which places high priority on the mindful, responsible harvesting methods that we use. We want everyone to enjoy and immerse themselves in seaweed and become stewards of these extremely special places. That is why we are donating 10% of our experience sales to coastal conservation. We put the ocean first in everything we do. It is with great honor, privilege and gratitude that we offer the experiences we do in order to grow our mindful seaweed foraging community.